Meaningful Metrics: Going Beyond Open Rates

Jul 14, 2020

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Open rates are an emotional, yet somewhat unreliable metric. When people see a drop in open rate, they tend to think it’s an indication that engagement is down. But email metrics go well beyond open rates. And in many cases, other metrics can tell you much more about the success of your email marketing than open rates alone.

In this episode, we talk about the meaningful metrics you should be tracking, hard and soft bounces, list hygiene, and what to do if you’re concerned with your metrics.

Main Takeaways

Hard bounces should be kept under 2% for all sends. Anything near 5% should be looked at more closely because there are likely greater issues in play.
Pay attention to the technical details, such as removing hard bounces from your list and ensuring your domain is set up correctly.
Sender complaints should be kept to a minimum. Less than 0.1% is a good threshold. We often see complaints spike when collecting email addresses through something like a giveaway.
Click rate is a critical metric for email marketing. This is particularly effective when you have a clear CTA because it allows you to see how many subscribers do what you want them to do. This speaks volumes about your content and if it’s really connecting with your audience.
Open rates are not always a reliable metric. The way pixels track email opens can be quirky, and there are many variables involved.

“Your subscribers are real people and the best way to have good deliverability is to have empathy for them. You should know that they're humans. You do know some information about them, so try and serve them and try and give them content that's going to be helpful to them. ” ~ @alyssa_dulin

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