- SMART objectives
It’s worth going right back to the basics of setting SMART objectives. Email is still a hugely valuable tactic especially when there is a need for igniting customer engagement.
But like all marketing activity it’s important to take the time to set objectives that are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timed
SMART objectives will enable you to define clear KPIs and contact strategies for each email or email programme. A contact strategy will set out how often you send emails to your subscribers and in response to what events.
- The three Vs of email capture
There are many tactics for growing your database of subscribers, but making the most of your owned and paid media to capture email addresses is vital, that are incorporated as follows:
Visibility: Obviously, make sure your email signup and calls to action are conspicuous. A few potential locations include:
- On the homepage (many use overlays to prompt users, though this should be undertaken after testing and consideration of UX).
- On product pages and landing pages.
- On your social media pages On transaction confirmation pages.
- In transactional emails.
Value: Why should someone subscribe? Enumerate the benefits of receiving your emails.
Velocity: Make email sign-up a speedy affair. No clicking a button and then being asked for lots of details, simply allow people to enter their email address into a field and then click once.
If you want more information in order to properly target/segment, this can be collected further down the line, even as part of a welcome campaign.
- Identifying the right metrics
Clear objectives should reveal appropriate metrics to track. Metrics for email can be split into process metrics and output metrics as follows:
Process metrics
Process metrics are trend indictors over time but on their own do not necessarily indicate a successful campaign. Examples include:
- Accepted rate. The percentage of emails delivered against the total sent.
- Bounce rate. The percentage of undelivered emails.
- Open rate. The percentage of emails recipients opened.
- Click-through rate. The percentage of recipients who click on at least one link in the email.
- Click-to-open rate. The percentage of openers who click on at least one link in the email.
Output metrics
Output metrics measure business objectives and can be a better indicator of campaign and email programme success. Examples include:
- New subscribers/registration rate.
- Conversion rate. The percentage of recipients who convert according to the objective of the email.
- Value of an email address. Average life span of an address x (Total annual email revenue / Average list size for the year). Use this to determine how much money you’re willing to spend on acquiring a customer.
- Cost per acquisition. The average amount of money required to acquire one subscriber / customer.
- Revenue per email. The amount of revenue earned from a campaign divided by the number of emails delivered, opened or clicked on.
- Revenue per customer. The average or median amount of revenue generated across either all list members or those who convert.
- Lifetime value. The total amount of money a subscriber spends with you during their lifetime.
- Average order value (AOV).
Open reach and click reach are used to define engagement with email on a subscriber level and should consider customer interaction over a set period of time.
- Open reach = total number of unique opens / total number on the list or segment
- Click reach = total number of unique clicks / total number of subscribers in the list or segment.
These metrics can be measured over varying timescales depending on the nature of the product/service lifecycle.
- The three Vs of unsubscribing
The three Vs of email capture also apply to the unsubscribing, which include:
Visibility: Make sure subscribers can see the unsubscribe option.
Value: Offer unsubscribers an easy-to-use preference centre. This allows subscribers to change their registered address, alter email frequency, or content preferences. This preference centre may also offer contact via a different channel e.g. SMS or direct mail.
Velocity: Again, it should be quick and easy to unsubscribe. Mobile optimised, with no signing in needed, and no lengthy wait.