Ask someone about their email marketing results, and they’re likely to mention metrics such as opens and clicks.

But opens and clicks only tell part of the story.

If you want to measure the impact of email marketing on your business, you need to dig deeper.

Struggling to connect email marketing to your bottom line? Join us for a free webinar, See the Impact of Your Email Marketing with Reports. Can’t make it live? Register anyway; we’ll send you a recording.

How do you get to those impressive email marketing stats you’ve heard about?

• Email marketing has an average return of $38 for every dollar spent. (Direct Marketing Association)
• It’s almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in acquiring new customers. (McKinsey)
• 66 percent of consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message. (Direct Marketing Association)

As good as the information above looks, you may struggle to understand how email marketing impacts your business.

Ask yourself: What do you want your emails to do for you?

The metrics you’re looking for depend on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Maybe you’re trying to move inventory, get people to an event, or drive some foot traffic on a slow day. Whatever the case may be, sometimes the metrics you care about exist outside of your email reports.

You’ll need to know what you want your reader to do and where to see if they did it.

Let’s see some ways small business owners measure the impact of email marketing

1. Stand out from the competition 

Matt Juszczak, of Turnstyle Cycle, uses email marketing to grow, engage, and retain his customer base. Growing an email list and sending unique emails to his customers helps him stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

Here’s an example of a special snow-day-themed email Matt recently sent. By including a deadline and offering a mystery discount, Matt piqued interest and spurred his readers into action.

“With our Constant Contact marketing, we try to be fun with it,” Matt explains. “In this recent promotion, I changed the discount amount every few minutes, just as a customer delighter,” he says.  “We made $20,000 in sales in one night.”

What to track? Increase the impact of your email marketing by paying attention to your subscriber growth. Use your contact list growth report to see where the most signups are coming from. Make sure you’re doing everything you can to build your email list at every touchpoint.

Find out how you can keep your business competitive with email marketing, using Matt’s tips.

2. Drive traffic to your website

Autumn Boles, of Robert Paul Properties, uses email marketing to drive website traffic and convert prospects into happy homebuyers.

Here’s how she promotes new property listings to her subscribers:

“We want to get people to our website, deliver a quality experience, and ultimately convert them to clients that buy or sell a house with us,” says Autumn. “We know a significant percentage of our website traffic comes from our emails.”

What to track? Use Google Analytics on your website and in your Constant Contact email to track spikes in website traffic when you send an email.

Find out how you can drive website traffic with email.

3. Increase sales

Heath Bowman, owner of Southern Underdeck Systems, sent an email offer to his contact list on Cyber Monday.

It wasn’t something he’d ever done before, and he wasn’t expecting much from it. In the end, he booked 27 jobs resulting in $67,000 in sales.

“After I sent our email my phone didn’t stop for the next 10 hours! I was literally taking calls at midnight,” says Heath.

What to track? Pay attention to sales spikes after you send an email. See if Constant Contact integrates with your point-of-sale system.

Find out how to increase sales with email marketing.

How else can email marketing impact your business?

No matter your business goal, it’s likely email marketing can help in some way. Take a look at the ways other Constant Contact customers have benefited.

Here are 29 other benefits of email marketing as told by small business owners.

What do you want to accomplish for your business?

Before you send your email, ask yourself, what action do I want the reader to take? And how will I track the results?

Yes, you’ll want to interpret your email reports, just don’t forget to go beyond opens and clicks and measure the impact on your business.

Struggling to connect email marketing to your bottom line? Join us for a free webinar, See the Impact of Your Email Marketing with Reports. Can’t make it live? Register anyway; we’ll send you a recoding.

How has email marketing made an impact on your business? Share your story in the comments.

The post How to Measure Email Marketing Beyond Opens and Clicks appeared first on Constant Contact Blogs.