Welcome back to our series on marketing jargon! This time, we’re decoding email marketing terms by breaking down the most commonly used phrases. Let’s get right into it!
1. Opt-In/Opt-Out
Your list of subscribers should be people who have interacted with your organization in one way or another and want to continue interacting with and/or hearing from you. When they opt in, they are voluntarily agreeing to receive email. Conversely, when they opt-out, they are voluntarily removing themselves from your mailing list. T
2. Open rate
When it comes to email marketing, open rates are a key metric for marketers to assess, since it refers to how many people actually opened your email. Nonprofits have an average open rate of 28.59%. Where does your organization fall, on average?
3. Click-through rate (CTR)
The click-through rate measures the number of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. The higher the number, the higher the level of engagement and interest generated by your content and call-to-action — which is a good thing! It means your email content is compelling and resonates with your audience. For nonprofits, the average clickthrough rate is around 3.29%. Use this data to determine what works and duplicate it in the future!
4. Conversion Rate
Similar to the click-through rate, the conversion rate tells you the number of people who took the action you wanted them to complete. For example, this could be the number of people who signed up for an event, visited your website, or started following you on social media.
5. Bounce rate
The bounce rate refers to the number of emails that were not delivered as intended , and there are two types of bounces: a soft bounce and a hard bounce. A soft bounce is temporarily undeliverable and can usually be resolved easily. Triggers for soft bounces include a subscriber with a full inbox, a downed email server, non-compliance with the recipient server’s anti-spam policies, etc. However, if an address soft bounces one too many times, then it will hard bounce.
A hard bounce happens when an email address no longer exists or is no longer accepting deliveries. In this case, your email marketing platform may immediately remove the address from your mailing list, while others may require you to remove them manually. Look at your bounced list data and see what email addresses can be removed or adjusted accordingly.
6. Unsubscribe rate
The unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of recipients who opted out of receiving future emails from your organization. While it's natural to see some unsubscribes over time, a high unsubscribe rate may indicate that your email content or frequency is not aligned with your audience's expectations.
7. Complaint Rate
A complaint rate is exactly what it sounds like — it’s the number of emails reported as spam. The goal is to keep your complaint rate as low as possible by offering meaningful content to your recipients and not junking up their email with constant requests. Think about your priorities in communicating and stick to those! Shorter messages can be sent out via social media posts. Alternatively, assess whether your organization sends out enough emails to warrant creating a preference center where people can select the type of content they receive.
8. A/B Testing
A/B testing can be a great way to try out different email messages. First you need to segment your email list into two groups. Then you create different messages for each group and track how well the email lands through click-through rate and conversion rate. This little experiment can give you major insight into how to make your email campaigns more effective.
9. Call to Action (CTA)
Every email you send should include a call to action: a link or button that encourages your audience to take action. Common calls to action include “Make a Gift,” “Apply Now,” “Get in Touch,” “Learn More,” “Follow Us,” “Watch Now,” etc. Whatever the action is, it should take them to a corresponding page where they can get more information and complete the action. No matter the subject of an email — an event invitation, a solicitation, a newsletter, or general updates, it should be clear what you want the reader to do and give them opportunities to connect with you directly.
10. Dedupe
Email maintenance means regularly going through your email list to look for duplicate entries and deleting the repeating (duplicate) addresses — ie. Deduping. This helps your organization avoid being reported as spam and keeps your unsubscribe rate low. Think of it this way: no one wants to receive the same email multiple times!
And while you’re at it, go through your list and look for obvious typos. The most common typos that come up are the misspelling of individual names and email domains: gmail, outlook, hotmail, .com, .org, etc. When you find a typo in an email address, fix it!
Want to rock your next email campaign? Reach out to Sunny Side Creative for ideas on how to make your messages and designs more effective!
