If you’re running campaigns in Letterfriend and want to know what’s actually working (and what’s just noise), you’re in the right place. This guide is for marketers, founders, or anyone who’s tired of staring at dashboards wondering what all those numbers really mean—or why they never quite match up with reality.
We’ll walk through the steps to track and analyze your campaign performance in Letterfriend, cut through the vanity metrics, and help you focus on what actually matters. No fluff or jargon. Let’s get into it.
1. Set Clear Goals Before You Even Launch
Before you even open up Letterfriend, you need to know what "good" looks like for your campaign. Don’t skip this—if you don’t know what you’re aiming for, you’ll waste hours poring over meaningless stats.
Ask yourself: - Are you trying to drive sales, collect leads, get more signups, or just raise awareness? - Is this a one-off blast or part of a nurture sequence? - What’s the one metric you’d brag about if it goes well?
Pro tip: Pick one or two key results to focus on. More than that, and you’re just making work for yourself.
2. Know What Letterfriend Tracks (and What It Doesn’t)
Letterfriend gives you a pretty standard set of email campaign metrics. Here’s what you’ll usually find:
- Sends: Number of emails sent out.
- Delivered: Emails that actually made it to inboxes (not bounced).
- Opens: How many people opened your email.
- Clicks: How many clicked a link in your email.
- Bounces: Emails that couldn’t be delivered.
- Unsubscribes: Folks who opted out after getting your message.
- Replies: (If you’re running conversational campaigns.)
What’s missing? - Letterfriend doesn’t natively track purchases, external form fills, or website activity. For that, you’ll need to integrate with your site analytics or set up custom tracking links. - If you’re looking for super-granular data (like heatmaps or device breakdowns), you’ll need a more advanced tool.
Honest take: Don’t get obsessed with open rates. Thanks to privacy features in Apple Mail and Gmail, those numbers can be inflated or just plain wrong.
3. Launch Your Campaign and Set Up Tracking
a. Prepare Your Campaign in Letterfriend
- Draft your email or sequence in Letterfriend.
- Add tracking links (UTMs or custom redirects) for anything you want to measure outside of Letterfriend—like sales, signups, or downloads.
b. Double-Check Your List Health
- Clean your list before sending. High bounce rates can tank your sender reputation and skew your numbers.
c. Schedule and Send
- Hit send, but don’t obsessively refresh the dashboard. Give it a few hours (or a day) to collect real data.
4. Read the Metrics (Without Getting Fooled)
Once your campaign is out the door, it’s tempting to just watch the numbers climb. Don’t. Here’s how to actually make sense of what Letterfriend shows you:
a. Opens
- Treat open rates as a loose signal, not gospel truth.
- If your open rate is below 20%, something’s wrong: bad list, boring subject line, or you landed in spam.
- If it’s above 60%, be skeptical—it could be bots or privacy tools.
b. Clicks
- This is your most reliable engagement metric.
- Compare clicks to your goal: Are people doing what you want them to do?
- Track which links get the most clicks. If everyone’s clicking “unsubscribe,” that’s feedback too.
c. Unsubscribes and Bounces
- A small unsubscribe rate (<1%) is normal. Higher than that? Your content or targeting needs work.
- Hard bounces over 2% mean your list is outdated. Clean it up.
d. Replies
- If you’re running a campaign that encourages replies, count them as gold. Replies are the most direct form of engagement.
What to ignore: Time spent reading, “forwarded” counts, or any stat that’s vague or impossible to verify. If you can’t act on it, don’t sweat it.
5. Dig Deeper With Segmentation
Letterfriend usually lets you segment your results by audience, send time, or campaign. Use this to spot patterns:
- Did a certain segment of your list perform way better (or worse)?
- Was there a best day or time for engagement?
- Did a new subject line or call-to-action actually move the needle?
Don’t slice your data into a million tiny segments unless you have a big list—small numbers can be misleading.
6. Connect Letterfriend Data to Real Outcomes
Here’s where most folks trip up: they look at clicks and opens, but don’t check if those actually led to sales, signups, or whatever matters.
a. Use UTM Parameters
- Add UTM codes to links in your emails so you can track traffic and conversions in Google Analytics (or whatever you use).
- This lets you see if people who clicked from your campaign actually did anything on your site.
b. Manual Tracking
- For small campaigns, you can track conversions manually—just watch for spikes in leads or sales right after your email goes out.
- If you’re using a CRM, tag leads that come in from your campaign.
Reality check: Letterfriend makes it easy to see email engagement, but you’ll always need outside tools to connect the dots to revenue.
7. Reporting: Show What Matters, Skip the Rest
When it’s time to report results (even if it’s just to yourself), don’t drown in stats. Keep it simple:
- Start with your goal: Did you hit it?
- Show clicks, replies, and conversions—not just opens.
- If something flopped, note it and move on. No one cares about perfect numbers; they care what you learned.
Sample report structure: - Goal: 50 signups from this campaign - Results: 1,000 emails sent, 400 opens (40%), 90 clicks (9%), 55 signups (goal met) - Key takeaways: Subject line A worked better, most clicks on CTA button, unsubscribes low
No need for fancy charts unless you have a boss who loves them.
8. What to Watch Out For (Common Traps)
- Vanity metrics: Opens and “impressions” look nice but don’t pay the bills.
- Over-segmentation: If your “segment” is just 12 people, ignore the results.
- Attribution confusion: A sale might not be just from your campaign—don’t take all the credit.
- Neglecting list hygiene: Bounces and unsubscribes can quietly kill your future results if you don’t clean up.
9. Iterate, Don’t Obsess
You don’t need to solve everything at once. Pick one thing to improve—maybe your call-to-action, your send time, or the way you track conversions. Test, learn, tweak, repeat.
If you’re getting lost in the numbers, step back and ask: Did real people do what I hoped they’d do? That’s the only number that matters.
Keep it simple, focus on what moves the needle, and don’t let the dashboard run your life. Good luck.