How to Analyze and Measure the Success of Promotional Email Campaigns – Part 1

There are many ways to measure promotional email marketing campaign success. Silverpop did a yearlong study of email marketing metrics from Q1 to Q4 for 2012 and has shared some valuable insights with the marketing world.

According to the study, having average promotional email marketing metrics now means you have poor performing emails, so it’s more important than ever to be able to understand your campaign’s metrics in order to successfully improve your email marketing.

These statistics are key to understanding what works and what doesn’t in the email marketing world. Using these tactics derived from these metrics will help strengthen your marketing campaign.


Email Statistics

Email Statistics


The study revealed the median open rate for emails promoting consumer products. The industry with the highest open rate is at 25.4%.

That is a high number to compete with when average isn’t enough. Here are some tips that can help improve your average open rate:

  1. Offer a special or promotion for a certain time period. Emails that have a “shelf life” or have an offer that expires are more likely to be opened more than once.
  2. Send people content they want. Relevant content will keep your readers engaged, and engaged readers look forward to your newsletter and share it with friends.
  3. Create a subject line that makes people want to open the email. The first step to getting your email seen is to create a catchy subject line. One easy way to do this is by split testing. Send half of your emails with Subject Line A and the other half with Subject Line B. Then compare your open rates.

Keep in mind that email open rate doesn’t accurately capture all the opens due to image blocking and a few other factors. This uncertainty means open rate cannot and should not be used as a key measurement tool.

A better metric to measure the effectiveness of your campaign is the click-to-open ratio, also known as the “effective rate.” This is the ratio of unique clicks as a percentage of unique opens.

It measures click-through rates as a percentage of messages opened, instead of messages delivered, meaning you will get a more accurate result of who is actually reading the email and clicking the links.

If your click-to-open ratio is low, consider these two tips:

  1. Create a sense of urgency. A tactic that works particularly well for product marketers is putting limits on special offers. This encourages readers to take action quickly, increasing the likelihood that a reader will click on the link or links in your email.
  2. Remove distractions from the email.Resist the urge to use a header that includes your website navigation or multiple offers. It signals that your email doesn’t have a specific enough goal. Instead, make it a priority to include quality and relevant content that is short, sweet, and gets to the point.

Stay tuned for Tuesday’s continuation of this blog where the importance of promotional email size is discussed. If you have any questions about email marketing in the meantime, contact AMG today at 303-703-8000 to speak with one of our experts, or just fill out our contact form!

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