{"id":11989,"title":"Measuring your email marketing strategy: Click and Open Rates explained","description":"Email marketing is all about high quality content, so it makes sense that the analytics all revolves around engagement. That means measuring the success of your campaigns using Opens and Click Throughs and learning how to optimise your results. In this blog, we explain everything you need to know so you can raise the numbers that matter for growing your brand through engaging email campaigns.","content":"

We know that email marketing<\/a> comes down to high quality, relevant content<\/a>. This blog is about measuring whether or not your content is working. We\u2019ll start with the stats you get in Teemail <\/a>and how to use the two measures of engagement, Opens and Click Throughs and their relation to campaign conversions and attributing revenue. We also have a whole load of data and insights from inside the wider Email Marketing industry that you can learn from. So let's dive right into the data.<\/p>

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-- For more email marketing tips and inspiration, check out the rest of the Teemail blog series<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>

First thing's first. It\u2019s easy to get bogged down in stats, but, as we know, email marketing is all about your Content. That means the analytics revolves around engagement. It\u2019s an important distinction, because that means engagement (opening and clicking on stories) is actually more important to us than revenue. Most people find that hard to agree with at first. But as we show in this series<\/a>, the pros use email marketing to be remembered and to keep customers engaged time and time again, because those engagements each week lead to long term repeat sales. Salesy emails, on the other hand, stop engagements, kill sender reputation and drive readers away.<\/p>

We know we want engagement, so what metrics measure that?<\/h3>

While every campaign you send can be analysed in detail, two pop right out of the screen prominently within Teemail because they\u2019re the ones that matter. Open Rate and Clicks. Open Rate is the % of people that opened the mailshot. Clicks is the % of people that opened, read it and then clicked a link on one of the stories. Both tell us something different.<\/p>

Open Rates tell us a little bit about the quality of our subject lines. They also help us understand how wanted our emails are.<\/em> Recipients that love reading the content regularly open them. Consistently high Open rates hint at our reputation with our customers.<\/p>

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Click Through Rates help us understand what readers did and how excited they were about what we sent. If a story got lots of clicks, it was well written, relevant and they liked it.<\/p>

The two metrics also overlap a bit, as people who click-through will probably open next time your send, and visa versa. For this reason, both Open Rate and Click Throughs are used by algorithms inside email Inbox software so that providers like Gmail or Outlook can score you as a sender. They compare you with other senders, and pay attention if your subscribers just ignore or delete what you send. That\u2019s next level. But it\u2019s much easier to see why professionals recommend you grow lists organically<\/a> and focus on high quality content. Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve done that, and want to use your stats to see how you\u2019re doing. Here\u2019s some benchmarks.<\/p>

The retail industry average Open Rate is 18%, while Click Through is between 2-3%.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

So what do we do to increase the numbers? First consider that the average person receives between 150-200 emails every day, so the battle to stand out becomes important.<\/p>

\"\"--This is where fun and witty subject lines to draw attention to your email make all the difference.<\/em><\/p>

More important than your subject line perhaps is whether your customer wants <\/em>to receive your content. Using clickbait, discounts and offers to generate clicks might work once, but it won\u2019t create long-term interaction with your content. A key part of that is momentum and rhythm where the customer actually looks out for your mail, or learns when to expect it. The Surfer's Path Monday Morning wave is a good example<\/a> from a surfing magazine. Perhaps you\u2019ll do a Sunday Morning Paper, or a Thursday Photo. If you match a rhythm with fantastic content, that leads to long term Opens and Clicks.<\/p>

So how can you get more Clicks?<\/strong><\/h3>

While Opens shows that people look forward to your emails generally, Clicks show that people engaged with that campaign specifically. That engagement is what we want because engagement leads to traffic, and traffic leads to sales. But for the customer to click, they need to want to click. If you think about it, clicks happen because they want more.<\/p>

Getting Clicks is like string. It doesn\u2019t work if you push. The customer needs to pull.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

The art of drawing the click starts with great stories but it\u2019s important to structure the piece to leave the reader wanting a little more. It might mean sharing the first (and best) of a series of 10 photos, leaving the reader motivated to click through to the blog on your site to see the rest. Or it might mean sharing the first paragraph or two of an exciting story, leaving the reader motivated to click and see how it ends. We want great content for the starter, and a click across to your site for the main course. Completing your newsletter story with a clear call to action, like a link to \u2018read the full story\u2019 <\/em>helps readers know what to do next, and will help your Click Through Rate.<\/p>

\"\"-- Remember, it\u2019s got to be good content for the reader. Work from who they are, where they are, and their interests & preferences to pull them in.<\/em><\/p>

They will click on content they want to read. Not what you want to sell.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

That's why we almost didn\u2019t include revenue attribution in Teemail. It is one of the coolest and most technically nifty features in the tool, where we can show you how many people clicked and subsequently checked out. But the problem is that the more you try to increase revenue from a newsletter, the more you add in more products and salesly stuff, so the less engagement, Opens, Clicks and Revenue you get. Revenue from newsletters is like the basilisk in Harry Potter. Don\u2019t look it in the eye, or it will turn your campaigns to stone.<\/p>

If you want to drive revenue from your email marketing (and who doesn't?) the trick is to forget revenue, and focus on engagement.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>


That\u2019s why Content is The Boss: Opens and Clicks help you know if yours is good.<\/p>

So we know what to look for when we\u2019re optimising our engagement. We can also use other Big Data Insights<\/a> from the wider Email Marketing Industry to give us some context and the benefit of others' experience. <\/p>

Here's a breakdown of the traffic sources you'll see on your analytics page: <\/p>