By esantiago@hubspot.com (Erica Santiago)

Email marketing is an important strategy for marketers looking to reach new leads, stay top-of-mind with existing customers, and keep them aware of new products and services — but the practice isn’t always straightforward. Technology and consumers change, and keeping up can be challenging. However, the challenge is worth it.

47.5% of marketers said their email marketing strategy was very effective toward reaching their business goals, while 47.2% said it was only somewhat effective. Only 2.7% said it was somewhat ineffective, and less than 1% said it was very ineffective.

Now that you know a sound email marketing strategy can help you reach your broader marketing goals, how exactly can you strengthen your marketing tactics to see the best results? To improve your email marketing metrics, here are some useful email marketing benchmarks we gathered from a survey we conducted among hundreds of marketers.

Most Important Metrics for Effective Email Marketing

When we asked marketers which metrics were the most important in measuring the effectiveness of an email campaign, the majority included click-through rate, open rate, and conversion rate in their answers.

Click-Through Rate

In email marketing, click-through rate (CTR) is calculated by the number of subscribers that have clicked on at least one link in the email campaign. And 35.9% of the marketers we surveyed said improving it is one of the biggest challenges they face with their email marketing efforts.

If you’re struggling to boost your CTR, the following email marketing benchmarks will help refine your strategy:

30.7% of marketers said emails featuring new product/feature announcements have the highest CTR. Another 30.7% said the same about emails with special offers or promotions. This likely means consumers are more prone to click on emails that hold valuable information about what exactly your company can do for them — whether it’s providing in-demand offerings or enticing deals that could save them money.

Speaking of value, we also found 38.2% of marketers said providing value through their marketing emails is one the most effective strategies for increasing CTR. Other popular answers include:

• Crafting effective subject lines (36.5%)
• Optimizing emails for mobile (29.6%)
• Including clear calls to action (28.6%)

Our data also suggests consumers respond to a more personalized approach to email marketing, particularly segmented emails. Our survey found 52.9% of marketers reported segmented emails have a better CTR than unsegmented, while only 23.8% said the opposite is true.

And as we mentioned before, changes in technology can also impact your email marketing metrics, including CTR. 39.9% of the marketers we surveyed said the Apple IOS 15’s privacy protection feature reduced CTR —and 34.7% of marketers said the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has reduced CTR as well.

Fortunately, there are ways to adjust your email marketing strategy to account for these privacy changes. 62% of marketers surveyed included prioritizing different KPIs to measure effectiveness in their method of adapting their strategy.

51.9% included leveraging user data from sources that are not …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron