Of the major marketing tactics employed these days, email marketing is one of the least used by wedding professionals. In order for email marketing to be a viable option, you must have a solid email list. But if your “client” is an engaged couple who’ve booked your product or service for their wedding, they might not be a repeat customer, in which case it doesn’t make sense to email them about your business on a semi-regular basis. This is often true for Pros in the Venue, Dress & Attire, Officiant and Wedding Planning categories.
For many service categories in the wedding and events industry, though, there is the possibility of repeat customers. Bands, Caterers, DJs, Florists and Photographers are the types of Pros that clients may go back to for future events if they had a great experience. To capitalize on those opportunities and stay top-of-mind for those past clients, email marketing is a great tactic!
Email marketing is a valuable tool because everyone has an email address (or two or three!). And better yet, people are accessing emails 24/7 through both their computers and mobile devices. But for those who are just starting out with email, it can be hard to figure out how to measure success.
Below are four email marketing metrics to track so your business can determine the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns (and improve on them in the future):
Open rates
The open rate of an email is usually the first metric most businesses will look at to understand the success of the email. The open rate tells you the percentage of those who opened your email out of the total number sent. Since people can’t possibly click through the content in your email without opening it first, the open rate of your email is the first step in determining whether or not your email is resonating with your audience. A good open rate is a good indicator that your subject line for the email was engaging and relevant to your audience!
Click-through rates
Since the ultimate goal of an email is to get your recipients to do something – register for an event, use a promo code, etc. – it’s even more important to look at your email’s click-through rates. The click-through rate of an email tells you the percentage of people who clicked on something (any external link) within your email. If no one is clicking through to your Storefront, website, social media accounts or wherever you’re driving visitors in the email, then your email’s content is not doing a good job of “selling” your recipients on the benefit of clicking through. Make sure you have clear calls to action that explain why they should click and how to get started.
Bounce rates
While bounce rates won’t tell you if your actual email content and design was successful, they will help clue you in about the accuracy of your email list. There are two types of bounces – soft and hard bounces. Soft bounces mean that the recipient’s email inbox is full or for some other reason they’re “temporarily unavailable.” Hard bounces mean that an email address failed permanently for a number of possible reasons, including the possibility that the email address no longer exists or was typed in incorrectly. Both types of bounces mean that the recipient did not receive your email, so you should watch these closely to make sure your emails are in fact reaching the majority of addresses on your list!
Unsubscribe rates
Finally, the least exciting email metric – unsubscribe rate. This metric tells you the percentage of people who received the email and chose to remove themselves from your list. Under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, your business is required to tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving emails from you and honor those who choose to do so. While unsubscribing may not seem “friendly,” it can be very informative! High unsubscribe rates may mean that you’re emailing your audience too frequently and they’re tired of seeing your emails, or that your content has stopped being helpful. It’s important to pay attention to consistently low click-through rates to make sure you don’t get to the point where people start unsubscribing.
For more email marketing help, be sure to check out our infographic with tips for standing out in the inbox!
Image Source
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