Ask someone about their email marketing results, and they’re likely to mention metrics such as opens and clicks. But opens and clicks only tell part of the story. If you want to measure the impact of email marketing on your business, you need to dig deeper.

How do you get to those impressive email marketing stats you’ve heard about?

• Email marketing has an average return of $38 for every dollar spent. (Direct Marketing Association)
• It’s almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in acquiring new customers. (McKinsey)
• 66 percent of consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message. (Direct Marketing Association)
• As good as these email marketing stats look, you may struggle to understand how email marketing impacts your business.

Ask yourself: What do you want your emails to do for you?

The metrics you’re looking for depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Maybe you’re trying to move inventory, get people to an event, or drive some foot traffic on a slow day. Whatever the case may be, sometimes the metrics you care about exist outside of your emails reports.

You’ll need to know what you want your reader to do and where to see if they did it.

Let’s see some ways small business owners measure the impact of email marketing

Stand out from the competition

Matt Juszczak, of Turnstyle Cycle, uses email marketing to grow, engage, and retain his customer base. Growing an emails list and sending unique emails to his customers helps him stand out in an increasingly competitive market. Here’s an example of a special snow-day-themed emails Matt recently sent. By including a deadline and offering a mystery discount, Matt piqued interest and spurred his readers into action.

“With our Mailcot Marketing, we try to be fun with it,” Matt explains. “In this recent promotion, I changed the discount amount every few minutes, just as a customer delighted,” he says. “We made $20,000 in sales in one night.”

What to track?

Increase the impact of your email marketing by paying attention to your subscriber growth. Use your contact list growth report to see where the most signups are coming from. Make sure you’re doing everything you can to build your emails list at every touchpoint.

Drive traffic to your website

Autumn Boles, of Robert Paul Properties, uses email marketing to drive website traffic and convert prospects into happy homebuyers.

Here’s how she promotes new property listings to her subscribers:

“We want to get people to our website, deliver a quality experience, and ultimately convert them to clients that buy or sell a house with us,” says Autumn. “We know a significant percentage of our website traffic comes from our emails.”

What to track?

Use Google Analytics on your website and in your emails to track spikes in website traffic when you send an email’s.

Increase sales

Heath Bowman, the owner of Southern Underdeck Systems, sent an email’s offer to his contact list on Cyber Monday.

It wasn’t something he’d ever done before, and he wasn’t expecting much from it. In the end, he booked 27 jobs resulting in $67,000 in sales.

“After I sent our emails my phone didn’t stop for the next 10 hours! I was literally taking calls at midnight,” says Heath.

What to track?

Pay attention to sales spikes after you send emails. See if integrates with your point-of-sale system.

How else can email marketing impact your business?

No matter your business goal, it’s likely email marketing can help in some way. So that takes a look at the ways other Mailcot customers have benefited.

What do you want to accomplish for your business?

Before you send your emails, ask yourself, what action do I want the reader to take? And how will I track the results? So that Yes, you’ll want to interpret your email reports, just don’t forget to go beyond opens and clicks and measure the impact on your business.