You’ve finished your first campaign, probably have plenty of leads, but you’re not quite sure how to read the stats, benchmark yourself and improve your performance.
Want to learn how to improve your engagement? Read-on
Table of content :
A major but often overlooked stat: total lead engaged
Starting with the top dashboard, you’ll notice:
Audiences: number of people in the campaign
Contacted: number of people that received at least one message on LinkedIn or Email
Replied: number of people that replied
New relationships: people you connected with on LinkedIn
The number of people contacted is the single most important top-of-the-funnel stat, as it shows the total number of people that have been pitched at least once, on LinkedIn, or via email.
As we can see for this campaign, only half of the audience was actually pitched. Which is not great. What can affect the stat and how to improve it :
Note in a connection request: probably, you choose not to input a note in your connection request, which all data we have shows that it’s bad for mid-funnel conversion.
Data shows that being transparent and direct by pitching early in the connection rate, though often considered as sellsy, yields a higher qualified call rate than without any message.
By putting a note, you’ll actually be able to pitch 100% of the leads that have a LinkedIn profile, instead of only the ones that accept you on LinkedIn. Since the average connection rate is 30%, that gives you 3x more reach than by not pitching at all.
Albeit you’ll have to do it in 300 characters, which is difficult, but definitely worth it endeavor!
Email enrichment: low email enrichment means that, if you chose not to pitch during your connection request, you won't be able to fall back to email should the connection request be rejected.
If you’re enriching using LaGrowthMachine’s internal enrichment and have enrichment below 35-40%, you may consider activating catch-all emails.
Though this may increase bounce, before doing so, we strongly suggest you read what catch-all means and when should I use it.
Leveraging better enrichment and connection rate will allow you to increase your reach. If the top of the funnel is increased, the number of qualified leads will also increase!
Should I start with LinkedIn or Email?
Which channel you start with can make a great difference. There is no absolute answer as to which is best. Only particular cases depending on who you’re targeting and what you’re offering.
Here are a couple of questions you should ask yourself :
What is the primary source of leads?
Where is your lead most active/likely to respond?
What’s your channel enrichment rate?
Want to know more? Read our guidelines for evaluating which channels are best for you!
Profesional email Enrichment rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Profesional email enrichment is an important part of your campaign’s performance. The more email we get, the more leads we can activate via emails.
As you know, LaGrowthMachine's enrichment feature will automatically enrich professional emails. Enabling catch-all emails can vastly impact your enrichment. But you also must pay attention to your bounce rate.
Benchmark :
Without Catch-All email: from 30% to 60% verified email, and 2-5% bounce rate
With Catch-All Email: 45-70% verified emails, up to 20% bounce rate
How to improve :
Activate catch-all: by default, DropContact will only return certified verified emails - you may want to include suggested unverified catch-all emails. While activating catch-all emails can increase your email discovery rate, this may expose you to greater unverified emails (and bounces).
If you’re only enriching about 30% or fewer emails, you may consider activating catch-all, but before doing so, you should follow our guidelines on when activating Catch-all email if you want to know more.
Personal email Enrichment rate - Benchmark and how to improve
81% of leads share a personal email on LinkedIn, once you’re connected with them. LaGrowthMachine will automatically enrich them as you connect.
Benchmark :
As personal emails can only be found if you're connected with the lead on LinkedIn, their enrichment rate is a direct consequence of your connection rate.
40% is considered a good connection rate, expect 32% personal email enrichment rate
How to improve :
Improve your LinkedIn Connection rate: should you need more personal emails, you’ll need to improve your connection rate on LinkedIn!
Read our recommendations on improving your connection rate below
Phone Enrichment Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Phone numbers are vital information in order to plan cold calling during the sequence. 26% of leads share a personal phone number on LinkedIn, once you’re connected with them.
Benchmark :
As personal emails can only be found if you're connected with the lead on LinkedIn, their enrichment rate is a direct consequence of your connection rate.
40% is considered a good connection rate, expect a 10% phone enrichment rate
How to improve :
Improve your LinkedIn Connection rate: should you need more phone numbers, you’ll need to improve your connection rate with them!
Read our recommendations on improving your connection rate below
Complement enrichment with other providers: LaGrowthMachine remains GDPR-friendly in its enrichment process. We will only provide you with the phone number you should legitimately have access to.
Should you need to have more cellphone numbers, you can turn to Lusha or Kaspr which are great additions to LGM's enrichment and should provide 5-10% increased results.
Twitter Enrichment Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Twitter is automatically found by LaGrowthMachine using social info on the lead. Any enrichment above 30% is considered extremely good and should push you to think about how to add Twitter into your strategy.
Benchmark: 30% enrichment rate is considered extremely good.
If you’ve reached good Twitter enrichment and are considering adding it into your strategy mix, you should read our guidelines on how to use Twitter in your prospection
How to improve :
None: you can’t force people to have Twitter accounts :)
LinkedIn Reversed Enrichment Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
If you're using data outside of LinkedIn, you’re probably expecting LaGrowthMachine to find LinkedIn Profile for you. It’s important to learn how LaGrowthMachine matches LinkedIn profiles using the information provided.
Benchmark: 70% enrichment rate is considered good.
Anything below that rate means either :
Data quality is poor and not up to date. If your lead left its company for a new one, we won’t be able to find it.
The database is lacking information for exact enrichment. We need at least first name, last name, and company name to make an exact search
How to improve :
Clean your data: make sure the data you have is up to date
LinkedIn Connection Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Connecting on LinkedIn is the first step in being able to build a relationship with your leads. It’s the most valuable part of your sequence. Connection rate may vary depending on whether you put a note or not, and what type of note.
Don’t know which is best, then you should read our guidelines to understand should you put a note or not with your LinkedIn Request
Do not make the mistake of thinking the higher the connection rate, the better your campaign is. You may choose not to input a message, yield a better connection rate, but see your qualified reply rate drop!
Data even shows that a direct approach yields lower connections but a higher qualified reply rate. Whenever you do your tests, make sure to also measure both!
Benchmark if you’ve used a direct note
Below 20% is considered poor
20 to 25% is considered average
25 to 35% is considered good
Anything above 35% is considered excellent!
Benchmark if you’ve not used a not
31% is the average connection rate without a note
How to improve :
Make sure your profile is optimized to build trust: The first thing people see when you send a connection request is your profile picture and your bio. A welcoming but professional picture with a clear bio will help wonders to improve your acceptance rate.
For more information, read our guide on how to optimize your profile to build trust.
Extend the waiting time after sending a connection request: is your target audience very active on LinkedIn? If not, you may want to give them 5-7 days at least, if not more, to accept your connection request.
Use Profile visit as a soft ping: whenever LaGrowthMachine visits a profile, you will appear as a notification in your lead's feed.
This works great as a reminder of your pending connection request and will generate late acceptance! Here's an example of how to implement it
Warm-up your leads using nudges on LinkedIn & Twitter: Another way to improve your open rate is to boost your lead’s awareness about your name and your brand before sending an email.
When warming up leads, there are two different approaches you can use :
1) Soft warm-up: actions such as visiting its profile on LinkedIn or following the lead on Twitter
2) Hard warm-up: sending a message before (or simultaneously) on another channel to build rapport
Learn how to warm up your leads.
Use emails as a nudge: emails can be a great way to nudge a connection on LinkedIn. You can use it as a new chain of pitching, or support your LinkedIn efforts with small reminders "
Start with emails first and use LinkedIn as a fallback: Where is your lead most active/likely to respond? if emails are the answer, you may want to start using email to get familiar with the lead before sending a connection request. It can be as simple as below
Want to know more? Read our guidelines for evaluating which channels are best for you!
Warm-up your leads with pre-campaign LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram advertising: A great brand is that indescribable impression that compels prospects to buy right away. That “je ne sais quoi” them creates trust in paying a premium price because you’re the right product for them.
The main challenge when doing outbound and/or cold calling is that, by definition, your leads are probably cold. They know little to nothing about you, what you do, why, and how you do it. Thus, they have little trust in what you’re pitching - which can end up in low reply rates and long sales cycles.By doing strategically placed brand advertising BEFORE, DURING & AFTER your outbound campaigns, you can help warm-up leads by building awareness, trust, even FOMO when you’re doing it well!
It's a great trick to improve your overall outbound results. Read our detailed guide on how to increase conversion using social ads in your outbound!
The Hiring Trick: setting your profile as hiring can improve your connection rate by 10%!
LinkedIn Reply Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
The ultimate goal of any outbound campaign is to generate replies. LinkedIn is a great channel to build relationships and reply rates are generally better than emails - though it will depend a lot on the quality of your segmentation and copywriting
Benchmark :
Anything below 10% is considered bad - you're probably too broad in your targeting and/or copywriting isn't good
10-30% considered average
Anything above 30% is considered great - good job!
How to improve :
Benchmark can vary a lot from one campaign to another, depending on the quality of your strategy, segmentation, and copywriting!
Improve your connection rate: connecting on LinkedIn is key to getting replies as this will allow you to send as many follow-ups as you need!
If you fail to connect, you'll be limited to that single 300 characters note attached to your connection request.Segmentation - Aim for small audiences: segmentation is key to making sure you're addressing the right people with the right message. It is tempting to do large campaigns of hundreds of leads, but this is a terrible practice!
Segmentation - Master Sales Navigator: first off, if you're not using Sales Navigator for segmentation, stop right here. Segmentation is half of the work. When segmentation is right, copywriting just flows naturally! And replies are through the roof
If you're not familiar with Sales Navigator, read our dedicated guides :
- How to do precise Account-Based targeting with Sales Navigator?
- How to use Boolean parameters to improve your searches?
- How to target precisely accounts with their geolocation on Sales Navigator?
- How to use Saved Search to automate weekly identification of new leads?
- Targeting eCommerce companies on LinkedInCopywriting - write short messages: LinkedIn shared demonstrating the short the message, the better the reply rate! Keep it short and simple.
Copywriting - one key point per message: is it tempting to pack your messages with a lot of content. But people's attention is very limited and they will reject anything too long to read through.
Plus, this also means you have nothing new to add in your follow-ups, resulting in very weak following messages, if not passive-aggressive "have you had time to read my previous message".
Stick to this rule: one value - one message. If I have three value points, then I will have three great short messages following this strategy
Hey {(firstname}}
{{Clear_reason_to_use_your_service_number_1}}. {{Data_to_prove_your_claim}}.
{{Compelling_call_to_action}}.
Copywriting - aims to build a conversation, not just force calls: LinkedIn is a great place to network and slowly build relationships. Work your way up in your CTA by having a conversational approach.
The conversational approach allows your leads to reply without having to commit too much time to a call - we all know that "10 minutes call" is going to last longer and we don't want to take it unless you've built trust.
Finish your first few messages with open-ended questions about your prospect's needs on what you have to offer. And as you follow up, increase the "aggressivity" of your CTA by pushing for a call - best not to bring it up before the third message
Copywriting - be trustworthy: we all know how to detect automation - that email that is too generic. Sentences that are over-formulated.
Keep it simple and work on segmentation to make sure the message, and tone of voice, match the person you're addressing!
Copywriting - use icebreakers: if necessary, you can use {{customAttributes}} to create individualized icebreakers. While it may loot time-consuming, this is a great time investment that will greatly improve your ability to build trust
Warm-up your leads with pre-campaign LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram advertising: A great brand is that indescribable impression that compels prospects to buy right away. That “je ne sais quoi” them creates trust in paying a premium price because you’re the right product for them.
The main challenge when doing outbound and/or cold calling is that, by definition, your leads are probably cold. They know little to nothing about you, what you do, why, and how you do it. Thus, they have little trust in what you’re pitching - which can end up in low reply rates and long sales cycles.By doing strategically placed brand advertising BEFORE, DURING & AFTER your outbound campaigns, you can help warm-up leads by building awareness, trust, even FOMO when you’re doing it well!
It's a great trick to improve your overall outbound results. Read our detailed guide on how to increase conversion using social ads in your outbound!
Use emails as a nudge: emails can be a great way to nudge a reply on LinkedIn. You can use it as a new chain of pitching, or support your LinkedIn efforts with small reminders "
Email Open Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Given you’re using direct emails and not marketing domains, your average opening rate should reach at least 60%. Anything below is considered bad and might be explained by a technical setup that is wrong or bad copywriting.
Benchmark :
Anything below 60% is considered bad, probably due to a wrong technical setup that can be corrected
60-80% is considered average: this means technically all is good and improvements will be based on your segmentation and copywriting
Anything above 80% is considered excellent: well done!
Be suspicious of 100% open rate: it's probably that something is opening all your emails and skewing your stats. Note that email opens are tracked using a pixel left on the email. Whenever the email is opened, the pixel is loaded.
Some apps prevent that pixel from loading, which may result in people opening (and even replying!) but LGM is not tracking the open.
For example, if you add Hubspot in BCC, Hubspot will open every email resulting in a 100% open rate. That's why you should instead use our native Hubspot synchronization which avoids.
How to improve :
Warm up the email domain: If your email domain is new, you need to build some activity for other email servers to trust your domain. A new email domain that suddenly sends lots of emails is suspicious!
Set up your SPF and DKIM records: Sounds complicated? It is not. All four elements allow verifying the authenticity of each email sent. The more you’re set-up, the better another server will trust you, enhancing your deliverability.
It's mandatory you set it up using our built-in SPF and DKIM verifier in your identity tab.Set up your custom tracking domain: if you're tracking clicks on emails, you must make sure to set up a custom tracking domain. Without custom domains, you end up using the default tracking domain which is actually shared across all the users of LaGrowthMachine - which means that the actions of the others can have an impact on your email reputation.
Besides using a tracking domain that is not coherent with your email domain can be interpreted as spamming or phishing by the email service. Therefore it can decrease the deliverability of your emails.
Long story short: if you're tracking, it's mandatory you set up your custom tracking domain. Read our detailed guide on how to set up a custom tracking domain!
Reduce the volume of emails per day: If you’re sending too many emails per day, your activity may look suspicious. In the long run, you may end up in spam.
While you can have a push for a few days, in general, you should avoid sending more than 300 emails to keep a good domain reputation. Adjust your daily limits in your identity settings according to the recommended values
Work on your copywriting: the sender's identity, the email's title, and the preview play a big role in tempting your lead to open the email.
Learn how to improve your copywriting.
Warm-up your leads using nudges on LinkedIn & Twitter: Another way to improve your open rate is to boost your lead’s awareness about your name and your brand before sending an email.
When warming up leads, there are two different approaches you can use :
1) Soft warm-up: actions such as visiting its profile on LinkedIn or following the lead on Twitter
2) Hard warm-up: sending a message before (or simultaneously) on another channel to build rapport
Learn how to warm up your leads.Consider using spins: If you’re targeting big companies/corporate, they’re probably using Outlook to handle their emails. In that case, you’ll want to use spins! Read our detailed guide on what and why spins can improve your email delivery
Email Click Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Click is a great way to track the interest of a lead.
Benchmark :
0% is probably because you forgot to activate link tracking
Anything below 5% is considered low
5-8% is considered good
Anything above 8% is excellent
How to improve :
Embed your links using hyperlinks: it's a very bad practice to copy-paste a link directly in the email. Make sure to use embed the link using a hyperlink to make the reason/content stand out and improve the click rate
Work on segmentation and copywriting: make sure the content you'll be sharing matches your segment's interests
Email Reply Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
The ultimate goal of any outbound campaign is to generate replies. Though we receive a lot of them daily, emails are still a great channel to generate new leads - though it will depend a lot on the quality of your segmentation and copywriting
Benchmark :
Anything below 10% is considered bad - you're probably too broad in your targeting and/or copywriting isn't good
10-20% considered average
Anything above 20% is considered great - good job!
How to improve :
Benchmark can vary a lot from one campaign to another, depending on the quality of your strategy, segmentation, and copywriting!
Improve your enrichment rate: no email found means no possible reply, evidently.
Make sure you make the most of LaGrowthMachine's enrichment capabilities.
Learn how to improve your enrichment rate.
Aim for an 80% open rate: make sure you've done the technical and copywriting adjustment that will ensure your emails will be delivered and opened!
Work on your copywriting: the sender's identity, the email's title, and the preview play a big role in tempting your lead to open the email.
Learn how to improve your copywriting.Warm-up your leads using nudges on LinkedIn & Twitter: Another way to improve your open rate is to boost your lead’s awareness about your name and your brand before sending an email.
When warming up leads, there are two different approaches you can use :
1) Soft warm-up: actions such as visiting its profile on LinkedIn or following the lead on Twitter
2) Hard warm-up: sending a message before (or simultaneously) on another channel to build rapport
Learn how to warm up your leads.Segmentation - Aim for small audiences: segmentation is key to making sure you're addressing the right people with the right message. It is tempting to do large campaigns of hundreds of leads, but this is a terrible practice!
Segmentation - Master Sales Navigator: first off, if you're not using Sales Navigator for segmentation, stop right here. Segmentation is half of the work. When segmentation is right, copywriting just flows naturally! And replies are through the roof
If you're not familiar with Sales Navigator, read our dedicated guides :
- How to do precise Account-Based targeting with Sales Navigator?
- How to use Boolean parameters to improve your searches?
- How to target precisely accounts with their geolocation on Sales Navigator?
- How to use Saved Search to automate weekly identification of new leads?
- Targeting eCommerce companies on LinkedIn
Copywriting - one key point per message: is it tempting to pack your messages with a lot of content. But people's attention is very limited and they will reject anything too long to read through.
Plus, this also means you have nothing new to add in your follow-ups, resulting in very weak following messages, if not passive-aggressive "have you had time to read my previous message".
Stick to this rule: one value - one message. If I have three value points, then I will have three great short messages following this strategy
Hey {(firstname}}
{{Clear_reason_to_use_your_service_number_1}}. {{Data_to_prove_your_claim}}.
{{Compelling_call_to_action}}.
Copywriting - aims to build a conversation, not just force calls: Work your way up in your CTA by having a conversational approach.
The conversational approach allows your leads to reply without having to commit too much time to a call - we all know that "10 minutes call" is going to last longer and we don't want to take it unless you've built trust.
Finish your first few messages with open-ended questions about your prospect's needs on what you have to offer. And as you follow up, increase the "aggressivity" of your CTA by pushing for a call - best not to bring it up before the third message
Copywriting - be trustworthy: we all know how to detect automation - that email that is too generic. Sentences that are over-formulated.
Keep it simple and work on segmentation to make sure the message, and tone of voice, match the person you're addressing!
Copywriting - use icebreakers: if necessary, you can use {{customAttributes}} to create individualized icebreakers. While it may loot time-consuming, this is a great time investment that will greatly improve your ability to build trust
Warm-up your leads with pre-campaign LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram advertising: A great brand is that indescribable impression that compels prospects to buy right away. That “je ne sais quoi” them creates trust in paying a premium price because you’re the right product for them.
The main challenge when doing outbound and/or cold calling is that, by definition, your leads are probably cold. They know little to nothing about you, what you do, why, and how you do it. Thus, they have little trust in what you’re pitching - which can end up in low reply rates and long sales cycles.By doing strategically placed brand advertising BEFORE, DURING & AFTER your outbound campaigns, you can help warm-up leads by building awareness, trust, even FOMO when you’re doing it well!
It's a great trick to improve your overall outbound results. Read our detailed guide on how to increase conversion using social ads in your outbound!
Email Bounce Rate - Benchmark and how to improve
Bounce is the enemy. Too high a bounce rate may damage your domain’s reputation. Too high a bounce rate for prolonged periods of time may lead your email to end up in spam - if you're sending a lot of them.
Bounce rate alone isn't enough to assess if you're taking a risk - you have to look at the volume per week also. If you have a campaign with a 30% bounce rate, but only 50 emails, risks are limited.
Benchmark :
Anything below 7% is considered very low risk.
7-12% is acceptable, so long as you are not sending more than 200 emails per day consistently
12-20% is considered at risk, especially if you send more than 200 emails per day consistently
Anything above 20% is dangerous if you're doing volume
How to improve :
Verify emails you uploaded: if you're importing your own database of emails, make sure to validate them using tools such as Bouncer, ZeroBounce, or NeverBounce.
These tools will verify for you the validity of the emails so you may remove emails that may bounce before it's too late.Set up your SPF and DKIM records: Sounds complicated? It is not. All four elements allow verifying the authenticity of each email sent. The more you’re set-up, the better another server will trust you, enhancing your deliverability.
It's mandatory you set it up using our built-in SPF and DKIM verifier in your identity tab.Deactivate catch-all emails: if you're using LaGrowthMachine built-in email enrichment feature, by default, we will only provide verified emails with a margin of error of 2-5%.
However, you might have activated catch-all emails so we may also provide email suggestions though we can't validate them. While it can greatly improve your enrichment rate, it comes at a bounce risk that you should monitor.
Set up your custom tracking domain: if you're tracking clicks on emails, you must make sure to set up a custom tracking domain. Without custom domains, you end up using the default tracking domain which is actually shared across all the users of LaGrowthMachine - which means that the actions of the others can have an impact on your email reputation.
Besides using a tracking domain that is not coherent with your email domain can be interpreted as spamming or phishing by the email service. Therefore it can decrease the deliverability of your emails.
Long story short: if you're tracking, it's mandatory you set up your custom tracking domain. Read our detailed guide on how to set up a custom tracking domain!
Reduce the volume of emails per day: If you’re sending too many emails per day, your activity may look suspicious. In the long run, you may end up in spam.
While you can have a push for a few days, in general, you should avoid sending more than 300 emails to keep a good domain reputation. Adjust your daily limits in your identity settings according to the recommended valuesVerify the health of your domain: using tools such as MxToolBox, generate a report of your domain's health and take action.
If your domain's health & reputation is very bad, you may consider using a new domain for your separate email.Avoid spam words: spam words are a list of words and expressions that can trigger spam and bounce protection. You can use Mail-Tester to test the qualify of your message.
Consider using spins: If you’re targeting big companies/corporate, they’re probably using Outlook to handle their emails. In that case, you’ll want to use spins! Read our detailed guide on what and why spins can improve your email delivery
Going further: Connecting CRM track real conversion
You’re probably tracking your reply rate, which is a great start. But reply rate can be a deceiving metric.
Want a great reply rate: try insulting people, you’ll see :)
Joke aside, what you should be measuring are :
Qualified replies
Call booked rate
Revenue generated
This requires you to connect your CRM and set up lifecycle tracking accordingly!
Want to know more?
Even after you followed those steps, the answer rate is low and not qualified?
No more tricks, only strategy will do. Work on :
Your segmentation: the right target
Copywriting: the right message