Metrics like these are absolutely critical to informing the strategy of your cold email campaigns. Simply put, if you\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0<\/em>tracking performance, you\u2019re operating on guesswork \u2013 and chances are, you\u2019re missing out on a ton of business as a result.<\/p>\n And when it comes to your sales emails<\/a>, there are 6 metrics that matter most.<\/p>\n Bounced emails are those that failed to reach the intended recipient.<\/p>\n Naturally, you want your email bounce rate to be as low as possible, but some bounces are inevitable \u2013 for instance, every time someone changes jobs, their old company email account will become inactive.<\/p>\n As a general rule, your bounce rate should be under 3%<\/a>. Most email service providers will penalize you if your bounce rate exceeds 5%, which will affect your ability to run future email campaigns.<\/p>\n Unless your bounce rate is literally 0% (which it probably isn\u2019t), it\u2019s in your interests to bring it down by cleaning your email list \u2013 in other words, trawling through your database of contacts and removing any inactive accounts. Done manually, this is a labor-intensive \u2013 and extremely dull \u2013 process, but fortunately Mailshake can do it all for you via\u00a0Voila Norbert<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tracking your cold email bounce rate is easy. You\u2019ll get an email back every time one of your messages bounces, which you can use to compile a list of addresses to exclude from future campaigns. The tool you\u2019re using to send emails should also give you a report of bounces.<\/p>\n 2000 opens sounds great. An open rate of 72% is spectacular. But if they resulted in zero clicks, it just doesn\u2019t matter. Many describe the open rate as a \u201cvanity metric<\/a>,\u201d believing that it\u2019s ultimately meaningless, just like tracking Facebook likes.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s not entirely wrong: opens and likes look good on a report<\/a>, and give you a little ego boost (they like me, they really like me!), but they don\u2019t pay the bills. A like or open is not<\/i> a sale. Many consider tracking open rate a waste of time.<\/p>\n But ignoring it completely is not the answer, either. While your open rate should not be the only metric you track, it does provide some valuable insight, and there are many worthwhile ways to test and improve it<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s best used as a comparative<\/i> metric rather than a deciding factor. You can compare it to the industry average, your competition (if they publish that kind of information), and even your previous or concurrent campaigns. Is it better? Worse? Why? Hypothesize, test, and tweak accordingly.<\/p>\n And remember, when it comes to your opens, you should give more weight to your unique<\/i> open rate. Otherwise, you\u2019re counting each time the same person reopens your email.<\/p>\n While averages vary from industry to industry, you should generally aim for an open rate of over 25%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If your campaigns are consistently below that figure, you likely need to work on your subject lines, which are the single biggest factor in whether or not a recipient chooses to open an email. There are plenty of best practices around writing effective <\/span>cold email subject lines<\/span><\/a>. If you aren\u2019t already, try the following:<\/span><\/p>\n Optimize campaign performance by A\/B testing different subject lines so you can establish what works best (and what definitely doesn\u2019t).<\/span><\/p>\n Your email tool of choice should be generating an open rate report every time you run a campaign, so tracking shouldn\u2019t be a challenge. However, if this isn\u2019t happening, you can download a third-party email open-tracking tool like <\/span>Right Inbox<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Every email you send needs a call-to-action (CTA). You want them to do something.<\/p>\n Often, those CTAs will be connected to a link of some sort \u2013 taking the user to a dedicated landing page \u2013 but they might be driving a different sort of action, such as replying to the email. Either way, you should only have one CTA per email; it needs to be completely obvious to the reader what action you want them to take.<\/p>\n Whatever your desired action, you need to know how many people are following your CTA. Why? For starters, it reflects the appeal and power of your CTA, and it takes you one step closer to\u00a0improved conversions<\/a>\u00a0(whatever that happens to be for each email).<\/p>\n Somewhere in the 2-4% range is decent, but the best reach 10-15% or higher. That should be your goal. Never settle for average. And once again, be sure to differentiate between \u201ctotal\u201d and \u201cunique\u201d actions for a more accurate figure.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re falling short of that figure, there could be a range of issues with your cold email campaigns, from the quality of your audience list to the tone of your copy. There\u2019s too much for us to go into in this article, but you can find everything you need to know in our\u00a0comprehensive guide to email strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Measuring the effectiveness of your CTAs means paying attention to a couple of different metrics. Specifically, you\u2019ll want to track your number of replies and number of clicks. Again, your email tool should be able to produce these reports for you, but otherwise you can add UTM tracking \u2013 or use a tool like\u00a0bit.ly<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 to track link-clicks yourself.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve already established that a high open rate is nice, but really only useful as a comparative metric. A high CTR is better, as you need them to click so you can (eventually) sell them.<\/p>\n Putting those two together can prove tremendously valuable. The click-to-open rate compares the number of people who clicked to the number who opened. Calculate it quickly with a very simple formula: (unique clicks \/ unique opens) x 100.<\/p>\n [15 (unique clicks) \/ 53 (unique opens)] x 100 = 28.3%<\/b><\/p>\n As with the other metrics, it varies by industry. The overall average for the first half of 2017 was 11%<\/a>, but it was nearly 3x that – 30% – for advertising\/marketing.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The CTOR cuts through the noise and measures the quality of the email content and CTA. Nothing else.<\/p>\n The CTR gives a big picture evaluation of your campaign (including subject lines, personalization, and more), while the CTOR evaluates the email content alone, as it only works with the number of people who react and engage with your email message once they\u2019ve decided to open it.<\/p>\n Comparing them is a useful exercise.<\/p>\n Your disengagement rate is the sum of your unsubscribes and spam complaints.<\/p>\n In essence, it measures how successfully your emails are working to engage your audience. Those actively unsubscribing or complaining are not just evidence of disengagement, but that something is very, very wrong. They just don\u2019t dislike it. They hate<\/i> it.<\/p>\n To find it, add the unsubscribes and spam complaints divided by unique opens:<\/p>\n [3 (unsubscribes) + 2 (spam complaints) \/ 4100 (unique opens) = 0.12%<\/b><\/p>\n Most experts recommend keeping your disengagement rate below<\/i> 0.15%. Too high for too long, and your overall deliverability will start to suffer. You can\u2019t make everyone happy all the time. Unsubscribes and complaints will<\/i> happen. Just actively track and manage them.<\/p>\n This is what it\u2019s all about: the earnings. If your sales campaigns aren\u2019t earning, what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n Your earnings per click (or per email) gives you a quick and easy snapshot. Dollars and cents. Is it working (i.e. bring in the cash)?<\/p>\n Track and measure regular sales campaigns, coupon\/discount campaigns, special theme or holiday campaigns, and more. Set a conversion goal, measure revenue generated, and track emails. You can use native tracking tools within your marketing and sales provider, or by adding a simple UTM parameter<\/a> to links. Either way, you want to determine which emails make your recipients reach for their credit card.<\/p>\n6 Sales Email Metrics to Track<\/h2>\n
1. Bounce Rate<\/h3>\n
What’s a good cold email bounce rate?<\/h4>\n
2. Open Rate<\/h3>\n
![\"Chart](\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/North-American-email-open-and-click-rates.png?resize=550%2C306&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nWhat’s a good cold email open rate?<\/h4>\n
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3. Cold Email CTA<\/h3>\n
What’s a good cold email CTA?<\/h3>\n
4. Click-to-open Rate (CTOR)<\/h3>\n
![\"Email](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Best-click-to-open-rates-by-industry.png?resize=550%2C333&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n5. Disengagement Rate<\/h3>\n
6. Conversion rate<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/UTM-code-generator-email-marketing.jpg?resize=550%2C623&ssl=1\")
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