Looking to get better results from your digital marketing efforts? First, you have to understand what's working and what can be improved.
We're taking the most popular questions from our latest webinar and expanding upon them so you can master key metrics for social, email, text (SMS), and events. Plus, learn how to leverage those analytics to refine your strategies.
You can view the webinar directly through Wistia or right here on the Blog!
My open rate is much higher than it has been in the past. Is there a reason why this happened?
Apple Mail Privacy which can preload images and content of the emails you send. Because this is also how Constant Contact tracks email opens, this update may affect the accuracy of your email reporting, as we won’t be able to reliably determine which contacts opened which emails when using Apple Mail since their technology is opening the email before your contacts do. You may see an inflated open rate as a result.
This is why going beyond just your opens is so important in today’s world. Clicks are a better measurement for calculating engagement.
I am really interested in learning the metrics for social media like Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.
This was touched on more during the webinar. Here is a quick overview of important metrics and their definitions (keep in mind each platform may have their own definitions and availability):
- Reach - number of people who see your social media content
- Impressions - number of times your social media content is displayed
- Engagement - number of people who like, share, or comment
- Engagement rate - calculated by the number of likes, shares, and comments divided by the total reach
- Click-through rate - percentage of people who click through to your content
- Conversion rate - percentage of people who donate, buy, sign-up, etc (your call-to-action) divided by the number of clicks
What is a good percentage of click-throughs for social media?
This varies on the platform and also the industry you're in. A general rule of thumb is that anything above 2% is considered above average.
What would you say is the best way to gain followers? My market is super-targeted and I'm struggling to gain followers.
It's best to have a mix of strategies to grow your following on social media. Start with your email list, and make sure your subscribers know how and where to follow you on social media. Create an email with this specific goal in mind and let them know what they'll gain by following you on social media. Be sure to include links to your social pages on your website, plus you could run an ad on social media to encourage people to follow your page. Check out this blog post for more information.
How are most and least engaged contacts calculated?
Engagement levels are unique to your account and recalculated each week based on the number of emails you’ve sent, which contacts you’ve targeted for each mailing, your email open rate, and your email click rate. Based on this, even if a contact had previously not engaged with your material at all, if they've recently started engaging more, then it's highly unlikely that they'll be included in your account's "least engaged" category. Keep in mind, this is based on the contacts' activity as much as it is yours. Even if you aren't sending as many emails to your highly engaged contacts, as long as they engage when you do send to them, their score will remain high. So you don't need to worry about a high engagement contact's score deprecating in regards to the weekly recalculations if you haven't sent them anything recently.
How do we re-engage with a list that has not been reached out in over a year?
It's a good idea to engage in segments, if it is a big list, break it up and start smaller, that way if it doesn’t go well, you can iterate on your idea and modify it for the next batch. If you’re getting too many spam complaints or other negative feedback then consider ditching the list entirely. Try to win them back, start with a funny or engaging subject line, and make a good offer in the body, something they need to click or engage with. you should use personalization to speak directly to them “Sorry we haven’t seen you in a while, Bob, It's not you it's us, let me make that up to you! Here’s a coupon”
Should we send an A/B test to the entire list or a segment?
A/B tests to your segmented lists will give you a better idea of how each group responds to the different types of subject lines.
Can you reframe the importance of the spam rate in terms of insights for an email marketing analyst?
Anything that happens to your email like bounces or even someone marking your email as spam is recorded on the back end with your sender reputation. Too many bounces or spam reports affect your ability to get delivered as ISPs or your subscribers' email clients look at that information before deciding whether to deliver your email. Check out this article to improve your sender score and email reputation.
Is there a specific report that covers better metrics on send time?
At this time, it is going to be clicking on the number of clicks for an email campaign to see the details. One of our Community Coaches wrote a short piece on determining the best time to send an email.
How do we optimize send time when recipients are all over the world?
The best way is to start by segmenting your list into time zones or locations, like their country. Then you can look at the open times to determine which is best for each group.
How often would you recommend sending newsletters to your database without exhausting your consumers/those in your lists? What is the sweet spot?
There isn't one answer to this question. If you're currently sending emails frequently, are you seeing higher unsubscribes? This would be a good time to adjust your sending schedule.
If a recipient marks my email as spam, are they automatically removed from my lists?
Yes, they are automatically unsubscribed from your list and will not receive future emails unless they opt-in again.
Can we see what subscribers marked our email as spam?
For privacy, we do not include the email addresses of those who reported your emails as spam in your email reporting.
Where is the conversation rate listed in my account?
If you are using a tool like Shopify that is integrated with your account, you will see it in your reporting information for sales generated. If you are not connected to that tool, you will need to find the information outside of your account and it will depend on what you are counting as a conversion, whether is it your shopping cart, etc.
Is it better to promote your event closer to the event when people are more aware of their schedules?
It depends on the event. Starting to promote 3 months out for an in-person event can allow them to put it on their calendars. For virtual events, these can be done much closer. A week or two is usually a good place to start and even the week of can be helpful.
Can you talk more about the timeline we should follow for an in-person event?
Three months out is usually a good place to start when it comes to sending your first invitation and promotions about it. Typically, you'd want to provide reminders to register as well to those who haven't registered. You could try a reminder two months before the event, and then at least one more a few weeks leading up to your event. You might add one more if registration is low a week before.
Be sure to send reminders to your registrants to remind them about the event with any pertinent information to attend. These are typically good 1 week before and then the day before as long as the majority of these folks are somewhat close to the event location.
Is there a way to remove the Bulk designation before the subject line for my Constant Contact emails?
No, but this is most likely not happening for everyone who receives your email. This is likely based on an email client and their settings or a business and their servers deciding to label the mail this way.
What are some different examples of types of subject lines? I've tried shortened vs. lengthened. Other ideas?
Look at your reporting to see if a certain type performed better than the other. You'll then use that knowledge when creating new emails. Here are links to a few of our past webinars that discussed how to best use subject lines in your marketing:
Q&A from our "Get More Opens with Great Subject Lines" Webinar
Q&A from our "How to Test Your Way to High-Converting Emails" webinar
How often should we consider scrubbing our database?
The typical recommendation is every three months or so. Some signs that you should scrub your list:
- Your bounce rate is up
- Your open and click rates are down
- You think you have bot subscribers
Read more about the best practices for cleaning up your list.
What's the best email open and click rate?
This depends on the specific industry you're in. Check out our Knowledge Base for the average open, click, and bounce rates of Constant Contact customers by industry.
