XSellerate Activity Report

This document explains what various things in the XSellerate Activity Report mean.

Document 7023  |  Last updated:  02/15/2017 MJY

Tracking your weekly activity is critical to improving your marketing campaigns over time. Each Sunday, you’ll receive a report of who you’ve sent messages to and who’s opened, clicked on, and opted out. Below you’ll find definitions and real world applications for each of the items included in your weekly XSellerate Activity Report.

Subject line

This is the text that appears as the subject in the recipients e‑mail program. Subject lines typically influence the number of recipients that open a message. The more direct and specific subjects will derive the best results.

For example, if you send a message with the subject line, “Refinance now” and only get a 5% open rate, you should try changing the subject to “Refinance now and lower your payment.”  The second subject line is more targeted and provides a clear, valuable reason to open the message.

Recipient

This is the number of unique e‑mail addresses that were sent each message. Returned messages are included in the recipient list. To increase the number of recipients for a message, simply add more contacts or groups to your campaign.

Quantity opened

This refers to the number of recipients who opened the message in their e‑mail program. Factors that can affect the Quantity opened include the number of recipients, subject line, and deliverability issues such as automatic spam blockers.

The best way to increase the Quantity opened is to improve your subject line to be more targeted as well as providing eminence to your message. Requesting that your clients add your e‑mail to their accepted senders list will also help.

You can also increase your Quantity opened by increasing the number of recipients for each message. But beware; this approach invites spam complaints against your domain. Again, the most optimal approach to increase the number of clients viewing your message is to improve your subject line and message quality.

Percent opened

This is the rate at which your recipients open a message; it’s the quantity opened divided by the number of recipients. Percent opened is the best indication of a successful subject line as well as recipients’ willingness to hear what you have to say.

When you’re working on improving your overall campaigns, it’s important to focus on improving this statistic. Once you’ve seen improvement in the percent opened, expand the recipients receiving the message.

Quantity that clicked link

This tells you how many of the recipients clicked a link back to your website. This is an indication of how successful your message and calls to action are.

All of your marketing pieces should have a call to action that links to your website so your clients can learn more about how you can help them. These calls to action may be more effective when graphical ‑ such as a “Search Listings” or “Apply Now” button. You may also consider offering free services or information as a way to get more recipients to click through to your website.

Percent clicked

This tells you the rate recipients clicked through to your website. This rate is the quantity clicked divided by the number viewed. Percent clicked is the best indication of a successful message, offer, and call to action combination.

For example, a Percentage Clicked of less than 1% shows that readers aren’t compelled to take any action from the e‑mail you’ve sent them. Percentage clicked rates of 10% or more means that your information is influential, and readers are visiting your website because of it.

As seen earlier, before increasing the quantity of contacts receiving a campaign, it’s best to focus on improving the percentage. This can help avoid spam complaints against your domain.

Quantity opted out

This is the number of people who have requested to stop receiving your campaigns through the opt‑out link in your e‑mails. National CAN‑SPAM laws require that marketing e‑mails give readers the opportunity to stop receiving e‑mails.

Seemingly you want this number to be as low as possible for every message. The best way to minimize your opt‑outs is to send messages that the recipients find relevant and valuable enough to read. Blindly sending thousands of marketing e‑mails to recipients you’ve never met will often result in high opt‑outs and even spam complaints against your domain.

Percent opted out

This is the rate at which recipients are opting out of your marketing campaigns. It’s the quantity opted out divided by the total number of recipients.

Your goal should be to keep this rate as close to zero as possible by sending timely messages to recipients that you have an established relationship with.