Analytics

You can’t manage without measuring.

How can you tell if it’s a success if you don’t monitor and measure it?

This chapter will cover numerous strategies for tracking, analyzing, scaling, and optimizing your outreach.

Fortunately, Mautic includes robust analytics and reporting features that allow you to track and fine-tune your email marketing efforts in real-time.

What Are the Most Important Metrics to Monitor?

Before you can reap the benefits of email marketing, you must first correctly communicate your message.

And the only way to tell if your email efforts are working is to track key email data and see what works.

Starting with a clear vision of what you want to achieve is the first step.

Detailed statistics will tell you whether your emails are helping you reach them.

1. Open Rate.

Simply put, the open rate is the percentage of receivers who load a link in an email.

This indicator is not considered totally dependable. It’s best to use it as a comparative metric.

In other words, if you send a different message to the same list two or more weeks in succession and compare the outcomes, the open rate makes sense.

The problem is that this metric is obtained through an image embedded in the email, assuming it is displayed.

The problem is that because many email clients restrict automatic picture loading. Some receivers will open your email but not be tracked because their email software banned the image.

1. CTR (Click-Through-Rate)

This number shows how many people clicked on a link.

The click-through rate is an essential indicators. Marketers rely heavily on it to determine how well each email performs.

CTR gives you crucial information on how many prospects interact with your content and are interested in learning more about your product or brand.

You may take this a step further by employing a program such as Rebrandly URL Shortener. You will be able to acquire in-depth click statistics as a result of this, so you will know which links are performing and driving people back to your site.

A/B testing is crucial to finding successful ways to get your readers to click your links.

To increase your CTR, create numerous versions of the call-to-action copy for each campaign and test them until you find the one that works best with your recipients.

1. Rate of Conversion

This is the email marketing equivalent of the Holy Grail.

Every email should have a clear goal, such as signing up for a free trial, reading your latest blog post, or purchasing your product or service.

The percentage of email recipients that completed the targeted action is referred to as the conversion rate.

Again, your CTA is critical for this measure because the phrasing and design can make a significant difference.

However, it’s always a good idea to stress the usage of action words in phrases like “schedule an appointment,” or “get a deal.”

The conversion rate essentially sums up the efficacy and success of your total marketing activities.

1. The Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of emails that we’re unable to be sent. A high bounce rate is obviously a terrible thing. It is frequently the result of an improperly kept contact list.

There are two kinds of bounces: gentle bounces and hard bounces.

Soft bounces occur when a recipient’s inbox is full, a temporary server issue, or something similar.

In such cases, the recipient’s server may still deliver the email once the problem has been resolved; however, you should resend the email if this does not occur. If the same thing happens again, we’re dealing with hard bounces.

You will receive a hard bounce when you email a closed, non-existent, or incorrect address.

Make sure to remove them from your contact list. If you continue to send emails to them, your internet service provider may flag you as a spammer.

ISPs routinely utilize closed email addresses as spam traps. If you end up in these traps regularly, your reputation may suffer.

That’s why it’s critical to clean your database regularly (as we’ve said several times in this e-book). With Mautic, you won’t have to worry about all of these issues because it detects potential problems and resolves them by putting hard bounces in the “Don’t email” folder.

1. Return on Investment

ROI is defined as a metric used to analyze the profitability of an investment. It enables firms to assess their net profit to the amount invested.

When it comes to your email marketing’s return-on-investment rate, it tracks how successful they are in terms of cost-effectiveness.

In other words, this metric compares how much you earn to how much you invest.

Calculating your overall ROI is simple: subtract all email marketing costs from the total campaign revenue, then divide the result by the exact price.

Then double the result by 100, and there you have it.

It’s also worth noting that email marketing has the highest ROI of any channel and is incredibly cost-effective.

If done correctly, it has the potential to yield a sizable profit without requiring a significant investment.

After learning what to track and how to track it, it’s time to improve your metrics.

What Is A/B Testing and How Can It Benefit You?

This is a method of comparing two different versions of the same email copy, subject line, or whatever else you wish to test. It is also known as split testing. It assists you in determining which variety performs better based on your audience’s response, allowing you to boost your marketing and sales outcomes.

Email marketing, like any other technique, necessitates a tremendous deal of tweaking, modifying, and fine-tuning.

To get the best performing subject line, copy, CTA, or other components, you’ll need to experiment until you find what works and what doesn’t.

The devil is in the details in email marketing, so pay attention to every word you use because your word count is limited. Long essays and narratives have no place here.

The problem is that there are many options to pick from and not a lot of time.

However, using an A/B test, similar to a litmus test, allows you to simply compare the versions of the element and decide which one performs better. You may quickly and efficiently select the best-performing email element or version.

How Do You Run an A/B Test?

The first step is to prepare two emails that differ in some way.

Subject lines, CTAs, email copy CTAs, or any other piece you wish to test may differ.

If you update more than one element at a time, you won’t be able to pinpoint what caused a spike (or loss) in your statistics.

However, to ensure that your test is relevant, you must understand how to write each specific email component. Then you create a list of addresses and send these two emails at random.

The responses will reveal which test email is more effective and appealing to your prospects.

How Do A/B Test Emails Get Delivered to Recipients?

Mautic includes an A/B testing option to assist you in making informed judgments.

Contacts in your campaign will be divided as evenly as possible. Each variety will be delivered to around half of the recipients.

Suppose you have a list of 100 contacts. In that case, the system will automatically transmit version A to 50 and version B to the remaining 50.

The email stages are randomized. Each step is randomized. This does not mean the same contact will acquire the same variety in subsequent steps.

This is because A/B testing is random. You can’t tell who got which email until both have been sent.

Our suggestion is to create a brief list of persons who will test the templates. A test sample of 100 to 200 people is sufficient.

How Is the Winning Email Selected?

You can set the number of days your test campaign runs before the winner email is chosen for a test campaign.

The number of responses is the most crucial figure, followed by the number of clicks, and finally the number of opens.

You will receive a thorough email report on the success of each version, and the system will identify the winner’s email as the winner.

Techniques and Hints

To run your A/B test campaign effectively and prevent typical blunders, you must adhere to specific guidelines and best practices of A/B testing. Choose which elements to test carefully based on your key performance metrics (opens, clicks, and replies):

Body content, added value for your prospects, Subject lines, and calls to action or offers. Each of these factors (and many more) is equally significant because it can assist you in converting.

Dig a little deeper and see how they relate to your key performance indicators (KPIs).

1. The Open Rate

Your goal should be to get your prospects to open your email and read what you have to offer. Make your subject line great by investing as much time as you need to make it as catchy and captivating as possible.

If you want to fully A/B test, delivery time is equally vital.

Determine the most likely moments when your prospects will be checking their inboxes.

For each individual campaign, Mautic can alter sending times based on different time zones.

1. Click-through Rate

Too many links in the email body might have negative implications, and your email may end up in the spam folder.

Avoid using URL shorteners and only use reliable links in your email message.

1. Response Rate

This is the most challenging part: how to persuade your prospects to respond to your email and, of course, to respond positively.

Don’t bore your prospects with a long email, but you may need everything covered in one email.

Because there is no one-size-fits-all solution, you should try both variants and determine which one works best for you!

Use the appropriate tone and vocabulary, make your email enjoyable to read, and include all relevant information.

It’s also vital to format your email body – short, scannable paragraphs are easier to read.

You should also add social proof because studies show that customers are more eager to do business if they see recommendations from reliable professionals.

Drop a few names, but don’t go overboard.

Don’t forget to perform the following as well:

Choose your testing subject lines with care.

Choose a set of prospects to include in your A/B testing (for example, 100, as that amount is sufficient for obtaining results in just a few days).

Make the groups as similar in size as possible; you can also distribute recipients based on a job description, geography, seniority, etc. Variations in these elements will have minimal impact on your results.

Allow yourself enough time to test A/B testing should be carried out over a set amount of time to attain statistical significance.

Test your campaign for too little or too long. You won’t discern whether the results are significant, and you’ll waste valuable time.

There is no assurance that your efforts will yield adequate results, but you should allow enough time for your test campaign to produce results you can work with.

Don’t abandon or discontinue testing if one of your test campaigns fails, or discontinue testing after a successful one. Test your winning version against a fresh one to ensure you have the best-optimized version for future campaigns.