You’ve got a spare five minutes to spend on email marketing. What should you do? Check your click-through rate!

What’s an email click-through rate (CTR)?

An email click-through rate (CTR) is a metric used in email marketing to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign. It represents the percentage of email recipients who click on one or more links within an email, taking a desired action, such as visiting a website, downloading a file, or purchasing.

The formula to calculate email click-through rate is:

CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Delivered Emails) x 100

In this formula:

• “Number of Clicks” refers to the total number of times recipients clicked on the links within your email.
• “Number of Delivered Emails” is the total number of emails successfully delivered to recipients’ inboxes. This excludes bounced emails and emails that were not delivered for various reasons.

Why is it important to check your email click-through rate?

Your email click-through rate (CTR) is a measure of how many people who received your email clicked on a link in it. It is a valuable metric for marketing because it can tell you how effective your emails are at driving engagement and conversions.

A high CTR means that your emails are getting noticed and that people are interested in what you have to say. This can lead to more website visits, sales, or other desired outcomes. A low CTR, on the other hand, means that your emails are not resonating with your audience and that you need to make some changes.

How to check your email click-through rates quickly and easily

There are a few different ways to check your email click-through rates. The easiest way is to use an email marketing platform like Hubspot, Mailchimp or Constant Contact. These platforms will track your CTR for you and provide you with reports that you can easily understand.

If you don’t use an email marketing platform, you can still check your CTR manually. To do this, you will need to track the number of clicks on each link in your email and divide that number by the total number of emails sent.

By following these tips, you can improve your email click-through rates and boost your marketing results.

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Was it easy to follow? Did it take more than 5 minutes and has it had any impact (so far)? Share your thoughts and help other membership organisations achieve their Membership goals.

Channel: Email Marketing

Ensuring that your marketing emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes is crucial for the success of your campaigns. One important metric to monitor is your spam report rate, which indicates the percentage of recipients who mark your emails as spam. This guide will walk you through the process of checking your spam report rate to help you evaluate and improve the deliverability of your marketing emails.

Choose an Email Service Provider

Select an email service provider that offers email marketing capabilities and provides spam report rate metrics. A popular provider we use is Hubspot who offer this functionality. Talk to us if you need to upgrade your email provider

Access Your Email Marketing Dashboard

Log in to your email service provider’s website and navigate to your email marketing dashboard.

Locate Reporting or Analytics Section

Look for a tab or section labelled “Reporting” or “Analytics” within your email marketing dashboard. This section typically contains various performance metrics for your email campaigns.

Find Spam Report Rate Metric

Within the reporting or analytics section, search for the metric related to spam reports or spam complaints. Different email service providers may refer to this metric using different terms, such as “spam report rate,” “spam complaints,” or “abuse rate.” Click on the relevant metric to access more detailed information.

Review the Spam Report Rate Data

Once you access the spam report rate metric, review the data presented. The rate is usually expressed as a percentage, representing the proportion of recipients who marked your email as spam relative to the total number of emails sent.

Analyse Trends and Identify Issues

Analyse the trends in your spam report rate over time. Look for any significant spikes or consistent high rates that might indicate issues with your email content, frequency, or targeting. Consider comparing the spam report rate across different email campaigns or segments to identify potential problem areas.

Check your Email Health

Some Email providers will offer more information. Here is an example dashboard from Hubspot detailing email health, that can be a great resource for identifying issues or refining and optimising your email campaigns.

Take an email spam test

If you’re worried about your spam rate you can use an external service to do a spam test. Compare your marketing emails against the most common spam filters and get a score out of 10 (10 is great, 1 is baad), this score indicates how likely it is your emails will end up in the dreaded spam folder.

• Go to www.mail-tester.com and copy the recipient email address
• Then send a test email to this email address
• Go back to Mail Tester and click “Then check your score”

Did you score 7 or higher – breath a sigh of relief, you’ve passed.
Is your score is lower than 7? review the recommendations below
If you scored 5 or less, you’re in trouble. Chances are, your emails never even get seen.

Take Action to Reduce Spam Reports

If your spam report rate is higher than desired, take the following actions to reduce spam complaints:

Review your email content

Ensure that your emails are relevant, well-crafted, and align with the expectations of your subscribers. Avoid using misleading subject lines or deceptive practices.

Optimise your mailing list

Regularly clean your mailing list by removing inactive or unengaged subscribers. Implement a double opt-in process to confirm subscribers’ intent and reduce the chances of sending emails to invalid or spam trap addresses.

Provide clear unsubscribe options

Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails. Honoring unsubscribe requests promptly reduces the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam.

Test and segment your campaigns

Experiment with different email formats, subject lines, and sending frequencies to identify what resonates best with your audience. Segment your mailing list based on subscribers’ preferences and interests to send more targeted and personalised content.

Monitor and Iterate

Continuously monitor your spam report rate and evaluate the impact of the actions you’ve taken. Implement any necessary adjustments based on your findings to improve your email deliverability and maintain a healthy sender reputation.

Conclusion

Checking your spam report rate is an essential step in managing the deliverability of your marketing emails. By regularly monitoring this metric, analysing trends, and taking appropriate actions, you can reduce spam complaints, improve engagement, and increase the chances of your emails reaching your subscribers’ inboxes.

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Was it easy to follow? Did it take more than 5 minutes and has it had any impact (so far)? Share your thoughts and help other membership organisations achieve their Membership goals.

Channel: Email Marketing

Use a professional Gmail profile image

Using a Gmail picture for business purposes can have several benefits, including:

1. Personalisation: Adding a picture to your Gmail account can help personalise your communications and make it easier for your contacts to recognize you.
2. Professionalism: A professional and appropriate Gmail picture can help establish credibility and build trust with clients and colleagues.
3. Branding: If you use a logo or other branded image as your Gmail picture, it can help reinforce your brand identity and make your emails more recognizable.
4. Consistency: Using a consistent Gmail picture across all your online accounts and communication platforms can help build brand recognition and reinforce your professional image.
5. Engagement: A friendly and approachable Gmail picture can help encourage engagement and make it easier for people to connect with you.

Overall, using a Gmail picture for business purposes can help create a professional, approachable, and recognizable online presence that can benefit your business in a variety of ways.

How to add or change your Gmail picture

1.  On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click your Profile picture, then select Manage your Google Account.

3. On the left, click Personal info.

4. On the right, under ‘Photo’, select your Profile picture. Your profile picture displays.
5. Follow the on-screen prompts to choose or take a photo.
6. Click Set profile photo.

Warning: If your admin turns off this feature for your organisation, you may not be able to change your profile picture.

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Have you tried this quick win?

Was it easy to follow? Did it take more than 5 minutes and has it had any impact (so far)? Share your thoughts and help other membership organisations achieve their Membership goals.

As an association membership business, your email marketing campaigns can be a powerful tool for reaching out to your members and keeping them engaged with your organisation. However, if your emails aren’t being opened, they won’t be effective and your members may be missing out on the hard work your putting in, or worse not seeing the value of their membership.

What’s a good marketing / sales Email Open Rate?

Short answer: A good email open rate can vary depending on the industry, but in general, a rate of 20-30% is considered good.

Long answer: A good email open rate meets the average, which is 20.94%. The results for your organisation, however, will be dependent on the health of your list (When was the last time you cleaned your list?) and of course, the quality of the content in your emails.

Compare your email open rates

It’s important to compare your own email rates to this benchmark to ensure you are getting the most from your campaigns [1]. Furthermore, the benchmark stats on email response vary depending on the types of email platform used to send email, so it is important to stay up to date on the latest industry standards [2]. For example, the latest stats released in January 2023 showed an overall average open rate of 16.97%, with a 10.29% CTR [3]. Is this a sign emails are not working as a channel? or that more marketers are getting it wrong.

How to check your email open rate

Usually you can find the open rate metric on the published email page in your email provider software. We use Hubspot so I’ve included a screen shot of where to find the open rate below.

How to improve your email open rate

As an association membership business, your email marketing campaigns can be a powerful tool for reaching out to your members and keeping them engaged with your organization. However, if your emails aren’t being opened, they won’t be effective. A good email open rate can vary depending on the industry, but in general, a rate of 20-30% is considered good.

To improve your email open rate, there are several steps you can take:

1. Clean your email list:

If you have inactive or invalid email addresses on your list, they can hurt your overall email deliverability and lower your open rate. Make sure to regularly clean your list and remove any inactive or invalid addresses.

2. Personalise your emails

Personalized emails can have a big impact on your open rate. Use the recipient’s name in the subject line or greeting, and consider segmenting your list to send more targeted messages based on their interests or behavior.

3. Write compelling subject lines:

Your subject line is the first thing your recipients will see, so it’s important to make it compelling and relevant to them. Avoid using generic subject lines like “Newsletter” or “Update” and instead use a clear and concise statement that will entice them to open the email.

4. Optimize for mobile:

Many people check their email on their mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your emails are optimized for mobile. Use a responsive design and keep your content short and to the point.

5. Test and analyze:

Finally, it’s important to test different elements of your emails and analyze your results to see what works best for your audience. Try testing different subject lines, send times, and content formats to see what resonates with your members.

By following these steps, you can improve your email open rate and create more effective email marketing campaigns for your association membership business.

References:

[1] 2022 Email Marketing Statistics & Benchmarks – Mailchimp

[2] Email Open Rates By Industry (& Other Top Email Benchmarks)

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Have you tried this quick win?

Was it easy to follow? Did it take more than 5 minutes and has it had any impact (so far)? Share your thoughts and help other membership organisations achieve their Membership goals.

Channel: Email Marketing

It can seem “cringy” but it’s a legitimate relationship milestone. We live in an age where you can take less than 10 seconds to wish someone a happy birthday on their Facebook wall, and yet it shows you care about them. It’s low effort, and easy to be pessimistic about, but to your members, hearing happy birthday can be very meaningful.

Building member relationships using timeline events.

It’s a small thing but saying happy birthday to your members is a good way to show you care about them and that your relationship together is growing and you are trying to nurture it. This will be remembered when considering their membership in the future. It’s quite a simple thing to automate an email that will wish them a happy birthday on the correct date. But to do it manually could be quite time consuming. That’s why we recommend setting up your technology stack to do it all for you.

How to say Happy Birthday to your members.

Collecting the data

First of all, you can’t wish someone a Happy Birthday if you don’t know when their birthday is. So unless this is data you collect when a member signs up, you’re going to need to come up with a way to get this user data such as a form.

Create an email template

Now, crafting a new email with unique content for each member would be amazing! but realistically impossible. You don’t need to create any original content for your birthday emails, you simply use personalisation to make sure you address it to the right person. However you may want to shake up your designs every year.

Automate and relax

You can manually send the email from a Spreadsheet, but we recommend using a workflow to automatically send your members an email using the date as a trigger stored in your CRM. Don’t have a super powered CRM yet? Let’s talk, because Lighthouse offers a superpowered CRM system that does way more than sending birthday emails. You can automate every part of your membership organisation (you know that stuff that gives you late nights and headaches). Then you can get back to adding value to your members.  

Need a hand setting this up? Contact us for quote

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Have you tried this quick win?

Was it easy to follow? Did it take more than 5 minutes and has it had any impact (so far)? Share your thoughts and help other membership organisations achieve their Membership goals.

Channel: Email Marketing