Email has existed for a long time now. Still, even with the entrance of newer and more modern technologies, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective marketing platforms for businesses today.

Though it may seem like social media and search engines are the new big platforms on the Internet, email remains a classic as it is used by over 3.9 billion users in the world, with over 293 billion emails sent every day.

Factors Affecting Email Marketing

With the advancement of technology and digital marketing, you can now make use of email marketing to collect and mine your data. Though your goals or needs may differ based on your company, there are crucial factors that you have to monitor and track continuously. It is easy to lose track with the positive results of an Email Marketing campaign, but in the middle of all this, you have to remember that data and analytics are crucial to attaining long-term success.

Advanced features have made it possible to track your critical success factors easily, so you no longer have to worry about this respect. Nonetheless, you still have to familiarise yourself with what each factor refers to and what exactly you are aiming for in the quantitative aspect. This way, you can set your sights on the proper goals and take appropriate action to reach them. Let us examine the major factors affecting email marketing campaigns:

1. Subscriber Count

Similar to traditional mailing lists, the success of your marketing efforts relies heavily on the number of people you have in your subscriber list. The more subscribers you have, the higher the possibility of getting more conversions and thus increasing your conversion rate.

Make sure to keep track of your subscriber list at all times, and continue growing your list to reach more and more people. If your list is getting smaller much faster than it is growing, then you have to come up with other acquisition strategies.

2. Delivery Rate

Your email delivery rate measures the number of emails you send that is successfully delivered to the respective recipients. Naturally, you want to have a high delivery rate, ideally above 90%, to increase exposure and the possibility of people clicking or opening the email. Delivery failure can be attributed to many reasons, with one of them possibly being the infrastructure of your email service provider (ESP).

3. Open Rate

As its name suggests, your open rate refers to the rate at which people open your emails. Having an extensive subscriber list will be of no use if your recipients delete your email without opening it or checking its content. There are several ways that you can increase your open rate, but one of the biggest things you have to remember is to be creative!

Try to have an eye-catching title that interests the people and piques their curiosity. Make sure you do not give away everything, but at the same time, you still want your recipient to understand what to expect from opening the email. Another thing to remember is to make your content valuable and try not to sound too uptight so you can still build a connection with your readers.

Having great content will encourage people to open your emails in the future as they become more excited to see what else you have in store the next time. Having poor content, on the other hand, may probe them to unsubscribe or avoid opening your emails in the future. 

4. Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the number of times emails come back or do not reach the recipient for several reasons. Email bounces may be classified as a soft bounce or a hard bounce depending on the basis for the failed delivery. Temporary difficulties arising from issues like a server problem or full inbox may cause a soft bounce, but non-existent email addresses will lead to a hard bounce.

As much as possible, you want to have a low bounce rate and ensure that all your emails go through and reach the respective recipients.

5. Conversion Rate

It is one thing to send people an email, and another thing for them to click it. Apart from these two things, however, the ultimate goal is to get the people to accept or purchase whatever it is you are offering. Mainly, you want to measure how many people “convert” out of the total number of recipients.

Having a high conversion rate is an important KPIs for a successful campaign. The number of conversions you get directly correlates to your revenues, so if you are not getting a satisfactory conversion rate, you may want to recheck your offer and try to see what may be causing the low rate. 

6. Lifetime Value per Email

When your subscriber list is filled with thousands and thousands of people, you may think that it is enough to boost your sales. While it is true that reaching more people will increase your chances of getting more revenue, the same may not be said if you only have one-time customers, rather than those who stay loyal to your company.

The customer lifetime value (CLV) or lifetime customer value (LCV) estimates the net profit that you can get from your relationship with a single customer. Knowing this will give you an idea of how customers perceive your brand and how satisfied they are with your company.

One-time purchases from thousands of people may equate to colossal revenue, but imagine how much more you will get if your current customer base, along with new subscribers, continuously purchases from you. The effect will be exponential since you are getting both your current and new subscribers to purchase from you consistently.

7. Email Marketing ROI

Your return on investment (ROI) refers to the revenues you get from every email you send, while already factoring in the expenses you may have incurred. Aside from your ROI, you can also look into your effective cost per mile (eCPM) rate, which calculates the earnings you get for every 1000 emails. This factor gives you a broader idea of how your campaign is doing.

Key Factors in Successful Email Marketing Campaigns

In this day and age, digital marketing methods like social media marketing and mobile marketing seem to be at the forefront of advertising. Email Marketing, however, continues to be heavily used and can have significant effects on your returns if done right. To see if you are making use of your strategy correctly, you can look into some of the critical factors of successful email marketing campaigns.

1. Audience Permission

Although you want to be able to grow your subscriber list at all times, you still have to make sure you get your audience’s permission. Never send an email to someone who has not subscribed to your online mailing list. As for subscribers with low engagement with your company, you can also opt not to send them emails if your data shows that they have never clicked nor opened a single email you sent.

2. Valuable Content

Though marketing strategies will be needed to get your customers to click and open your email, the content will be the ultimate deciding factor. You have to make sure you not only give valuable information but also give the content that people subscribed to in the first place. In the same vein, maintain consistency in the visual aspect of your content so you can build a brand identity that will help customers make the association in the future.

3. Segmentation

As a business, you need to delineate your target market and identify its characteristics properly. If you do not segment your audience and send the same email to all of your subscribers, you are at risk of losing the subscribers who do not fit the consumer segment of your latest email.

4. Strategic Timing

Timing is crucial in attaining your desired metrics and imparting a positive brand image to your recipients. Potential customers want to see consistency and receive your emails at the same frequency. If you commit to sending a weekly newsletter, do not skip on three weeks to suddenly convert to a monthly system. Doing so may lead to distrust and negative impressions on the part of your customers.

5. Deliverability

You can have the best content and brand, but if you are unable to deliver the email to the inbox of your subscribers, then it will be of no use. At times, you might find that your emails often bounce or get sent to the spam folder, causing your metrics to fall beyond your success indicators.

If you have issues with your delivery rate, this may be caused by problems with your email’s infrastructure, the system that sends your emails, or with the content of your newsletter. If your subscribers are not satisfied with your offers, they may flag your future emails as spam to prevent seeing them.

6. Test

As much as possible, try to test out your strategies or plans before executing them, so you can make sure that you can maximise the benefits when you do the real thing. You can make use of A/B testing on different aspects like the subject title or content, and then measure the level of the metrics you are using. Through experimenting, you will be able to determine the best campaign to use for your subscribers.

Email marketing may seem like a thing of the past, but it continues to thrive in today’s competitive market. Email marketing happens to be one of the most effective ways to reach out for guest post service. There are many  other potential opportunities with this platform, especially when it comes to data mining and analytics. At the same time, the number of people using emails has not stagnated in any way, indicating the broad market and reach that you can tap into as long as you properly make use of email marketing!