A well-executed email marketing campaign has many components to it and in addition to the obvious element of optimization, what you really need to be doing is tracking your emails to ensure that what you are doing, is actually working.
Before you send your next email burst out, take a moment to ask yourself what your actual goal is. It could be to generate more sales, grow your subscriber database, offer something free of value etc., and once you do this, the next question to ask yourself if how you go about achieving that goal through the email you are about to send.
When it comes down to email tracking, there are 3 core metrics you need to keep tabs on:
THE CLICKTHROUGH RATE
CTR or the click-through rate is used to be able to ascertain the performance of each individual email you send giving you proper insights into how many people are actually engaging with your content and are thereby interested in learning more. Are people clicking on the links you send in your content?THE CONVERSION RATE
Let’s assume that people are clicking on your links but once they get there, are they actually taking action? Are they downloading what you asked them to? Are they buying? Are they redeeming coupons? This is how you measure your conversions. The trick here is to ensure that the entire design and content lead your readers directly to your call to action. If they are responding and performing the action you want them to, then you can consider this a conversion.THE BOUNCE RATE
This is basically a metric to measure how many of your emails are not being delivered and bouncing back. Take note that there are two different types of bounces that you must track; i.e. Soft Bounces which are temporary problem with an incorrectly input email address that you can verify and correct easily, and Hard Bounces that result from non-existent or invalid email address that can never be delivered. This is an immediate cue for you to immediately remove those email addresses from your list to avoid being blacklisted by ISPs as a result of being perceived to be a spammer.
When it comes to email tracking there are many metrics that you can be tracking. Start by taking these three key metrics into consideration as your core starting base for tracking, you then have some valid information in hand to ensure that your next email marketing campaign gets delivered and gets the job done.