Set email marketing goals

system · August 28, 2021, 11:41am

Business Benefits

Guide decision-making and improve email marketing performance.

Identify a broad objective by defining the main thing you want to accomplish.

For example:

Nurture leads to increase conversions.
Build customer relationships.
Drive traffic to your website.
Increase sales.
Share valuable content to your email subscription list.
Segment audience to deliver targeted content.
Increase open, click-through, conversion, or engagement rates.
Improve content in transactional emails, promotional emails, or newsletters.
Increase email list size.

Although many businesses focus on increasing their email list sizes, a large email list comprised of subscribers who don’t open your emails can actually hurt your sender reputation. It can also lead to rapid unsubscribes and more unqualified leads.

Expand upon your broad objective with specific goals.

For example, if your broad objective is to send new types of emails, a more specific goal is to create two additional content types, including a newsletter and a promotional email.

Consider what it takes for the goal to be completed. How much do you want to increase the open rate? Do you want the open rate to be better than it is now or X percentage better? For example:

Increase open rate by 3% by experimenting with subject lines and cleaning subscription lists.
Include at least 4 relevant links in each newsletter to drive traffic to your website.
Engage specific buyer personas through email segmentation and targeted messaging.

Decide how you’ll measure your goals, including KPIs and tracking tools.

Key metrics for common goals:

Drive traffic to your website: click-through rates and site traffic from email links.
Increase email opens: open rates.
Share valuable content to your subscription list: A combination of open rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates.
Increase sales: conversion rates and revenues generated.

Set a time frame for your goals based on deadlines and your limitations.

Is there a deadline assigned for your goal? If so, consider setting an earlier deadline to allow for some flexibility.
How many people are working on the email marketing team, and what is their capacity?
How much experimentation is needed to meet this goal?

Review historical data from past goals to see if your current goals are attainable.

Your goal and the timeline for its completion can be ambitious, but it should be within reason. Look at:

Your team’s track record for setting goals. Do you normally set overly ambitious goals? If so, lower them this time.
Your current email performance metrics, and compare them to your performance. Is it within reason in the given time frame?

Combine the separate elements into an actionable SMART goal.