If you’re running outreach campaigns—cold emails, follow-ups, whatever—the last thing you want is to waste hours fiddling with dashboards that don’t help you land more replies. This guide is for anyone using BetterContact who wants actual insight (not vanity metrics) into what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus next. No fluff, no hype—just a practical walkthrough to help you get smarter with your campaigns.
Step 1: Set Up Tracking in BetterContact the Right Way
Before you even think about analytics, you’ve got to make sure everything’s tracking correctly. A lot of folks skip this and end up with half-baked numbers—don’t be that person.
- Make sure email tracking is enabled. Double-check that opens, clicks, and replies are being recorded for each campaign. It sounds basic, but it’s easy to miss if you’re copying old campaigns or templates.
- Connect your sending domains. If your domain isn’t properly authenticated (SPF, DKIM, etc.), you’ll get false negatives (e.g., emails marked as “sent” but landing in spam).
- Tag your campaigns. Use tags that actually mean something to you—like “Q2-2024-cold,” “follow-up,” or “webinar-invite.” Don’t go overboard, but avoid generic tags like “test1” or “batchA” that you’ll forget in a week.
Pro tip: Run a test campaign to yourself or a teammate first. Check that all events (open/click/reply) are firing as expected before rolling out to prospects.
Step 2: Understand the Metrics—What Matters, What Doesn’t
BetterContact will throw a lot of numbers at you. Here’s what’s worth your attention, and what you can safely ignore.
The Good Metrics:
- Reply Rate: The single most useful metric. If you’re not getting replies, nothing else matters.
- Bounce Rate: High bounces mean your data is junky or your sender reputation is tanking.
- Click Rate: Useful if you include links you want prospects to click. Otherwise, don’t obsess.
- Unsubscribe Rate: If this jumps, your messaging is missing the mark (or you’re spamming people).
The Vanity Metrics:
- Open Rate: Not useless, but unreliable. Apple Mail Privacy, Gmail image blocking, and others mean opens are often inflated or undercounted.
- Delivery Rate: Only matters if you see a sudden drop. Day-to-day, it’s background noise.
The “Nice to Have” Metrics:
- Time to First Reply: Helpful if you’re testing send times.
- Thread Depth: If you care about long conversations—not just initial replies.
Bottom line: Focus on reply rate and bounces. Don’t get distracted by numbers that don’t tie back to your real goal: booking meetings or moving deals forward.
Step 3: Review Campaign Performance—Don’t Just Glance at the Dashboard
You’ve sent your campaign, numbers are rolling in. Here’s how to make sense of them in BetterContact.
- Go to the Campaigns dashboard. Sort by reply rate.
- Drill down into underperforming campaigns. Look for:
- High bounce rates (bad data or deliverability issues)
- Low reply rates (messaging, targeting, or timing problems)
- High unsubscribe rates (your campaign’s annoying, off-target, or too frequent)
- Compare similar campaigns. Did version A of your email get more replies than version B? Did subject lines make a difference? Compare apples to apples—don’t get cute.
- Check for anomalies. If a campaign suddenly tanks, look for technical issues: authentication problems, blacklists, or broken links.
Pro tip: Ignore campaign performance in the first few hours. Give things at least 24-48 hours to shake out, since replies (and opens) trickle in.
Step 4: Segment and Filter—Find What’s Working for Whom
BetterContact lets you filter by tag, date, sequence step, and more. Don’t just look at the overall campaign stats—dig into the details.
- By audience: Are certain industries or roles replying more? Segment by title, company size, or any custom field you use.
- By sequence step: Does your bump email (step 2 or 3) actually get replies, or are you annoying people for no reason?
- By sender: If you use multiple inboxes or team members, does one get better results? Sometimes “from the CEO” works, sometimes it tanks.
How to do it: - Use filters in the Campaigns or Analytics section. - Export data if you want to slice it in Excel or Google Sheets (sometimes that’s faster, honestly). - Save useful filters for quick access next time.
What to ignore: Micro-segmentation for its own sake. If you’re slicing your data 10 ways and seeing no clear trends, step back. Focus on broad patterns.
Step 5: A/B Test—But Don’t Overcomplicate It
BetterContact supports basic A/B testing. But here’s the thing: don’t test five variables at once. You’ll end up with noise, not insight.
- Test one thing at a time: Subject line, call-to-action, intro sentence, or send time. Not all at once.
- Run tests with enough volume. If you only have 30 recipients, you won’t get meaningful results. Shoot for at least 100 per version, if possible.
- Look for statistically significant differences. If version A gets 2 replies and version B gets 3, that’s not a real trend. Ignore tiny differences.
What’s worth testing: - Subject lines (biggest impact on opens) - First sentence or personalization - Call-to-action phrasing
What’s not worth your time: - Emoji in subject lines - Tiny formatting tweaks - Send times, unless your audience is global or unusual
Step 6: Set Up Alerts and Reports—Automate What You Can
You don’t want to babysit dashboards all day. Here’s how to make BetterContact work for you:
- Set up automated reports. Get daily or weekly digests of campaign performance. Skim for big changes; don’t obsess over every blip.
- Configure alerts for major drops. If reply or delivery rates plunge, get a heads up right away.
- Share results with your team. But keep it simple—nobody wants a 12-page PDF. Highlight what matters (e.g. “This campaign got 12% replies, up 4% from last month”).
Pro tip: Use integrations (Slack, email, etc.) to get alerts where you’re already working.
Step 7: Actually Act on What You Learn
Here’s where most teams fall down. If you’re just looking at numbers and not changing anything, you’re wasting your time.
- Kill or pause underperforming campaigns. Don’t let zombie campaigns run just because you spent time writing them.
- Double down on what works. If a certain message or segment gets replies, do more of that.
- Document learnings. Keep a running doc or Slack channel with what’s working and what’s not. Saves future-you a lot of pain.
- Update templates and sequences. Use your insights to tweak future campaigns, not just pat yourself on the back.
Real Talk: Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- Chasing open rates. Opens are easy to fake or miscount. Focus on replies and meetings booked.
- Over-measuring. If you’re tracking 20 metrics, you’ll drown in data. Stick to 2-3 that matter.
- Ignoring the human side. If your emails read like a robot or annoy people, no amount of analytics will help.
- Not giving things time. Don’t judge a campaign in the first hour. Let things play out for a few days.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Tracking and analyzing outreach campaigns in BetterContact isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Start with clean tracking, focus on reply and bounce rates, and use segmentation to spot what’s genuinely working. Ignore shiny-but-useless metrics, set up a few smart automations, and—most important—use what you learn to actually make changes.
Keep it simple. Test one thing at a time, don’t overthink it, and always be willing to ditch what’s not moving the needle. That’s how you get better, campaign after campaign.