Being the most effective promotion channel, thoughtful email marketing is when the Open Rate and Click Rate exceed the intended conversions, and there is no end of new applications. Plus, with a successful marketing strategy, ROI once again proves the effectiveness of the mail channel. With the right vector, the return on email marketing is 42%, while radio ads are 6%, and TV ads are 1.3%. But even this difference does not guarantee that the next campaign will not go down the drain, turning into zero or, even worse, show negative indicators. 

Both newbies and experts sometimes face different email marketing challenges. After talking with a large number of reputable marketers, we have collected TOP-5 “illnesses” that can become an obstacle to achieving the goal. What they are and how are they treated – read in our review.

What metrics are used in email marketing?

One of the most influential management theorists of the 20th century, the famous American economist Peter Drucker once said: “If you cannot measure something, then you cannot improve it.” Understanding which metrics are used in email marketing and how to influence them is a cherished key that makes a business profitable, a brand recognizable, and your relationship with customers warm and long-term one. 

Note that not all metrics are equally important. The difference is in the choice of tools for email marketing and the degree of influence on the success of the campaign in general. Web marketing analytics is conventionally divided into metrics that do not make sense, and those that are useful. The first ones, although they seem interesting at first glance, are not able to answer the question of how things are going in your enterprise. For example, the number of followers on social networks. If they don’t buy anything, it doesn’t matter how many are on your page, 1,000, 10 or 1.

On the contrary, useful metrics provide insight into the health of your business. For example, the amount of proceeds from sales. 

So, Key Metrics for Email Marketing:

• Open Rate;
• Click-Through Rate;
• Bounce Rate;
• Unsubscribe Rate;
• Complaint Rate;
• Click-To-Open Rate, CTOR;
• Conversion Rate;

Signup Rate;

• Churn Rate;
• Subscriber Retention Rate;
• Average Revenue Per Email Sent;
• Email Campaign Profitability;
• Delivery Rate;
• Deliverability Rate.

Most of the indicators are calculated automatically using special web tools. Some of them require special formulas and are calculated manually. In any case, in order to avoid the challenges of email marketing, the values of all these metrics should always be in front of your eyes. 

All About the Challenges in Email Marketing

But while you are analyzing the figures, the snowball of email marketing problems can gradually grow until it turns into an avalanche. So now when you are fully armed, here are the TOP-5 “illnesses” that require immediate “treatment”:

1. The quality of the data in the contact database is poor and the integration with other systems is poor. If there is not enough data on the target audience, some attributes of a certain segment or information about behavioral factors, then you have to forget about a high ROI. And if, in addition, all the information is in systems that are poorly integrated with each other, the chances of winning are practically zero.
2. There is no coordination between departments and sales channels. Followers can interact with your product / brand on different levels. And without synchronizing the email strategy with the actions of other departments, customer engagement will be minimal. 
3. The functionality of the mailing services is limited. Does the current software fail to meet most goals and objectives? This means that you have already gone beyond the limits of its capabilities, or it was selected incorrectly at the very beginning. Correct the bugs and use the services of another platform.
4. How users interact with emails is not known. Metrics responsible for the way customers interact with your email are very useful, but only if they are extremely accurate. 
5. Irrational strategy and focus on transient performance. Often, an email marketing strategy is focused on the immediate needs of the brand, while leaving positive customer experiences overlooked. If the wrong strategy is chosen, neither optimization, nor additional tools will change the situation. 

Of course, these are not all problems with email marketing. There are a number of specific “illnesses”. But we have collected the most common and will further offer effective “drugs” to eliminate them. 

How to improve email marketing? Best ways, customer base validation

Keep the 5 Golden Rules of Healthy Email Marketing:

• Analyze what information you have and where it is stored. Then prioritize integration tasks to see the impact as soon as possible. Don’t try to do everything at once, move from simple to complex.
• Organize a set of channel KPIs in a single file with access for all staff. This will provide insight into how different actions affect engagement metrics and customer behavior. This way you can immediately improve what is capable of exponential growth.
• Proceed with caution if you need to switch to another ESP platform. Transfer your existing welcome and trigger communications, start educating your team in advance on how to work with the new system, test its integration with other services and data sources.
• Get the most out of your ESP email data and try to match it to your site’s conversion data in a single report. This will give you complete insight into the effectiveness of your email channel.

Clean your customer base regularly using advanced bulk email validation online. 

Conclusions

If you’re a marketing leader, start by investing in a strong team. Set measurable goals and trust this team to make the right decisions about how to achieve them. Instead of cheap tricks, improve the relevance of your emails: try new templates or original designs, create personalized emails, conduct tests and surveys. Remember, every experiment provides an opportunity to learn and grow even more. And here’s another recommendation for you: to validate the subscriber list, use only Proofy.io.