Email analytics – stop missing important leads

There is so much more to email analytics than just open rates and click rates – your subscribers are real people. So, it’s time to take a look at:

• who is reading your emails?
• how often are they reading them?
• what are they clicking on?
• how often are they engaging with your mailings?
• who is just not interested?

Below I’ve listed some of the really informative things that most CRM systems or emailing software/apps (Mailchimp, MailerLite, Hubspot, etc) will let you do, to help you answer these questions. It’s time to get so much more from your email analytics and to identify some strong leads.

1 – Move on from just looking at numbers

It’s so easy to get bogged down with open rates and click rates – whether it’s percentages or numbers. Whilst they are informative to see how engaged your audience is, there is much more value to be had in the more granular detail.

However, if your rates mean a lot to you there is one quick recommendation if you are getting a bit fed up with low open rates or click rates is to consider removing inactive subscribers. If you have a small number of subscribers getting rid of some may fill you with dread…but if they are not engaged anyway what’s the point of mailing them and clogging up their inbox! They obviously aren’t your ideal client. You can send them a specific ‘sunset sequence’, telling them that you are going to remove them to save them the bother and even ask if they would like to re-engage and, if so, what could you do to make your emails more appealing. If you get no response, then simply archive the subscriber… you are probably doing them more of a favour by not filling up their inbox unnecessarily and they may even see you more favourably for this and remember that when perhaps a time arrives when they do need your help, services or products. Anyone can always re-subscribe remember!

2 – Identify engaged individuals

Who opens every email? Who opens them more than once? These are such revealing results…especially if they are subscribers who are not current clients. Is there one or two people that always open your emails but don’t buy from you? Why not consider a personalised email or a special offer to see if you can entice them to convert? Perhaps see if you can identify the barrier that is stopping them?

Can you dig a little deeper into who opens certain emails but not others? Can you surmise a little more about what they are most interested in or most keen to know about? All of this will help you to identify warm leads and to segment your list so that you can send out more personalised emails or offers when the time is right.

3 – Compare demographics

You may not have much information other than name and email address – thanks to GDPR this is very sensible! However, there is still a lot you can tell from an email address, especially if it is professional one. You could spend a little time looking up the businesses if you don’t know them and where they are based, and perhaps who their clientele is. There is nothing to stop you looking up subscribers on LinkedIn too.

You can also make some (stereotypical, admittedly!) guesses about gender from names.

Spending a little time ‘getting to know your subscribers’ means you can perhaps start to group them and tag them with useful information. Comparing these little demographic details can help you to hone your content writing a little better to their needs. When you know who you are writing for it is much easier to make a connection.

4 – Test content and calls to action

Now that you are getting to ‘know’ your subscribers thanks to this investigation into the analytics and information available to you, why not test out some of your content (i.e. what information, news or offers lead to a reply or purchase) and your calls to action (i.e. which links or buttons are your subscribers pressing). This is the time to return to click rates and open rates (*she says tentatively) to see if different approaches encourage different activity. However, just like in point 1, don’t stop there. Again, look at exactly who is ‘opening’ and ‘clicking’ – is it still the same few active subscribers or have you managed to pique the interest of someone new. If so, could you take this further? They are a new warm lead. You could approach them directly if you feel bold enough. People buy from people after all!

Engaging directly with your subscribers

I’ll finish this blog with a funny analogy (if that’s the right word?!)…why is it that if someone commented on a social media post or showed interest in your services at a networking event you wouldn’t think twice about asking them about you could help further? …yet, when it comes to emails, even though we can see who is opening email and who is clicking, so often business owners don’t do anything about this…other than send more emails!

Think about that for a bit…and if you would like support or a strategy for who to convert more of your subscribers to paying clients, then do get in touch.