7 Newsletter Stats You Need to Understand and How to Improve Them!

Right, so you’ve got an amazing newsletter going and a fantastic lead magnet to pull them in with. Now you need to know how it’s performing to understand where it needs tweaking and what can be improved. 

Thankfully it’s rather simple. 

Open rate – oh you noticed that tasty subject line, did you? 

In a nutshell, this is how many people have opened your email. The % or ratio of people who clicked on the email in comparison to how many received it. 

If the open rate is higher in one email in comparison to another it may be because of the subject line. Meaning you can now see what type of subject lines you should use in the future. 

According to Mailchimp, the average open rate for all industries is 21.33%.- this is across an entire email list though, not targeted segments. 

Aha I saw you opened me and now I raise you a click-through (CTR) 

Another great way to check how your emails are working is the click-through rate. This is the number of people who clicked on a link on an email you sent with the aim being to get the highest click-through rate possible. 

Here you can see if your audience finds your content relevant enough to click through to more. 

The average CTR is 2.62% across all industries, some areas are ofcourse higher and some lower but essentially if your above 3% you’re doing well! 

(Interestingly this is down from 3.4% the previous year) 

Conversion rate – Show me where the money’s at 

This is the number of people who complete the call to action (CTA) in the email in comparison to how many who opened it. 

Note: This is different from a landing/ signup page conversion rate

– Email: How many people went onto buy the product/ service/ event being offered 

– Landing page: How many people entered their email address. They still converted but this requires far less commitment than buying a product. Hence why the landing page conversion rate will be far higher than the email conversions rates. 

But how do you know what’s a good conversion rate? 

This massively depends on the industry and pricing of the product being offered. For example how often do you buy a new car, tv or laptop? In comparison how often do you try out a new food/ drink? 

Running a sale can also influence this, which is why if one is run you should separate the metrics so you can see the difference with and without. 

No point in doing a permanent sale now is there…  

Unsubscribers – wait but I thought you liked me…

Yes, this is actually a good thing! And to help explain that I have a full article on it which you can find here.

But in case you’re short on time here are 5 reasons why: 

– Having active people = higher CTR

– Less cost = Don’t pay for people who will never convert 

– False metric = Size doesn’t mean everything 

– Actuals = Real bonafide performance metrics – re-engage people who never click through 

– Quality = Spend your time and money on people who will buy from you

Bounces – no not the jumpy kind  

You have two types of emails that do not deliver:

– Soft bounce – temporary issue such as full inbox or size limit restriction 

– Hard bounce – the email is incorrect or it no longer exists – this should be deleted

Note – depending on your newsletter provider it may automatically delete these for you

Brrr* Did it just get… Cold Subscribers 

This is someone who has been a subscriber for some time but hasn’t open one of your emails for a specific amount of time. This can depend on the newsletter your using and the industry your in. 

Top Tip – Create a rule to segment these subscribers out so they receive the same emails but separately so you can see your real open rates. Also, I highly recommend having re-engagement email to remove anyone who no longer wants your content. 

But wait how do I improve my stats!? 

In all honesty, you need to do some testing and see what works for you. But to help with the basics:

– Open rate is affected by the subject line and having an email list of people who want to read your content. 

– Click-through rate (CTR) can be improved by providing a great offer, writing engaging content and having an email list of people who want to learn more about your content 

– Conversion rates are a combination of  both the previous two + writing engaging sales copy 

A bit of spring cleaning goes a long way… 

As you may have noticed this is clearly very important (if you don’t think so please read my article on why unsubscribers are a good thing). 

You want to have a list of emails and people who actively want to receive your content. Based on online research the general consensus is every 6 months you should run a re-engagement email campaign. This could be a series of 3 emails over 2-3 weeks and If by the end of it they do not reconfirm their subscription you remove them from the list and save yourself a load of money. 

Depending on the platform you use you can get this set up automatically and there are plenty of examples online on what templates to use. 

Leaving thoughts 

Overall I think it’s safe to say we all want amazing stats, and though they don’t come easily you can make an automated process which simplifies and increases the chances of getting high open and click-through rates. 

And remember you will always get higher stats if you send a targeted email to a specific audience which is why it’s important to segment your lists! 

I personally really enjoy setting up newsletters and am more than happy to share any advice and tips on making yours successful. If you would like to discuss in more detail please feel free to email me at oliver@olivera28.sg-host.com.