Email campaigns are about spreading information, conveying knowledge, and engaging your subscribers.
For email marketers who like to keep track of how their campaigns are doing, response rates are one of the most essential metrics available.
We all know what response rates are, but not everyone knows how much they matter. Some people underestimate the value of tracking them. We aren’t just talking about logging in at a later date and seeing how many responses you got. Instead, there’s a growing demand to track responses as soon as they arrive.
How can you track real-time customer responses in email campaigns?
Real-time response tracking can help you learn more about your campaigns and how they are perceived by your subscribers.
Measuring email responses in real time
Tracking is often thought of as a process that comes after email campaigns are created and sent out. However, to track them accurately, it is essential to view it as a beginning-stage process.
To accurately track response rates to a given campaign, it is important to set the campaign up that way from the beginning. Imagine, for example, a person is looking to send out emails about a particular deal to a segment they know will be interested in the product they’re offering. They could set the campaign up to send a confirmation upon receiving a response, whether opened on desktop or mobile.
Only 28% of emails are opened in an email browser
In order to make sure only responses to the desired campaign are tracked, regardless of platform, marketers can set this up specifically before they begin sending out messages. With a goal of tracking response-rates implemented from the beginning, it’s much easier to design around the objective.
Reporting is an essential step to organizing good campaigns and, like most things, it requires the proper email software. Good software lets users segment their audience as needed and set triggers so, whenever they get responses from those segments or a specific campaign, they get an immediate alert.
Source: Campaign Monitor
It is important to remember that subscribers may need to provide their permission to have their responses tracked.
Setting tracking preferences from the beginning is very valuable because it allows senders to see how well their campaigns are going.
Does tracking response rates in real time really matter?
There are plenty of ways to track responses, but not all of them track in real time. How important is it to know exactly when those responses come?
Email campaigns are permanently intertwined with the concept of scheduling. When a marketer puts together a campaign, one of the first decisions they have to make is how long they want to run it.
The relevance to this and response rates has to do with the speed at which responses come. Some people may find that running a campaign for shorter periods of time is more conducive to quick responses. What if the duration is doubled? Marketers could find this provides a greater number of fast responses, especially toward the end.
When real-time responses are measured, it provides greater insight into how the timeframe of a campaign affects its success. It helps marketers ensure they aren’t wasting time, or they aren’t missing out opportunities.
What now?
Email tracking is an important part of campaign management. Most marketers are already aware of how vital response rates are. When we track these in real time, it provides greater insights on the efficiency of a campaign and how its duration affects its success.
- Tracking responses requires the proper email software
- Permission may be needed to track response rates and other metrics
- Real-time tracking provides a greater level of insight
The secret to tracking real-time response rates accurately isn’t to sit waiting for responses and count them manually. Instead, it requires us to use the proper tracking software and prioritize response tracking from the beginning.
Get the features you need to track campaign responses in real time and see how fast your subscribers are getting back to you.