Email marketing analysis: metrics and tools

Email marketing is the process of sending emails to a group of contacts with the intention that they perform a specific action. This is done through marketing software such as HubSpot. Optimising mailing campaigns can increase sales and brand recognition of the company. To do this, it is useful to analyse the results of the mailings. In other words, an analysis of the objectives achieved to determine the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategy.

Not all campaigns pursue the same objectives or require the same response from the user. In the case of aninformative newsletter , the open rate will be a relevant indicator for the company. On the contrary, in a promotion that comes with a link to the website, it will be advisable to look at the click rate. To carry out a correct analysis it is essential to define the KPIs of the strategy and take into account the necessary metrics. Working and measuring the results allows you to promote the actions that work and discard those that have no effect on subscribers.

Key metrics to analyse email marketing strategy

Global metrics

These are the general metrics of the campaign. They should be analysed less frequently, preferably on a monthly basis. They provide an overview of the status of subscribers.

• Number of contacts: Knowing how many subscribers are part of your lists will give you an idea of the audience to which you are sending emails. Lists should be segmented and updated in a database.
• Subscriber growth: The percentage of subscriber growth is essential to know the effect of email marketing. Leads must grow for subscribers to grow. If the subscriber list increases, it will be an indicator that the emailing actions are working properly.
• Unsubscribes: Measuring the percentage of unsubscribes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis will determine the number of subscribers who have stopped believing in the brand. It is interesting to find out why and when they have cancelled services. After this, it is advisable to correct the mistakes so that the percentage decreases.

Specific subscriber metrics

These provide detailed information on the contacts subscribed to the brand. They are found in the database and refer to previously organised and segmented lists.

• Lists: The lists of subscribers are segmented based on their interests or stage of the sales funnel. It is interesting to measure the interactions with the emails of each group of the list: according to sex, age, location, occupation... This will allow you to know what actions are necessary for each segment.
• Inactivity: The contact lists will reveal which subscribers are still interacting with the brand and will allow you to stop sending emails to those users who never open the emails and remain inactive.

Sending metrics

Reveals data regarding the sending of emails, in other words, what happens after starting an email marketing campaign.

• Number of sends: Provides the total number of sends made. It is key to be able to collate the rest of the data.
• Delivery rate: Indicates the percentage of successful deliveries. It is a fundamental metric in the analysis of email marketing as it implies that no emails have been lost in the delivery process.
• Bounce Rate: The Bounce Rate indicates the percentage of emails that could not be delivered. This is due to multiple failures. There are hard bounces generated by invalid addresses or delivery blockages. Soft bounces indicate a saturation of the inbox and are usually resent automatically.
• Open rate: Indicates the number of users who have opened the email, usually due to the email's subject line.
• Click Through Rate: The Click Through Rate reveals the percentage of clicks that users have made on the email. A CTR indicates that users show a high interest in the brand's content.
• Forwards: Some tools allow you to know how many users have forwarded your email to another contact. This will be a positive indicator for the analysis.
• Marked as spam: An interesting data is to know how many emails have been considered as spam. Commonly, this is due to saturation in the inbox, misleading methods, words detected as spam or user reports.
  

External metrics

For a complete analysis you should not only pay attention to the data in the email, but also analyse the results provided by external tools such as Google Analytics.

• Website visits: Knowing the number of visits to the website from an email allows you to measure its impact on users.
• Conversion rate: The conversion rate will indicate the effect that the email marketing actions have had on the recipients.
• Rate of return: The rate of return will help you to know the real costs of the email marketing campaign.

Tools to analyse email marketing campaigns

HubSpot

Its digital marketing CRM is highly integrated in the market. It is mainly aimed at large companies, although it has a free version. Its software is easy to use and its interface allows you to design and optimise high quality emails. It allows the analysis of email marketing campaigns due to its segmentation, subscriber tracking and automation.

Sendinblue

It is a simple platform that automates email marketing tasks. Among its features is the campaign analysis through tracking, heat maps and real-time statistics of users.

Mailify

It is a simple and intuitive tool for companies of any size and offers a wide range of possibilities when designing your email marketing strategy. Its monitoring is key to the analysis through heat maps, A/B testing and multichannel strategy.

Mailchimp

One of the most popular email marketing tools, Mailchimp is intuitive to use and its benefits include integration with external applications such as WordPress or Facebook.