Cracking The Email Analytics Code: 6 Email KPIs To Track For Email Marketing Success

Now that you understand the significance of email marketing analytics, let’s dive into the six crucial email metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) that you should track for email success.

These metrics will provide you with valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns and help you optimize your email marketing strategies.

Let’s explore each of these metrics in detail:

1. Open Rate

The open rate is a true favorite among email marketers. This metric tells you the percentage of recipients who actually open your email.

To calculate the open rate, you take the number of emails opened and divide it by the total number of emails delivered. Then, you multiply that by 100 to get the percentage.

For example, if you sent 100 emails and 20 of them were opened, your open rate would be 20%.

What Does The OPEN RATE Signify As An Email KPI?

It gives you a sense of how engaging and compelling your email subject lines and sender names are.

A higher open rate means your subscribers are eagerly anticipating and opening your emails, while a lower open rate indicates that your subject lines need a little boost of creativity or relevance to grab your subscribers’ attention.

But remember that email open rate can also be influenced by the following factors:

• The time you sent that email
• Your relationship with subscribers
• The level of trust your audience has in your brand

How To Use This Email Metric?

Keep an eye on this metric and experiment with different subject lines and sender names to see what resonates best with your audience.

Also, compare your open rates across different campaigns and segments.

This way, you can identify patterns and learn what kind of content and messaging drive higher open rates.

How To Improve Open Rates?

Here’s how you can improve your email open rates:

• Keep the subject line under 7 words
• Find the best time from previous data and send it at that time
• Include the reader’s name in your subject line
• Keep your list fresh (meaning remove inactive subscribers)

CAUTION: iOS 15 Has Changed Things

Apple’s iOS 15 update had some “data privacy changes” seriously impacting email marketing as open rates would now appear higher than actual.

Why?

Here is a simple explanation:

For Apple Mail users, Apple will remotely activate the email-opening tracking pixel from its servers automatically. This means all emails processed via Apple Mail would be marked as opened.

So, if your open rate was around 20% to 30%, it might appear to be 45% or even more, depending on how many iOS users you have in your email list.

Should you stop tracking “Open Rates?”

No. Open rates are critical and should be tracked regardless of the update. However, you need to start tracking other important email marketing KPIs metrics to measure the overall effectiveness of your email campaigns.

That’s why we have five other critical metrics to track!

2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is one of the most critical email marketing metrics as it tells you how many of your subscribers are not only opening your email but also taking action.

Click Through Rate measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link or call-to-action (CTA) within your email.

Calculating the CTR is quite straightforward.

Divide the unique clicks your email received by the number of delivered emails. Multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage.

For example, if your email had 50 clicks and you delivered it to 1,000 subscribers, your CTR would be 5%.

What Does CTR Signify As An Email KPI?

It indicates the level of engagement and interest generated by your email content.

A higher CTR suggests that your subscribers found your email compelling enough to take action, whether it’s visiting your website, exploring a product, or participating in a promotion. A low CTR, on the other hand, highlights that your email content was ineffective. Or, it wasn’t relevant.

How To Use This Email Metric?

If you want your subscribers to not just admire your email content but actually engage with it, the CTR is the metric you want to keep a close eye on!

Based on your industry, the average CTR could be around 3% to 14%.

But, if you’re consistently getting low numbers, your emails need some strategic revision.

How To Improve Your CTR?

First, make your call to action clear and enticing.

Use action-oriented language that encourages your subscribers to click and explore further.

Second, ensure that your email design is mobile-friendly, as more and more people are accessing emails on their smartphones.

Finally, segment your email list and send targeted, personalized content that resonates with specific subscriber interests and preferences. When your subscribers receive emails tailored to their needs, they’re more likely to click through.

Pro-Tip: Analyze past behavior, identify high-interest signals, and send targeted emails for better CTR.

If a subscriber clicked because of a certain product or offer but didn’t buy, try again using the trust signal.

3.Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures the ultimate success of your email marketing strategy.

It tells you the percentage of recipients who not only opened and clicked through your email but also completed a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a service.

But how do you calculate the email conversion rate?

It’s easy. Take the number of conversions (desired actions) generated from your email and divide it by the number of delivered emails. Multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage.

For example, if your email resulted in 20 conversions and you delivered it to 500 subscribers, your email conversion rate would be 4%.

What Does The Email CONVERSION RATE Signify As An Email KPI?

This email marketing KPI directly reflects the effectiveness of your email campaigns in driving desired actions.

You see, a higher conversion rate indicates that your email content, offers, and calls-to-action resonate with your audience and motivate them to take the desired action you intended. On the other hand, a lower conversion rate might indicate areas where you can optimize your emails to increase their impact.

Remember, your email conversion rate depends on a couple of things:

• Quality of your email list
• Quality of your email content
• Your offer
• Complexity or simplicity of completing the desired action

How To Use This Email Metric?

The goal of your email campaigns is to drive meaningful actions and conversions, right?

How does that happen?

By having an effective email marketing strategy that complements your offer.

And this is exactly what conversion rate helps you understand.

Your job is to continuously monitor and optimize it by identifying what works best for your audience, refining your email marketing strategy, and tracking the whole conversion funnel.

How Can You Improve Conversion Rates?

You can use the following strategies to improve your email conversion rates:

• Create relevant, personalized, and engaging content
• Craft persuasive emails and calls-to-action
• Have a decent email design
• Analyze your offer and make it compelling
• Ease the action-completion process

4. Bounce Rate

Bounces occur when an email fails to reach the recipient’s inbox.

There can be various reasons for it, and are categorized into two types of bounces:

Hard bounces happen when an email can’t reach the recipient for a permanent reason, like an invalid or non-existent email address. For example, sending an email to an address that doesn’t exist anymore will result in a hard bounce.

Soft bounces, on the other hand, occur when an email fails to reach the recipient temporarily. This could be due to a full inbox or a server issue. Soft bounces usually resolve themselves without much action required.

What’s the bounce rate, then?

The bounce rate measures the percentage of bounced emails out of the total emails sent.

Divide the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent. Then, you multiply that by 100 to get the percentage. For instance, if you had 20 bounced emails out of 500 sent, your bounce rate would be 4%.

What Does BOUNCE RATE Signify As An Email KPI?

This email marketing KPI helps you understand the health of your email list and the deliverability of your campaigns.

A low bounce rate indicates that your email deliverability is fine. (2% – 3% is considered an industry standard.)

However, a high bounce rate means that something’s wrong either with your email server or the recipient’s inbox, and you should figure out the cause.

How To Use This Email Metric?

Besides identifying inactive email subscribers, it can help you identify patterns or trends pointing to specific technical issues with your email software or domain’s server.

Also, a high bounce rate may suggest that your email content or frequency doesn’t resonate with your subscribers, leading them to either unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam. The latter would add to your bounce rate – be cautious!

So, monitoring and analyzing your bounce rate can tell you a lot about your email list and deliverability.

Remember, a high bounce rate can negatively affect your email campaigns. It can hurt your sender reputation and can lead to being marked as spam by email service providers.

Therefore, keeping your bounce rate as low as possible is crucial.

How To Reduce Your Bounce Rate?

Follow these best practices to reduce your bounce rate:

Use a double opt-in process
This ensures that subscribers provide valid email addresses and minimizes the chance of typos or intentional misspellings.

Regularly clean your email list
Remove hard bounces and inactive subscribers to maintain a healthy list. You can also use email verification tools to identify and remove invalid email addresses.

Monitor and address soft bounces
If you notice a consistent pattern of soft bounces for specific email addresses, investigate the issue and take necessary actions, such as contacting the subscriber or updating your contact information.

Segment your list effectively
Sending targeted emails to relevant segments reduces the likelihood of bounces, as the content is tailored to each segment’s specific interests and preferences.

Remember, a lower bounce rate ensures that your emails are reaching your subscribers’ inboxes and increases the chances of engagement and conversions.

5. Unsubscribe Rate

Unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of subscribers who opt out or unsubscribe from your email list after receiving one of your campaigns.

It’s a valuable email marketing metric to track as it provides insight into the level of engagement and interest your subscribers have in your content.

How do you calculate it?

Divide the number of unsubscribes by the total number of delivered emails. Then, multiply that by 100 to get the percentage. For example, if you had 10 unsubscribes from a campaign that reached 500 subscribers, your unsubscribe rate would be 2%.

What Does the UNSUBSCRIBE RATE Signify As An Email KPI?

It indicates the level of satisfaction, engagement, and relevance of your email content to your subscribers.

A low unsubscribe rate suggests that your subscribers find value in your emails and want to stay connected. On the other hand, a high unsubscribe rate might indicate areas where you can improve your email content or targeting strategies.

However, some unsubscribes are natural and inevitable as subscriber interests and preferences change over time. Still, if you notice a sudden or significant increase in your unsubscribe rate, it’s worth investigating the potential causes.

It could be due to irrelevant or repetitive content, too frequent emails, or a lack of personalization.

How To Use This Email Metric?

Unsubscribe rate tells you a lot about the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and subscriber engagement.

• It’s a direct measure of your subscriber dissatisfaction.
• It can help refine your content strategy and ensure that your emails are relevant, personalized, and aligned with your subscribers’ interests.
• It can help you optimize your email frequency.
• Most importantly, it can help you segment and target your audience effectively.

How To Reduce Your Unsubscribe Rate?

Here are a few tips to help you manage your unsubscribe rate:

• Set clear expectations about the frequency and type of content subscribers can expect when they sign up.
• Segment your lists to send personalized content to specific groups.
• Provide an easy way for subscribers to provide feedback or update their preferences.

Remember, while it’s important to keep an eye on your unsubscribe rate, don’t be discouraged by a few unsubscribes. Instead, use the insights gained from the data to optimize your email strategies and deliver more valuable content to your engaged subscribers.

6. List Growth Rate

This is also one of the most critical email analytics metrics.

As obvious by the name, the list growth rate measures the rate at which your email list grows.

The list growth rate tells you the percentage increase or decrease in the size of your email list over a specific period.

To calculate the list growth rate, you need to compare the number of new subscribers gained during a certain period to the total number of subscribers at the beginning. Then, divide the difference by the total number of subscribers at the beginning and multiply it by 100 to get the percentage.

For example, if you had 100 new subscribers in a month and your initial subscriber count was 1,000, your list growth rate would be 10%.

What Does The LIST GROWTH RATE Signify As An Email Marketing KPI?

Watching your email list grow is like watching your garden bloom as new subscribers join your email community. But here’s what it truly represents:

It reflects the effectiveness of your efforts in attracting new subscribers and retaining existing ones.

A positive list growth rate indicates that you are attracting new subscribers and expanding your reach. Conversely, a negative growth rate may signal that you must reassess your acquisition and retention strategies.

Here’s what can influence your list growth rate:

• Your lead-generation tactics
• Quality of your content
• The visibility of your signup forms
• The targeting of your audience

How To Use This Email Metric?

The list growth rate provides valuable insights to assess the effectiveness of your acquisition strategies.

For instance, a high growth rate indicates that your lead generation tactics are attracting new subscribers. And, if the growth is slow, you must optimize your strategies.

Similarly, list growth rate analysis can help you understand what strategies or events are driving subscriber growth or causing attrition, enabling you to replicate successful tactics and avoid pitfalls in the future.

Plus, it can help you set realistic goals and benchmarks for your email marketing campaigns. You can establish targets for list growth that align with your business objectives by analyzing your historical data and industry averages.

So, by monitoring your list growth rate, you can optimize your list-building strategies, identify trends, and set realistic growth goals.

With that said, let’s see how you can improve your list growth rate.

How To Improve Your List Growth Rate?

Here are a few tips to improve your list growth rate:

Create compelling lead magnets

Offer valuable incentives, such as exclusive content, discounts, or free resources, to encourage visitors to subscribe to your email list.

Optimize your signup forms

Make sure your subscription forms are easy to find, visually appealing, and optimized for different devices. Keep the form fields concise and ask for only essential information to reduce friction.

Promote your email list

Actively promote your email list across various touchpoints, including your website, social media profiles, blog posts, and events. Highlight the benefits of subscribing and why it’s worth joining your community.

Leverage partnerships and collaborations

Partner with complementary brands or influencers in your industry to reach new audiences and tap into their existing subscriber base.

Remember, while focusing on growing your email list is important, maintaining the quality and engagement of your subscribers is equally crucial.

Strive for a balance between attracting new subscribers and nurturing existing ones to create a thriving and responsive email community.

So, these are some of the most important metrics you should track for your email campaigns.

Inside secret: We follow these exact strategies to keep our email clients happy!