One of the big benefits of email marketing is that it delivers current, measurable metrics. To run and continually improve your email marketing campaign, you need to monitor and understand email statistics such as Open Rate, Click-Through Rate (CTR), Bounce Back rate etc. Understanding and monitoring these metrics will allow you to continue to improve your email marketing campaign and achieve much greater results.

1. Basic Email Metrics you should monitor and evaluate in each email campaign:

Open Rate - this is the total number of emails opened (in HTML format) divided by total emails sent out.

Click-Thru Rate (CTR) - calculated as the number of unique clicks on links in the email divided by the number of emails opened. It basically means how many people opened and interacted with your email.

Bounce Rate - represents the total number of emails that were not delivered and bounced back. There are several reason why the email was rejected such as the email address is no longer valid, a server filtered the email out, or the recipient’s mailbox was full and over quota.

Based on your unique email marketing campaigns objectives, you can measure more advanced statistics such as:

- Number of Emails Open based on Region/Country - Number of Click-Thru based on Region/Country - Number of Sales based on Region/Country/referring URL - Conversion (Click to Sales) Rate - Total Revenue per campaign - Return on Investment (ROI) per campaign

2. What metrics are most important?

This really depends on your campaigns goals. Your open rate is a very important indicator to some extent however to get a better picture of your campaign performance, it should be analyzed in combination with other metrics - such as click through rate (CTR) and click to action rate (conversion rate).

Why? Because CTR and conversion rate can tell you how many recipients took an action you wanted them to take, such as purchased your product, signed up to your newsletter, downloaded the whitepaper etc. The open rate will only tell you how many people read your email. So in order to measure the effectiveness of your message, you need to go beyond the open rate and look at your conversions or actions taken.

3. How you can boost the Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

Savvy email marketers not only want to get the email opened and read but also want to know how many people clicked through (measured by CTR) and they want this number to be as high as possible. There are few key points in each email you should review because they critically influence the open rate and CTR. Those are:

Subject Line and Greeting: Make your subject line interesting. Your subject line is one of the most important factors that may affect your email campaign results. However, please do not over “optimize” your subject line otherwise it may look like spam email and the client could delete it without opening it. Keep the subject line short and specific, and if possible address the subscriber by his/her name.

Compelling Offer:

It should be obvious from the first paragraph what you offer as well as why the offer is important to the recipient and how he/she can benefit from it. The first paragraph should grab the attention so don’t write it too long. Include your offer on top of your email and make your offer attractive to the recipient (discount and free offers usually make users to click).

Call-for-action: Always include “call-to-action” button or link to instruct the user to click for more details.

Spam issues: “Spam” issues may affect your successful open rate tremendously. Most of the ISP and hosting companies have implemented the “spam filter” that can filter out suspected spam emails. Please try to avoid using any common suspected spam words such as “free offer”, “money”, “30 day guarantee”, “free trial”.

Message Design and Structure: Use same colors and images in your emails; this will help people recognize your brand. When you have a lengthy message, try to include interactive links so people can access more information through your website. Also, very few people read the email word by word, most of readers just scanning the message to quickly find out what’s in it for them. Keep this in mind and structure your email - include headings to separate the message and use bullets so the reader can easily see listed features or benefits.

Today’s readers are busy people and it usually takes them just few seconds to decide whether to read your message or delete it. So construct your message carefully and monitor your email statistics to find out what works best for your business.

Building Your Business with an Opt-in List

Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list. These marketing misconceptions could pose so much of an obstacle towards your profiting well from your business.

Not a lot of people use email

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods nowadays simply because virtually almost all people use email. Check on those email fields or blanks required to be filled up on various forms needed in processing different transactions. A person without an email address is tantamount to a person without an online home, which is one big shameful truth for this generation.

Email marketing campaigns can offend a lot of people

The not-so secret way to surmount this dilemma is through permission-based advertising. There's no harm in trying after asking for permission.

It's stupid to send email to all the people

The key to this predicament is to have a very discerning eye on who to email and who to not email. Better look for some metrics on how to know which group of people would give you high ROI or return on investment.

The Real Deal with Building Opt-in List

After clearing the fog regarding email marketing myths, here's how one can benefit from employing the power of email marketing campaigns - building an opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not a piece of cake particularly for the uninitiated. Here is a roundown of tips on how to succeed in this kind of marketing endeavor.

1. Strategic Collection of Data

Know which information from your audiences will help you in lowering expenses and/or make sales flourish. Devise a tactic to make people voluntarily provide you with the information necessary to create higher conversion.

Overload of data is not good. Ask only for opt-in, with their full name and email addresses. Make sure that the profiles that you gather are updated to aid in improving the relevance, timeliness and satisfaction from each deal you make.

2. Good Implementation

Old adage says it all - 'action speaks louder than words'. This easily translates to the difficulty one has to undergo during the execution of his or her email marketing efforts. It's a good thing that various methods, often low-cost, abound to hasten and facilitate the building up of one's opt-in database.

Tracking your email marketing results can pose great hardship, too. Technology and relevant sources should be employed in making this aspect of your marketing a lot manageable. Your high traffic groups of opt-ins with the greatest result should be taken noted of.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage channels without overspending:

1. Make use of websites.

It is an excellent tool for data collation and providing you with relevant info regarding your email offers. Use forms that solicit your visitor's email address and consent.

2. Make use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the more popular ways of marketing aiming to lead traffic to one's site. You may want to ask for signups for email services. Make your website more visible through these media. Offering free electronic newsletters and or rewards program can do well in making it easy to win the nod of your audiences, too.

3. Maximize your sales force.

Customer service associates can help a lot in making you benefit more from your email correspondence. Sales people with proper education on how to aid you in this endeavor can very well contribute to higher ROI. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4. Don't make your point of sale pointless.

Forms for signup located at cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots can be very excellent venues for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses and names can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5. Conferences or trade shows can work, too.

Giveaway offers or entries on sweepstakes are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details.

These tactics should be applied with adequate caution and should focus on earning the trust of your opt-in list instead of simply collating data for your sole own benefit. Always make sure that the forms that you will use and other methods that you will employ will not necessitate too much fuss to subscribe. This is for people to not be annoyed during the process of data supplication.

With that bunch of information, who can ever go wrong with the feat of building an opt-in list?

You can contact me anytime with questions. That's what I'm here for.

Scott Becker

(916) 984-6872

"NPS Marketing provides Internet marketing strategies and tactics to small and medium businesses using tested, proven offline and online programs. Contact me with your Internet marketing, web design and search engine optimization questions, that's what I'm here for."