Erik Handy
Email marketing is one tool that can still prove useful in today’s business world. Monitoring how well each message performs can help you create appealing subject lines and content that encourage recipients to click through and purchase your product or service.
There are three central analytics to track:
- Click-through rates
- Click-to-open rates
- Open rates
Click-through Rates (CTR)
Getting people to open your message is crucial. Getting them to follow your call to action is even more important. CTR can show you how effectively an email engages recipients.
To determine an email’s CTR:
- Divide the number of unique clicks (how many times a recipient clicks at least one link in an email) by the number of emails delivered.
- Multiply that number by 100 to get the CTR percentage.
For example, if an email that was sent to 10 people gets 5 unique clicks, then you would divide 5 by 10. The result is .5.
Multiply .5 by 100. The email’s click-through rate is 50%.
Click-to-open Rates (CTOR)
CTOR compares how many times a recipient clicks a link in an email with how many times the email was opened (excluding multiple opens from the same person). CTOR can give you more detailed metrics than CTR and open rate analytics.
To determine an email’s CTOR:
- Divide the number of unique clicks by how many times the message was opened.
- Multiply that number by 100 to get the CTOR percentage.
For example, if an email has 5 unique clicks and 5 unique opens, then you would divide 5 by 5. The result is 1.
Multiply 1 by 100. The email’s click-to-open rate is 100%.
Open Rates
The most basic email metric simply tells you how many emails were opened.
To determine an email’s open rate:
- Divide the number of people who opened the email by the number of sent emails.
- Multiply that number by 100 to get the open rate percentage.
For example, if 50 people opened an email and 80 were sent, divide 50 by 80. The result is .625.
Multiply .625 by 100. The email’s open rate is 62.5%.
Use CTR, CTOR, and Open Rates to Analyze Your Campaigns
Some marketers only use their email open rate to gauge their campaign’s success. Enticing potential customers with subject lines is one thing, but the goal should be to get each recipient to follow the call to action via high-quality content. Considering the CTR and CTOR of an email campaign can help you evaluate your marketing strategy better than looking at just one statistic.
Tips to Increase Your Open Rates
Switch Up When You Send It
Believe it or not, the day you send your email marketing campaign matters as well as how often. In fact, there are studies that show which days of the week you should send emails depending on how many you send a month.
Thursday ranked at the top of the list with Tuesday and Wednesday close behind. Of course, you’ll want to do your own testing, but this gives you a starting point.
In addition, paying attention to when people are clicking on your content can be a key indicator of whether your campaign is working or not.
Typically, successful marketing emails are opened between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. So, even if you might be working late, schedule your content to publish the next morning for better results.
Keep It Relevant
We touched on this briefly above, but keep your email marketing relevant. If you’re not providing timely, easy-to-digest content, nobody will care and will stop reading your emails.
In fact, 69% of people unsubscribe because they’re tired of hearing from you and don’t find your emails important. Engagement is key when you’re trying to grow and maintain an email list.
Make It Easier to Take Action
Including a CTA at the end of an email is nothing new; however, modern email marketing platforms are constantly updating products and features for you to try out. And the more you can get people to complete without leaving the email, the better.
For example, if you’re trying to get people to book a spot in your course, provide a 1-click option that takes them to the booking page.
This is good customer service, and it streamlines the whole process.
Embrace AI
AI is everywhere nowadays, but leaning into its power can actually help you perfect your email marketing strategy.
AI can help clean up your email lists, help you craft more effective subject lines, and provide more feedback over time about what’s working and what’s not.
When All Else Fails, Seek Expert Advice.
If it feels like you’ve tried all of the tips above and you still aren’t seeing the results you want, it may be time to bring in the experts.
Partnering with the right email marketing platform, like Mailchimp, Flodesk, or HubSpot, can give you more ways to track your metrics and provide up-to-date information as trends and technology changes.
It may also benefit you to hire a professional writer to keep your content engaging and high-quality. They can help you optimize your SEO and create stronger CTAs for your intended audience.
No matter what your goals are with email marketing, keep a close eye on your CTR, CTOR, and open rates, and you’ll learn how to fine-tune your campaigns and make them even more effective.
