The Email Marketing Conversion Funnel: Stages, Key Metrics, and Strategies to Improve each stage of the funnel
Email marketing is an incredibly powerful tool, but to maximize its potential, it’s crucial to understand the email marketing conversion funnel and focus on key metrics at each stage. In addition to tracking performance across the funnel, deliverability metrics such as domain reputation, IP reputation, inbox rate, and others play a key role in determining whether your emails even reach your audience.
This article will explore the five stages of the funnel, the key metrics to monitor, and essential deliverability metrics to ensure your campaigns are not only effective but also widely seen
1. Awareness: Capturing Attention
Goal: Get the recipient to open the email.
Key Metric: Open Rate
Deliverability plays a significant role in whether your emails land in the inbox or get flagged as spam, affecting open rates. Ensuring your email has a good reputation will greatly impact this stage.
Baseline Metric:
- Open Rate: 15-25% (varies by industry)
Deliverability Metrics to Monitor:
- Inbox Rate: The percentage of emails delivered to the inbox instead of the spam folder.
Baseline: Aim for an inbox rate of 85% or higher. - Domain and IP Reputation: ISPs (Internet Service Providers) monitor the reputation of the domain and IP sending the emails.
- Baseline: Monitor your sender score (out of 100) for both IP and domain; a score above 80 is considered good.
How to Improve:
- Write compelling subject lines and preview texts.
- Send emails from a well-established, reputable domain.
- Use double opt-in methods to ensure that your recipients actually want your emails.
2. Interest: Driving Initial Engagement
Goal: Entice the recipient to click through to your content.
Key Metric: Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR reflects how engaging your email content is. However, if your deliverability is poor, a low inbox rate may cause you to miss out on valuable clicks.
Baseline Metric:
- CTR: 2-5%
Deliverability Metrics to Monitor:
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of emails that are returned by the recipient’s server. High bounce rates can hurt your domain and IP reputation.
Baseline: Keep your bounce rate below 2%.
Types of Bounces: - Hard Bounce: Permanent issue (e.g., invalid email address).
- Soft Bounce: Temporary issue (e.g., mailbox full or server error).
How to Improve:
- Segment your audience for more relevant content.
- Personalize your emails with dynamic content that speaks to the user’s preferences.
3. Consideration: Measuring Engagement and Reducing Drop-offs
Goal: Keep the recipient engaged and reduce drop-offs.
Key Metrics: Engagement Rate, Bounce Rate
This stage looks at how well your recipients are interacting with your content. An engaged audience is a positive signal to ISPs, improving your overall email deliverability.
Baseline Metrics:
- Bounce Rate: Less than 2%
- Engagement Rate: Around 10-20%
- Unsubscribe Rate: Less than 0.5%
Deliverability Metrics to Monitor:
- Spam Complaint Rate: The percentage of recipients marking your emails as spam. High spam complaint rates negatively affect your sender reputation.
- Baseline: Keep spam complaints below 0.1%.
How to Improve:
- A/B test content to see what resonates.
- Use proper list hygiene by regularly cleaning your email list and removing inactive subscribers.
4. Conversion: Turning Interest into Action
Goal: Get the recipient to take the desired action (e.g., register, purchase, or download).
Key Metric: Conversion Rate
At this stage, the focus is on getting subscribers to convert into paying customers or engaged participants in your event. Conversions rely on both engaging content and reliable deliverability.
Baseline Metric:
- Conversion Rate: 1-3%
Deliverability Metrics to Monitor:
- IP and Domain Reputation: A poor sender reputation at this stage could prevent transactional emails (such as confirmations) from reaching the inbox. Regularly check your IP and domain reputation.
- Baseline: Ensure that your IP and domain reputation scores stay above 80.
How to Improve:
- Simplify the process to convert (e.g., reducing form fields).
- Use urgency and personalization to push conversions.
5. Retention: Keeping Subscribers Engaged and Loyal
Goal: Retain customers and nurture long-term relationships.
Key Metrics: Unsubscribe Rate, Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Retention ensures that your customers or subscribers continue to engage with your emails over the long term. Maintaining a healthy email list and avoiding spam complaints are critical in this stage.
Baseline Metrics:
- Unsubscribe Rate: Less than 0.5%
- CLTV: Varies by business model but should be consistently increasing.
Deliverability Metrics to Monitor:
- Spam Complaint Rate: A high rate of spam complaints at this stage could ruin future deliverability.
Baseline: Keep spam complaints below 0.1%. - Email Authentication: Use DKIM, SPF, and DMARC to improve email security and authentication, which boosts deliverability.
How to Improve:
- Regularly send personalized, value-driven content.
- Use re-engagement campaigns for dormant subscribers.
Conclusion
The email marketing conversion funnel and its related metrics are essential for understanding how effectively you’re turning leads into conversions. However, none of this matters if your emails aren’t being delivered. That’s why it’s equally important to focus on deliverability metrics like domain reputation, IP reputation, bounce rate, and spam complaint rate.
Recap of Key Metrics and Baselines:
- Awareness: Open Rate (15-25%), Inbox Rate (85%+), Domain/IP Reputation (80+)
- Interest: CTR (2-5%), Bounce Rate (<2%)
- Consideration: Engagement Rate (10-20%), Unsubscribe Rate (<0.5%), Spam Complaint Rate (<0.1%)
- Conversion: Conversion Rate (1-3%)
- Retention: CLTV (varies), Unsubscribe Rate (<0.5%), Spam Complaint Rate (<0.1%)
By optimizing for both funnel and deliverability metrics, you can ensure that your email campaigns are not only effective but also consistently reach the inbox, improving overall performance and conversions.
Looking for a reliable email marketing platform to help you optimize every stage of your email conversion funnel?
With advanced automation, segmentation, and reporting features, Kenscio Mail allows you to optimize open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and retention, all while maintaining a high sender reputation. Ready to take your email marketing performance to the next level? Visit Kenscio Mail for more information.
