If you have a newsletter, you know how important it is to grow your audience, engage your readers, and deliver value. But how do you measure and communicate your newsletter's performance and impact? In this article, you'll learn about the best metrics to track your newsletter's success and how to use them to improve your personal branding.
Open rate is the percentage of subscribers who opened your email. It tells you how well your subject line, sender name, and delivery time attracted attention. A good open rate depends on your industry, audience, and goals, but generally, you want to aim for above 20%. To increase your open rate, you can test different subject lines, segment your list, and send your newsletter at optimal times.
If you're new to the email marketing game, focus on improving your open rate above anything else. If your first email does 30% aim for 40%, then 50%, and so on. There are always ways to make sure your emails have the best chance of being opened, such as writing intriguing subject lines. Also, don't forget about A/B testing! Try sending out the same email to everyone who didn't open it, but this time with a different subject line — you'll be able to measure whether it has an effect on open rate. Next, consider what you changed. Did you use their names? Did you add an emoji? Whatever it is, try that in your next subject line to see if that works.
This metric represents the percentage of subscribers who actually open your email. The success can be attributed to how compelling your subject lines are and the level of engagement your subscribers have with your brand. A good benchmark for open rates is typically above 20%, but this can vary by industry, audience, and the type of email sent. In a school environment, our New Blog (newsletter) we have managed to achieve an open rate between 55% and 60%.
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of subscribers who clicked on a link in your email. It tells you how well your content, design, and call to action motivated action. A good CTR depends on your industry, audience, and goals, but generally, you want to aim for above 2%. To increase your CTR, you can test different formats, images, and buttons, provide valuable and relevant content, and create a clear and compelling call to action.
CTR is a critical metric because it measures the actual interaction with the content, going beyond initial interest indicated by open rates, and is thus a stronger indicator of potential conversion actions. Like open rates, CTR can vary significantly by industry, content type, and the email's purpose. It serves as an indicator of the content's relevance and value to the audience; compelling content often results in higher click rates. In my experience with school newsletters, I have observed CTRs ranging from 32.8% to 40.5%, which suggests a high level of engagement.
Sometimes, stripping your to a concise text-only format can help to create a more powerful message and keep it out of the Junk folder. For instance, you might be better off creating a bulleted list of the key points rather than including long narrative paragraphs (she says while writing a long narrative paragraph ??). If readers can depend on your newsletter to be brief but valuable, over time they’ll be more likely to open your communication and take action when you ask them to. It’s also important to make sure your content is relevant and interesting for your target audience.
Conversion rate is the percentage of subscribers who completed a desired action after clicking on a link in your email. It tells you how well your newsletter aligned with your goals and generated results. A good conversion rate depends on your industry, audience, and goals, but generally, you want to aim for above 1%. To increase your conversion rate, you can test different landing pages, offers, and incentives, align your newsletter with your value proposition, and follow up with your leads.
One best practice for converting is to reduce the number of drop off points. So, if someone already opened your email, read through it, and clicked the link, don't make them go through any more steps before they get to the final offer page. Ideally your offer page shouldn't have too much extra information either. Keep it simple and just provide the essentials. Another key to successful conversions is personalization. If you can tailor your offer to a particular person or group of people, they'll be much more likely to click that button and take action.
Unsubscribe rate is the percentage of subscribers who opted out of your email list. It tells you how well your newsletter met your subscribers' expectations and preferences. A good unsubscribe rate depends on your industry, audience, and goals, but generally, you want to keep it below 0.5%. To decrease your unsubscribe rate, you can set clear expectations, provide an easy way to manage preferences, and segment your list based on interests and behaviors.
Personally, I'm not too bothered by people unsubscribing since you're not interested in everyone just the right people. I believe in quality followers over quantity when it comes to my network, so if someone isn't interested then we're not the right fit for one anther. Having said that, if you notice a massive drop in subscribers, it's worth exploring why. It could be a sign that the content or topics you're covering aren't of interest to your readers or that something has gone wrong with the technical side. It's best to dig into the analytics and find out what may have caused it so that improvements can be made for future posts.
Feedback rate is the percentage of subscribers who responded to your email with a comment, question, or suggestion. It tells you how well your newsletter engaged your readers and built a relationship. A good feedback rate depends on your industry, audience, and goals, but generally, you want to aim for above 0.1%. To increase your feedback rate, you can ask for feedback, encourage replies, and acknowledge and respond to your subscribers.
Social share rate is the percentage of subscribers who shared your email or its content on social media. It tells you how well your newsletter provided value and generated word-of-mouth. A good social share rate depends on your industry, audience, and goals, but generally, you want to aim for above 0.1%. To increase your social share rate, you can make it easy to share, provide shareable content, and incentivize referrals.