When email campaigns are done in the right way they can be a very effective marketing tool for every business - no matter how big or small!
Don't believe us? Well, 66% of consumers have made a purchase online as a result of an email marketing message!
Haven't got the grasp of email marketing yet? Read our blog, What Is 'Email Marketing' and How Do I Make It Work For Me? to start your email marketing journey and understand the absolute basics of producing, sending and analysing email campaigns.
We bet that statistic at the start of our blog caught your eye [source], so here are 3 simple ways to more effectively read your email marketing reports. When you get the hang of understanding the numbers, you will be able to put your buyer persona knowledge and understanding of inbound marketing in place to improve your lead nurturing process.
Before we start, we want to offer some key advice about sending out email campaigns! Don't have one mass mailing list that you send ALL campaigns too!
Rather than using one huge list of every single contact, lead or customer you have, produce separate lists which are segmented by numerous filters, including their pain points, goals and personas.
Remember, the more specific your lists are, then the easier it will be to better target certain customers and avoid being marked as 'spam' by your disgruntled email contacts.
Unsubscribes and Bounces
Unsubscribers are people who have chosen to opt out of receiving your emails anymore by clicking the 'unsubscribe' button at the bottom of an email they receive.
Bounces can occur for numerous different reasons but it generally means that the email could not be delivered to the email address.
Believe it or not, unsubscribers and bounces are not as important as you think! If you segment your contacts and only send content that is relevant to your list and don't send them too many emails your unsubscribe rate will be low. Bounces can be inevitable, as well as unsubscribes, but as long as you constantly update your email send list, you will find these numbers stay low.
Open Rates
Open rates are the amount of times your email was opened.
Your open rates can be affected by virtually anything to do with your email. Namely, people won't open because they're not intrigued or interested int he subject line or the sender name.
Try A/B testing short and long subject lines as well as changing your sender name to 'Name, Company', or 'Company', or 'Name'.
Subject lines are best when they answer a pain point for a customer (which is why it's important to use segmented send lists).
Don't lose faith in testing these email marketing methods as they can often change and open rates are impossible to predict (but you can improve your chances).
Click Rates
A click rate is a defining number for how many people opened your email and then clicked on a link or call-to-action that was inside the said email.
This is the most important metric in all aspects of email marketing, but particularly crucial when using email marketing to nurture leads. If your leads are clicking through from your email to your website or through a call-to-action to a landing page this means that your leads are getting the help or service they need from you. If you want to increase the amount of leads or sales you're getting then it's vital to measure click rates and what your different lists / buyer personas respond to.
To improve your click rate, ensure you have ONE visible call-to-action button (don't confuse readers by pointing them in many directions), plus make sure your content is relevant, interesting and easy to read (people skim and many open emails on mobile devices, while on-the-go). Ultimately, ensure everything from the sender name, subject line, main content, call to action and side content all connect with your lead, their pain points and provide the benefits they need from you!
Make your reader feel like this email is so suited to them that it must have only been sent to them, as it answers everything only they need (personalisation - i.e. Dear Anna - is great for building on this strategy!
What's next?
Hold a meeting with your content / digital marketing teams and brainstorm everybody's ideas as to why email marketing campaigns aren't working, or if they aren't implemented, how you can start.
Think realistically about your buyer persona's pain points and what they would want to hear from you, as well as if email marketing is something they will actually engage with.
Find out more about buyer personas, with our free ebook, How To Create Buyer Personas, which includes printable templates for you to start producing your own personas, to refine your content and marketing / sales strategies.
