You can track your email performance using the metrics in the Performance tab.
Here’s how to access the performance metrics.
- In the My Stuff sidebar, click 'My emails’.
- Select the ‘Performance’ tab. A number of bar graphs will appear on the screen. These are your email performance metrics. Campaign is the default selection which can be swapped from the drop-down menu on the top-left of the tab. This shows campaign metrics (the performance tab will be empty if you’ve sent no emails)
- Select a campaign to view its performance metrics from the drop down list.
Campaign metrics
The ‘Performance’ tab under Campaign metrics is divided into three sections which correspond with the many stages of an email’s journey.
1. Email reach
The first section shows the email reach metrics. The blue bar represents the percentage of recipients (out of the total number of recipients of this campaign) whose inbox the email reached. The black bar represents the percentage of recipients whose inbox the email did not reach.
The text beneath the graphs in the first section also details these metrics in numerical terms.
Clicking the ‘Did not reach’ drop-down menu shows which recipients unsubscribed to your email, marked it as spam, or had an invalid email address. Note that unsubscribes are handled automatically, and that when a campaign is being sent, any unsubscribed recipients will be skipped.
Clicking the ‘Remove invalid emails’ button opens a dialogue box which lets you select which emails you want to remove from your mailing list for future emails.
2. Email opens
The second section shows the email opening metrics. The purple bar represents the percentage of recipients (out of the total number of recipients of this campaign who received the email) who opened your email. The other bar represents the percentage of recipients who did not open it.
You can find the exact number of email opens below these graphs.
3. Email clicks and subscriptions
The third section shows the email opening metrics. The green bar represents the percentage of recipients (out of the total number of recipients of this campaign who opened the email) who clicked on any of the links in your email. The other bar represents the percentage of recipients who unsubscribed from receiving further emails from you.
You can find the exact number of clicks and unsubscribes below these graphs.
To learn more about how to interpret performance metrics data like a pro, check out this article.
Visual guides
The green, blue, and red circles beside metrics guide you as to what is working well for your campaign, and what you need to improve.
Hovering over each colored circle gives you a different message about that particular metric.
‘Above par’ indicates that the concerned metric is doing well, and you need to keep it up. There’s no need to change anything for this metric.
‘On par’ indicates that the concerned metric is doing decently. There isn’t an immediate need to improve the campaign but you eventually want to change things up to provide above par performance metrics.
‘Urgently needs to improve’ is a warning sign, which indicates that the concerned metric is doing poorly. You should immediately take steps to improve this metric. In the case from the screenshot, you should be thinking about how to get people to remain subscribed to your emails.
Detailed list
At the bottom of the page is a detailed list, which displays a list containing each recipient juxtaposed with metrics for each. These are the same metrics as displayed in the graphs above, but instead of being grouped together, this information is displayed for each individual recipient in your mailing list.
The detailed list is also color-coded. A row turns red if that recipient has unsubscribed from your emails, or is an invalid email, or has marked your email as spam. The row turns dark gray if you remove an email from the relevant audience list, and displays an informational message that the email was removed.
The link shows which link the recipient clicked, and clicking on the ‘+6 more’ button opens a list of other links they clicked in your email, including links to your social media accounts.
Audience metrics
To view the audience metrics for your campaign, choose ‘Audience’ from the drop-down list in the top left of the Performance tab.
This will show you metrics for your audience, i.e. mailing lists, for an email campaign. This information is presented mostly in numbers and percentages, as opposed to the graphs for campaign metrics.
Audience metrics shows you metrics for emails received, such as the open and click rates for your campaign, the number of unsubscribes, as well as the number of invalid emails.
You can hover your mouse on the round circles marked ‘i’ for more information on what each audience metric means.
To find out more about the difference between the Campaign metrics and the Audience metrics, check out this article.
A similar looking detailed list table can also be found in the Audience metrics view. There are very subtle differences between the table here and the one that is found in the Campaign metrics view.
The importance of tracking email performance
Once you are familiar with the grouped and individual data in the Performance tab, and what it represents, you can get a better idea of how your emails are performing quantitatively. This allows you to take actions accordingly.
For example, if your emails are being received but not opened, you might want to tweak your subject and preview text. If they are being opened but no one’s clicking the CTA, or people are unsubscribing, you may need to think about adding content that is valuable, engaging, and not spammy.
Read this article to find out the best practices for sending marketing emails, to improve your performance metrics.
In case you’re looking for further information, here’s a helpful list of 5 must-track email marketing software metrics you can look at.
To learn more about how to measure your email campaign's metrics, watch the video below:
