Episode 72: Unlock Your Email Marketing ROI with Analytics | Tips and Strategies

Unlocking Email Marketing ROI with Analytics: Proven Metrics and Strategies

Don't settle for mediocre results! Learn how to transform your email marketing campaigns and achieve outstanding results with these proven metrics and tips.

As a service-based small business, email marketing is prime real estate that we cannot afford to ignore. But simply sending emails is not enough. 😉

We need to track and analyze our email marketing data to improve our campaigns and maximize our return on investment.

In this episode, I'm diving into key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates to understand your email campaign performance comprehensively.

I also share additional tips for improving your marketing campaigns, including segmenting your email list, testing different subject lines, and optimizing your email content.

By analyzing these key metrics and gaining insights into how your email campaigns perform, you'll be much more data-informed in your decision-making.

You'll know what works and what doesn't to improve your campaigns.

So, are you ready to take your email marketing to the next level? 🤔

#EmailMarketing #MarketingMetrics #DataDrivenMarketing #SmallBusinessTips #MarketingInsights

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva.

See you next time!

Are you ready to take massive action in your business and harness the power of data in your decision-making? Let’s chat 👇🏽

Podcast Transcript:

Kiva Slade 0:01

Welcome to Collab with Kiva, where we let our inner nerd geek out on all the non sexy parts of your business. I'm talking data and operations, neither as flashy or glamorous, but both are foundational to your business growth. I'm your host, Kiva Slade, your strategy and analytics guide here to break down what feels complicated, so it is understandable, and executional. Let's dive in. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Collab with Kiva, we are going to discuss email marketing analytics for small businesses. I know some of you got excited and was like, Yeah, email marketing. And then I threw in analytics, hey, this is a data show. So in today's digital world, email marketing remains one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach their target audience. And I think most of us would agree, as small business owners, email marketing is highly beneficial to us. It allows us to land in the inbox, that prime real estate of our potential clients and previous clients. And again, just like in real estate, it's all about location, location, location, and that inbox is location. So we want to make sure that our email marketing, you know, we're analyzing what's taking place so that we can do more of what's working and less of what isn't. So we know that sending emails in and of itself is not enough. You need to track and analyze your email marketing data to improve your campaigns and maximize your return on investment. In today's podcast, we are going to dive into email marketing analytics, and really talk about some ways that you can use that email marketing data to improve your marketing campaigns. Because let's be honest, email is where it's at. I know, some people might want to disagree, email still trumps so many other avenues of marketing. So why to email analytics? Just why do they matter in a small business? And really, they provide just valuable insights into how your email campaigns are actually performing. You can track various metrics such as open rates, click through rates, bounce rates, conversion rates. These metrics help you understand the effectiveness of your emails and identify areas for improvement.

Kiva Slade 2:50

For instance, if you notice you have low open rates, you may need to work on your subject lines to make them more compelling. Recently, I had an email go out, and it said, "Are you down with ChatGPT". Now, you listen to me for any time, you know, I'm a child of the 80s. Alright, early 90s. Hip hop is my thing. And so I had people who opened that email, and not only did they open, they actually responded to me, not about so much the ChatGPT content, but oh my gosh, I love that subject line. Oh, that song. So there are things about your subject line that can be more compelling. Because that was way more compelling than my experience using ChatGPT. Like, who's going to open that? Versus "Are you down with ChatGPT". So it's really something to think about as it relates to your subject lines as one way to possibly increase your open rates. Similarly, though, if you have like a high bounce rate, you probably need to practice some list hygiene, you need to clean up your email list. It's dirty. Remove, like invalid email addresses, things of that sort. So overall, email marketing analytics enable you to be much more data informed. And being data informed, helps you use data to drive your decision making, and really to optimize your email campaigns for better results.

Kiva Slade 4:30

So what are some key email marketing analytics, metrics for you to track? Open rates. Open rates measure the percentage of people who opened your email. Pretty straightforward, right? But it really does give you an idea of how many people are engaging with your content. And like, is your subject line enticing enough to get people to open your emails? If you sent 100 emails, 50 people open them, ding ding ding, here's your open rate. So it's simple. But it's important. It's a number that's not always looked at. It's important to understand like, are people opening up your messages? Do they open the emails that you send on Monday, more than they open the emails that you send on Saturdays? That's information. That's data. That's important. Another key metric is your click through rates, or CTR. CTR really just measures the percentage of people who clicked on a link in your email. All of these are not rocket science, people. Just indicates how engaged your audience is with your content and is your email driving them to the desired action. And that's important, because what is your desired action for your email, you kind of need to know that going in. You might send out an email that or you might have received an email that has a link to click for the website, go follow me on Pinterest, go do this on my blog, go sign up for my lead magnet, go listen to my podcast. At that point, you're like five links deep and you're like I need out of Alice's, like Wonderland. I'm not clicking any links, because you just gave me too many doggone links to click through. So this ties back to what exactly is that desired action for your email, so that that action is being performed for people. Do want them to go to your blog? Then just guide them to your blog. Do you want them to go to your podcast? Send them to your podcast. Do you want them to visit Aunt Sally Sue's new, whatever website? Send them there. Whatever it is, don't send them too many places. Because they're confused mind, not only does it not buy, it doesn't click, I'm just gonna tell you that.

Kiva Slade 6:58

So the third metric that you can track our bounce rates. Again, not rocket science, measure the percentage of emails that could not be delivered to the recipients inbox. High bounce rates typically indicate a problem, again, with your list. Could be invalid email addresses, you know, somebody's no longer on aol.com or spam filters. Whatever it is, you can actually in many platforms nowadays, you can set up some rules so that hard bounces automatically gonna get removed from the list. Soft bounces, maybe there's a notification, maybe instead of hotmail.com, it's H O T M A I . com, like, okay, we can fix that. So you can set up some rules, so that that list hygiene, that maintenance, is done automatically, and not something that you are like, I have to go clean my email list. So conversion rates is up next as a metric. So that measures the percentage of people who completed the desired action after clicking on a link in your email. For example, maybe you wanted them to go make a purchase, or you wanted them to fill out a form. So, if they did that, once again, you're seeing how effective your email is in driving people to the desired action. Of course, again, you have to know what that action is. So, if you wanted them to go sign up for your lead magnet, and they got there, and they actually did that, so that was a conversion. And with these links, I would highly recommend, highly encourage you to use UTM links, so that you're knowing that email sent on March 22 link in the PS was, you know, to the lead magnet, obviously, it's not going to be that detailed, but you can be surprised, but you can put in your spreadsheet so that you know what it is, so you can see that in your Google Analytics, which you do have installed right. Wink wink. So you'll see that and you can actually set up those destination pages as conversions inside of Google Analytics 4 so that you are seeing what those conversions are. And are they actually, is your audience taking the desired action that you would have them to take. So in addition to those metrics that we just talked about, which again, were open rates, click through rates, bounce rates, conversion rates, there are also some additional tips for improving your marketing campaigns.

Kiva Slade 9:43

And really that's starting to dig deeper into your marketing data. First thing is segmenting your email list. Segmenting is simple. It allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups of people. Okay, so by segmenting your list You're segmenting it on demographics, interest, behaviors, people who have signed up for your blah, blah, blah, lead magnet. So anything related to blah, blah, blah, you can send directly to those people because you already know that they're interested in blah, blah, blah. So when you segment your lists, it allows you to give people what they want. It allows you to personalize and give them relevant content that meets their needs. In addition to that, it can lead to higher engagement and conversions, because again, they're kind of warm, they already want this thing about blah, blah, blah, because they've already signed up for this free thing. Now you're giving them more in that process for the journey to blah, blah, blah. So segmenting your email list. And let's be realistic, everyone does it. Like Target is not going to send me anything related to infants. They're going to, come July and August, Target is going to start hitting me up with college storage solutions, college dorm solutions. Fun items, like all the things. Why? Because the last two years I've purchased college dorm solutions and things of that sort. So that's what Target's going to send me. That's what they have segmented me. She does not get diapers, Pampers, baby clothes, bassinet,... She gets college dorm emails, like I am in that segmentation. Totally fine, because they are giving me what I want. And in many cases, they're giving it to you when you want it. Because let's be honest, it's March. I'm not looking for college dorm solutions right now. I don't need them. But July, August, June, you start appearing in my inbox. It's like, that's when my brain might start thinking about these things. And it's like, Oh, I do need to. Do you guys need? Okay. And I'm ready to make that purchase in order those things. So segment your list to give people what they want.

Kiva Slade 12:06

Also test different subject lines. This again is like a part of A/B testing. Subject Lines plays such a crucial role in whether people open or not, don't open your emails. So testing different subject lines, you can see which ones perform better. Again, more compelling ones tend to do better. As if I said before, "Are you down with Chat GPT", so much more likely to be opened than "My experiences with ChatGPT". Just saying, test your subject lines, many, most email providers have A/B testing available. Utilize it. See which ones performed better. Lastly, you want to optimize your email content. After you've taken the time to analyze your content and find out what resonates with your audience, so you've identified like the emails with the high engagement rates and high conversion rates, replicate that. Like dude, that stuff's working. Do more of that. The emails with the low open rates, low conversion rates, low engagement, like a low in all the things, like, Hey, pump the brakes! We don't want more of that. Replicate that good stuff for your future campaigns. It just also, I feel like, tied to this, related to the segmentation and optimizing email content, is like if you are about to have a launch and you're going to be emailing your list more frequently than normal, give them the option to opt out. And when they opt out, obviously, they're going to be part of a segment like not interested in course, like launch information or whatever you decide to call that segment. But that is so important, because many of us receive emails where people don't give us that option. And then we're feeling like we're forced to ignore their emails or completely leave their list. And you don't want people to completely leave your list. But you do want to be kind, you want to be nice, you want to be hospitable, give them the option to not receive all of those emails that you have coming about something that they're not interested in. But they have the opportunity to still stay in your email marketing universe. So make sure you do that as well. It's just a good practice. And again, it's going to help you with your open rates and everything else because you're going to either have people no longer opening emails because they don't want all of those launch emails. Or you're gonna wind up having people leaving your list and your audience shrinking because you don't give them an option to just opt out of what's forthcoming and still stay on your list.

Kiva Slade 15:02

So again, you want to not only measure your open rates, your click through rates, your bounce rates, your conversion rates, you also want to dig deeper. Segment your lists, A/B test your different subject lines, optimize your content. Because again, as service based small businesses, email is prime real estate, it is easy peasy. You have consent, you're in their inbox, you're in their space, you want to take advantage of that. You want to take advantage of that. And you want to track and analyze how you are taking advantage of that. So by analyzing key metrics, such as the open rates, click through rates, your bounce rates, conversion rate, you can again, be much more data informed in your decision making. Excuse me. So as we conclude, because the voice is starting to go, track the things that you need to track but not only track them, analyze them, so that you can use those insights to further doing what works and what's working well and stop doing what isn't working and isn't working well for you. So, I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that it was informative, and helpful for you in your email marketing journey. And I look forward to hearing the insights that you guys have gleaned from your tract in analyze email marketing. Talk to you next time. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva. I'm wildly cheering you on as you go forth and execute data and operational efficiencies in your business. If you need additional support, connect with me via my website, the516collaborative.com. Your reviews on Apple are appreciated. See you next week.

Meet Kiva Slade - the Founder and CEO of The 516 Collaborative. With a unique background in high-power politics on Capitol Hill and sixteen years as a homeschooling mama, Kiva found her calling in the online business world as a trusted guide for entrepreneurs looking to build the business of their dreams.

Kiva's work began behind the scenes, orchestrating the back end of businesses and managing teams. But her inner data diva couldn't help but notice that small businesses needed help harnessing the power of data for growth. So she and her team set out to uncover and tidy up the data required to enable clients to grow their businesses confidently and easily.