Email Performance Calculator: How Does Your Program Revenue Compare to Retail Benchmarks?
Over the past year, email has solidified its position as the most valuable component of retailers’ digital marketing programs. That’s because as new privacy laws emerge and ad algorithms change, email’s offer of explicit opt in and opt out requirements as well as the ability to connect brands directly to consumers becomes increasingly more attractive.
Against this backdrop, marketers must obsess over email performance. While growth in engagement metrics like opens, clicks and conversions is certainly important, revenue growth remains the most critical signal for email program performance.
This focus on email revenue as a top performance metric led Bluecore to create our new, revenue-driven Email Performance Calculator.
What is Bluecore’s New Email Performance Calculator?
Bluecore’s new Email Performance Calculator is an interactive tool that delivers customized email revenue benchmarks, including revenue per email and total email program revenue, based on data from 400+ ecommerce brands.
The Email Performance Calculator uses three variables to deliver customized revenue performance benchmarks:
- Retail industry: Even within the broader retail space, many differences exist. For example, consumers shop for furniture differently than they shop for clothing.
- Average order value: The price of products also impacts email engagement and consumer purchase patterns. Of course, a higher average order value typically leads to more revenue from email from a pure dollar amount perspective.
- Annual email volume: The number of emails you send affects the amount of revenue you can expect to generate from email, since sending more emails often (but not always) leads to more purchase opportunities. The caveat here is that sending fewer but more relevant emails to more engaged customers is a highly efficient way to increase email revenue — and customer loyalty.
To use the calculator, simply select where you fall in each of these variables from a drop-down menu and the calculator will display the appropriate revenue benchmarks for your brand.
Why is Revenue Such a Critical Measure of Email Program Performance?
Email metrics like opens, clicks and conversions are important to measure and optimize, but at the end of the day, revenue matters most when it comes to evaluating email program performance.
Email revenue is so critical because your email program exists to help your business grow. And while an increase in opens might indicate growing awareness or base interest, increases in revenue are what truly propel the business forward and make email a valuable marketing channel.
Additionally, looking solely at email engagement metrics may not tell the full story about email revenue or program growth. For example, some brands have below average open and click rates coming from above average send volumes, but they still deliver year-over-year revenue growth. This happens because their email programs serve unique business needs.
At the end of the day, email programs — and their goals — are not one-size-fits-all, but the one metric that remains most critical across the board is revenue.
How Well Does Your Email Program Perform?
Based on the importance of email revenue to program success, are you ready to see how well your email program performs compared to revenue benchmarks? Check out Bluecore’s Email Performance Calculator to get started.