Email Marketing Metrics to Track for Better Campaign Performance

The Role of Email Marketing Metrics in Performance Campaigns

Optimizing — or making emails more relevant to the target audience — and email marketing measurement should receive the same attention as creating the content itself. Understanding the key email marketing metrics to track can help you drive performance and achieve impactful results.

Also known as key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics for email marketing are used to measure how your campaign is tracking. The million-dollar question is: What is the most important metric in email marketing?

Here are five of the most important KPIs for email marketing that can determine the performance of your campaign.

Open Rate

If you want to measure the number of people who open your email, this email marketing performance metric gives you the percentage of your list who do this.

To get the open rate, divide the number of people who opened your message by the total number of people you sent it to.

For instance, if you send an email to 1,000 people and 150 open it, your open rate is 15%.

Open rate is a good indication of how well your email piques your recipients' interest. It can be influenced by a compelling subject line or the timing of your emails, such as when your audience is most active.

Personalization, such as addressing the recipient by their first name or asking intriguing questions at the start of the email, can also boost open rates. Performing an A/B test—for instance, with your subject lines or dispatch times—can also help optimize open rates.

Watch out: Some marketers get too hung up on open rates. Don't fall for this — relying on open rates as the sole indicator of success can be misleading. While a high open rate is typically a positive indicator, it doesn't necessarily guarantee engagement or conversion.

To make the most of open rate, remember it's just one piece of the puzzle. It should be used alongside metrics like click-through and conversion rates for a more holistic analysis.

If you want to know what a good open rate for email marketing is, you must understand the broader context of your campaign. Start by looking at industry benchmarks and the historical performance of your past emails.

I've personally seen open rates increase when doing the following:

• Ensuring the sender's name is recognizable and trustworthy
• Keeping out email list clean and removing inactive subscribers
• Avoiding sending emails too frequently, potentially leading to fatigue and decreased engagement

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

This metric indicates the percentage of recipients who clicked on one or more links in your email.

To get the CTR, divide the clicks (total or unique) by the total number of delivered emails. For instance, the CTR for 200 clicks from 1,000 delivered emails is 20%.

One of the best ways to use CTR is to monitor it daily. By tracking how the CTR changes over time, you can determine the performance of every email sent.

To effectively use CTR as a measure of email campaign performance, focus on designing clear and visually appealing call-to-action (CTA) buttons. They should stand out and clearly communicate the desired action.

Also, ensure the content is relevant and aligns with your audience's interests and expectations. The messages should be as organic as possible so your recipients will naturally click the CTA.

Beware of including excessive links that dilute the primary CTA and scatter the reader's attention. Make sure that the links you add to your email content are relevant to your message.

Keep your email design uncluttered and focused. Minimize distractions from the main message and CTA. Use engaging visuals and concise copy that highlights the benefits of clicking through.

Conduct A/B tests regularly to experiment with different elements like button color, text, and placement. This can help you identify what resonates best with your audience.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate reflects the percentage of email recipients who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase.

For example, if 30 people buy a product after clicking through your email, the conversion rate is 3%.

To make the most of conversion rate, focus on providing a cohesive and rewarding user experience.

Ensure that your email content aligns seamlessly with your landing pages — minimizing friction and confusion for recipients. The less friction, the more you encourage them to complete the desired action.

Personalizing offers based on recipient behavior and preferences can also enhance conversion rates by making the content more relevant and appealing. For instance, if you track which links each reader clicks, you can personalize their experience by sending emails more relevant to their past clicks and integrating customized offers.

To improve conversion rates, segment your audience effectively to tailor messages that resonate with specific groups. Focus on the user journey; ensure every step, from the email to the checkout process, is intuitive and relevant to your recipients' needs and behaviors.

Continuously test different elements like email design, offer types, and messaging to refine your approach based on what drives the best results.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate measures the percentage of emails that couldn't be delivered to the recipient's inbox. If 50 emails out of 1,000 bounce back, the bounce rate is 5%.

A high bounce rate can negatively impact your reputation and the overall performance of your email marketing campaign, so it's key to stay on top of this metric.

When interpreting bounce rate data, consider hard bounces and soft bounces. The former indicates permanently undeliverable addresses, while the latter may result from temporary issues like a full inbox.

To reduce the bounce rate, you can adopt any of the following best practices:

• Keep a clean email list. Remove inactive subscribers. Regularly update and verify email addresses to avoid sending to outdated or incorrect contacts. (You can use email verification tools and services to do this).
• Implement double opt-ins to ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails.
• Use email validation tools to reduce the likelihood of hard bounces.
• Segment your audience based on engagement levels.
• Avoid common pitfalls like purchasing email lists, which often contain invalid addresses that increase the number of bounced emails and hurt your deliverability rate.
• Test different sending practices, such as varying send times and frequencies, to identify what minimizes bounces.

List Growth Rate

The list growth rate tracks how fast your email distribution list is growing. If you gain 200 new subscribers in a month and lose 50, your net growth rate is 15%.

When interpreting list growth rate data, consider the balance between new subscribers and unsubscribes to gauge the overall health of your email list. While a growing list is a positive sign, ensuring new subscribers engage with your content can set your email campaigns up for success.

Analyze list growth alongside other metrics, such as open and click-through rates, to understand new subscribers' quality and impact on campaign performance.

You can boost the list growth rate by encouraging new sign-ups and retention of current subscribers. Here's how:

• To entice new subscribers, offer compelling sign-up incentives such as exclusive content, discounts, or early access to products.
• Ensure your subscription forms are optimized for ease of use. Go for a straightforward design and minimal required fields to reduce friction during the sign-up process.
• Leverage social media and other channels relevant to your target audience to promote your newsletter.
• Encourage subscribers to share your emails or sign-up forms with their network.
• Engage new subscribers immediately with a welcome series to familiarize them with your brand and set expectations.
• Offer easy opt-out options for subscribers who no longer want to receive emails. This can help prevent them from marking your messages as spam, which can hurt your email deliverability rates.
• Track unsubscribe rates regularly and gather feedback to understand why subscribers might be leaving. This allows you to address any underlying issues while spotting trends and areas for improvement in your email strategy.
• Ensure subscribers receive tailored content that aligns with their interests, which can boost engagement and loyalty.
• Don't fall for the trap of purchasing email lists; it can lead to poor engagement and deliverability.

Email Marketing Metrics Are Essential for Any Successful Email Campaign

By understanding the purpose of each metric and implementing smart strategies, you can improve your performance and stay on track with your email marketing goals.

For a well-rounded analysis, remember to analyze these metrics alongside other KPIs (avoid focusing on just one) and benchmark against industry standards.