Analyze the statistics of your prospection emails

The secret for easily optimizing your prospection emails is knowing how to interpret their results! Don’t be afraid of marketing reporting anymore; adapt your tools accordingly. Here are the indicators you should analyze.

Which tools should you use for your prospection emails?

To assimilate the following notions, just follow the life cycle of your prospection emails.

Choose your emailing solution according to the source of your emails:

• Newsletter. An email opt-in is a subscriber on your email list.
• Prospecting. A non-opt-in email has not given his permission.

Often, the fatal error is using an emailing tool designed for newsletters (Mailchimp, Mailjet…) for soliciting a non-opt-in prospecting base.

The email is sent but not delivered

BOUNCE RATE

Bounce rate = number of undelivered emails/number of emails sent

• Hard bounce: The problem is definitive and cannot be resolved. (ex. : email address does not exist)
• Soft Bounce: The problem is temporary (ex. : email box is full)

Note: Your email may be classified as a bounce if your email server has a bad reputation and/or the recipient’s ISP refuses all emails from you.

The email has been delivered

DELIVERY RATE

Delivery rate = (number of emails sent – number of bounces) / number of emails sent

Assuming that the recipient’s email address exists and your email server respects emailing rules, the recipient still has to receive your email. So this is a key indicator as you choose your emailing solution because they don’t all get the same results.

Note: a server’s deliverability is very hard to verify because it is linked to the idea of reputation. If you aren’t sure, it may already be too late. Try another server or another solution so you can compare them.

SPAM RATE

Spam rate = number of emails reported as spam/number of emails delivered

This means the recipient received the email, but it has been sent to his spam box, or some users have marked it as spam manually.

Note: Ending up in spam has serious repercussions for the server’s reputation and therefore its deliverability. Don’t use tools made for soliciting emails opt-ins for prospecting purposes. You will be very likely to end up in spam boxes.

Other KPIs

OPEN RATE

Open rate = number of emails opened / number of emails delivered

The email is in the inbox and has been opened. A pixel (a white image) is added to the email’s content. As soon as it is loaded, it sends the information to your chosen tool.

Note: An email whose images are not loaded will have a hard time delivering relevant information. Keep things simple and opt for plain-text instead of email templates.

CLICK RATE

Click rate = number of clicks/number of emails delivered

Be careful to analyze this indicator in detail; it often reveals your target’s level of interest.

Global click rate = (Number of clicks/number of messages delivered) X 100.

Unique click rate = (Number of unique clicks / number of messages delivered) X 100.

Note: Ideally, your prospecting emails should contain no more than one link (ebook, resources…)

RESPONSE RATE

Response rate = number of emails clicked / number of emails opened

Few traditional emailing tools provide this feature out-of-the-box. But it is crucial for analyzing a Cold Emailing 2.0 prospection campaign performance.

Now let’s talk about the content of your emails!