The Most Important Newsletter KPIs – Email Marketing for Beginners Part 4

Have you sent out your first newsletter? How to draw the right conclusions from your reporting.

Do you think your email marketing campaign is done once your newsletter has reached your audience? Not at all! Now for the really exciting part: How did your newsletter do with your recipients? Our newsletter reporting has all the info you need to answer this question. KPIs show you how successful your campaign has been and where you can make improvements for the next newsletter.

Measurability is a key advantage in email marketing. Each individual campaign is evaluated in detail, which makes emails more than just a means of communication. The subsequent measurement of success makes them a powerful marketing tool. We’ll show you which measured values are important and, most importantly, what they mean.

1. Newsletter KPI: The Delivery Rate – Did Everyone Get Your Email?

The delivery rate shows you how many of your emails got through to your subscribers’ inboxes. Ideally, this number should be 100 percent. After all, your subscribers have opted in to your newsletter via Double-opt-in and confirmed their email address.

What could be the reason for a delivery rate of less than 100 percent? Could your recipients’ email programs be flagging your newsletter as spam and not delivering it? We’re proud to be members of industry associations for newsletter senders like the CSA. This means our mailing servers are on an allow list. Our customers are known for sending great newsletters, so we get a high delivery rate.

2. Newsletter KPI: The Bounce Rate – This Address Has No Inbox

If an email bounces back to the recipient, that’s what we call the bounce rate. This can happen if the mailbox is no longer available or if the storage limit has been reached. The bounce rate shows how many of your emails could not be delivered.

Why is this important? The undelivered emails are not just piling up on your desk. The reason is your sender reputation. Spam senders often have undeliverable emails. If your bounce rate is high, you’re likely a spammer. This hurts your reputation. The upshot is that some email providers are blocking your emails as spam. Keep your email list up to date and delete unresponsive addresses.

3. Newsletter KPI: The Open Rate – Is Your Subject Exciting?

How many people have opened your email? The open rate tells you. It also gives you a lot more insight, namely how exciting your subject line is. Is it written in a way that makes people want to click on it and read your newsletter?

Don’t let a supposedly low open rate get you down. It’s a great success if there are even a quarter of opens. In some sectors, even fewer opens are completely normal. If the open rate is consistently low, it might be time to take a closer look at your subject line. Is it exciting enough? Is it right for your target group? Give your subject line enough time to work, and don’t settle for anything less than you know it can do.

There might be another reason for a low open rate. Is it clear who’s sending the newsletter? Sometimes it’s not easy to tell who’s sending a newsletter if only an employee name is given without a company name. This might look like spam, so the email won’t be opened. You’ll get much better open rates if you combine employee and company names.

4. Newsletter KPI: The Click Rate – Does Your Content Convince Your Readers?

Is your newsletter irresistible? The click through rate tells you. Are you sending the right content to the right people? They click a link in your newsletter to get more info or order a product.

A high click-through rate means you have the right content and offers. The click rate is much lower than the open rate. About four percent of emails are clicked on, which is an acceptable average.

A lower click-through rate can be caused by:

• Subject and content don’t match:
  Your subject line is clever and intriguing, but the content of your newsletter doesn’t quite live up to the promise of something new and exciting. Don’t create false expectations. If they’re disappointed, they won’t click again.
  What to do: Get people interested, but don’t make any promises you can’t keep.
• Your newsletter doesn’t look good: 
  The layout is confusing, the images are blurred, and the fonts and colors make reading and clicking difficult.
  What to do: Clean up! It’s important to be clear, but sometimes it’s better to do without one or the other element. A simpler layout makes the important things stand out. Create a CI with colors and design elements that reflect your brand and stick with it. It’s also a good idea to use a consistent visual language. Your newsletter will look more professional and be easier to read right away.
• Your links don’t work: 
  Your newsletter gets people interested, but they don’t end up on the right page. They either get sent back to the start page or they get a 404 error. If this happens a few times, they’ll stop clicking on your emails.
  What to do: Before you send, just make sure you’ve linked everything up right and that the links actually go somewhere. CleverReach makes this super easy. Before each newsletter goes out, our system suggests a free test email to your own email address or the test list. Once you’ve checked your links, you can send out your newsletter.

5. Newsletter KPI: The Conversion Rate – How Many Recipients Turn Into Customers?

The conversion rate tells you how many of your recipients are “converted” into, for example, a buyer who uses your online store. But a conversion can also be something other than a purchase, like creating a customer account, downloading something, or signing up for an event. It’s when the recipient does more than just click on a link.

Conversion is the holy grail of email marketing. It’s also the hardest thing to get right. Software helps determine the conversion rate. It shows you how well your email campaign worked and which links were the most successful. Is the conversion rate low? Your recipients still need something. Common conversion roadblocks:

• The products are interesting but expensive.
• Conversion is too complicated.

You can boost your conversion rate by making your offers more relevant to your email marketing audience, offering discount coupons, and making the process easier for them.

6. Newsletter KPI: The Unsubscribe Rate – How Many Recipients Say Goodbye?

The unsubscribe rate shows you what percentage of people who get your newsletter decide to unsubscribe. Every newsletter sender would love to see a zero at this point, but there’s always a bit of fluctuation, which is totally normal. The usual unsubscribe rates are between 0 and 0.5 percent, but in some sectors they can be even higher.

At CleverReach, we make sure that every newsletter includes the unsubscribe link required by the GDPR. You can rest assured that you’re in good legal standing with us. We also suggest making it really simple for people to unsubscribe via just one click on the unsubscribe link. If the unsubscribe process is too complicated, there’s a chance your email will be marked as spam instead. The end result is that your sender reputation takes a hit. So be confident in your message and make it simple for people who want to unsubscribe.

You can also draw conclusions for your email marketing from your unsubscribes:

• People often subscribe to newsletters from manufacturers before buying expensive items. After buying, they often unsubscribe. You can’t do anything about it because the reason for unsubscribing isn’t in the newsletter.

There might be ways to get around these reasons for unsubscribing:

• Your newsletter is boring:
  Check if your product still meets your target group’s tastes. If you’re not sure: Ask! You can quickly create an email survey.
• You send too many emails:
  This is the main reason people unsubscribe. Send newsletters less often or let recipients choose how often they want to get news from you.
• You don’t send enough emails:
  This makes it less likely that your recipients will be annoyed, but more likely that they will forget who you are.
• Readers have subscribed to too many newsletters: 
  Sometimes, you can’t improve a newsletter yourself. Keep offering good content, and your subscribers will come back.

Ask your recipients why they’re unsubscribing. To make the unsubscribe process quick and easy, provide answers that can be ticked and make the response voluntary.

Use Your Reporting for More Success

Reporting and tracking show you how your campaign is doing. If your emails get a lot of opens, it means you’ve picked a good subject line. And if a lot of people click on your emails, it means your content is engaging. To help you make a realistic assessment of the figures, we’ve included a quality indicator in the form of our 5-star ratings. This lets you see at a glance which tweaks you can make to make your newsletter marketing even more successful.

Read the other episodes of our Email Marketing for Beginners series:

• Part 1: Winning New Email Subscribers Online and Offline
• Part 2: Create Your First Newsletter with Free Templates
• Part 3: How to Optimize Your Newsletter Before Sending it