Do you know how well your email marketing campaigns are performing? There are some important metrics you need to measure on a regular basis if you want to maintain email list health and improve the ROI of your campaigns. In this guide, we’ll show you how to measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
Focusing on the right metrics will help you analyze and improve any of your marketing campaigns. however, email is arguably one of the most important by far. as the market says,
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of maintaining a strong email marketing strategy or the value of the marketing metrics you use to maintain it.”
In fact, email marketing has a 4,300% ROI!
so, are you using email effectively? what are the right metrics to measure?
First, we’ll break down what those important email marketing metrics are. we’ll show you exactly how to calculate them, how often you should track them, and what factors can affect them (either positively or negatively).
Second, we’ll share how to benchmark your current email marketing performance and set realistic goals so you know where you start and where you’d like to be.
Finally, we’ll share the important variables to test so you can improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
sound good?
great! let’s get started.
9 Important Email Marketing Metrics to Measure
There are 9 important email marketing metrics you should measure regularly.
Some of these metrics should be monitored weekly so you can know ahead of time if a given campaign will succeed or fall short. By discovering this early on, you’ll be able to “pivot” as needed to meet your revenue goals (by running an endorsement campaign, for example).
other metrics should be measured monthly. in this way, you will be able to determine which campaigns you need to have on your calendar for the next few months, or how you should adjust the campaigns you already have planned.
let’s take a look at each of these 9 metrics…
1. open rate
Your open rate is the percentage of your email recipients who opened your email. this is an important metric to measure because your email campaigns won’t do anything unless your subscribers actually open and read them.
How to Calculate: Total Opens / Emails Delivered
when to follow up: weekly
Factors: There are a couple of factors that can affect your open rate. the first is the name of the sender and the second is the subject of the email.
For tips on how to improve your open rate, check out 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Email Open Rate.
2. clickthrough rate
Your click-through rate is the percentage of your email recipients who clicked on a link within your email. Most of the time, getting your subscribers to click on a link within your email will be the main goal of your campaign, so this is an important metric to measure.
How to Calculate: Total Clicks / Emails Delivered
when to follow up: weekly
factors: Your clickthrough rate will be affected by the anchor text in the link, as well as the location of the link in the body of your email, the number of times you included the link, and even the copy leading to the link.
For help improving your click-through rate, check out 7 Things You Can Do to Significantly Improve Your Email Click-Through Rates.
3. drop rate
Your unsubscribe rate is the percentage of your email recipients who clicked the “unsubscribe” link within your email.
how to calculate: total unsubscribes / emails delivered
when to follow up: weekly
Factors: There are many factors that can affect your unsubscribe rate. Unsubscribe rates can be high when you don’t have a good welcome series, your “from” name isn’t recognizable, you use misleading subject lines, you don’t email often enough, or you email with too often.
See our guide to reducing email unsubscribe rates for more tips.
4. complaint rate
Your complaint rate is the percentage of your email recipients who marked your email as spam.
How to Calculate: Total Complaints / Emails Delivered
when to follow up: weekly
Factors: Reasons for high complaint rates include using purchased email lists, not including an unsubscribe link in their emails, sending irrelevant content, email addresses outdated email and sending emails too often.
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5. conversion rate
Your conversion rate is the percentage of your email recipients who completed the desired action (for example, buying a product).
How to Calculate: Total Conversions / Emails Delivered
when to follow up: monthly
factors: There are many factors that can affect your conversion rate, depending on what a successful conversion is in your particular campaign. If a conversion is a successful action that happens on your website after someone clicks a link within your email, you’ll want to make sure your website is optimized for conversions.
Check out our beginner’s guide to conversion rate optimization here.
6. bounce rate
Your bounce rate is the percentage of total emails sent that were not successfully delivered to your recipient’s inbox.
how to calculate: total bounces / emails sent
when to follow up: monthly
factors: emails can bounce due to a nonexistent email address, if the receiving email server is unavailable or overloaded, if the recipient’s mailbox is full, if the recipient is on vacation with auto-reply, or if the receiving server has blocked incoming email.
7. forwarding/sharing rate
Your forwarding (or sharing) rate is the percentage of your email recipients who forwarded your email to a friend or shared your email by clicking a share button within your email.
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This may not seem like an important metric to measure, but it’s really good to try to increase it. If your existing leads are forwarding your emails, that means they are actually becoming your brand ambassadors and generating new leads for you.
how to calculate: total forwards/emails delivered
when to follow up: monthly
factors: nurturing your email list is the most important factor here. don’t forget to nurture and reward your existing customers.
8. ROI of the campaign
your campaign roi is the overall return on your investment for your email campaign.
how to calculate: ($ sales – $ invested) / $ invested
when to follow up: monthly
Factors: The above formula for calculating campaign ROI is actually a fairly simple method, and measuring actual ROI can be tricky. for example, it is very difficult to know when to measure results. an email marketing campaign today could affect your results a month or even a year from now.
To learn more about the factors that affect your ROI and ways to measure it, check out this guide on how to measure the ROI of marketing programs.
9. list growth rate
Your list growth rate is the rate at which your email list has grown over a certain period of time.
how to calculate: new subscriptions – (unsubscribes + complaints) / total subscribers (over a specific period of time, for example, the last 30 days)
when to follow up: monthly
Factors: If your list isn’t growing, it’s dying. Not only do people unsubscribe, but email addresses tend to go “bad” over time as people switch email accounts and leave the old one. Make sure you’re constantly building your list and keeping unsubscribes at a reasonable rate.
Ok, now that you know the important email marketing metrics to track, let’s take a look at how to set benchmarks so you can set realistic goals and measure your improvement.
5 steps to compare the effectiveness of email marketing
Benchmarking your current email marketing performance is critical if you want to measure the effectiveness of any campaign. you just have to establish a baseline if you’re really going to understand what any of these numbers mean to you.
here are 5 steps to benchmarking the effectiveness of your email marketing that you can take today…
Step 1: Record Previous Transmissions
first, go back to your previous streams from the last 3-12 months and record the previous metrics. At a minimum, you should track your open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, complaint rates, and forward rates.
step 2: establish averages
Next, calculate the average of each of the metrics you recorded in step 1. Simply add up each of your values for each metric, and then divide that number by the total number of email campaigns sent during that period .
So, for example, if I sent 3 campaigns that received open rates of 21%, 23%, and 42% respectively, my average open rate would be (21 + 23 + 42) / 3, or 28.67%.
step 3: identify outliers
Now you’ll want to take a look and see where the outliers are.
Once you know what your average open rate is, for example, you can see whether there were any particular campaigns that had an unusually high or low open rate. Take note of these outliers.
step 4: identify patterns
Do you notice any pattern? Does a specific theme work really well? perhaps sending at a particular time of day is better or worse?
take note of any patterns that emerge and use them to improve your future campaigns.
step 5: establish baselines and goals
Finally, you can set benchmark numbers and goals for each of your email marketing metrics. this way you can judge whether a given campaign performed better or worse than you expected. you’ll also be able to repeat what worked or get rid of what didn’t.
For example, let’s say one of your emails had an open rate well above your baseline. You’d like to take a look at that subject line and think about why it worked so well… maybe it was the type of subject line or the topic your subscribers responded to? Now that you know what works, you can create more subject lines like that in the future.
Now that you’ve set your benchmarks and goals for each of your email marketing metrics, let’s look at some key variables you’ll want to test to improve your campaigns and reach your goals.
what to try to improve your email marketing campaigns
So now you’ve benchmarked each of your email marketing metrics and know what “normal” numbers look like for your particular email list right now. but you may be wondering: what if you’re not happy with those numbers? How do you go about improving each of those metrics?
There are a few key variables to test if you want to improve your email campaigns. Let’s go through them one by one…
1. time
The time you send your emails will have an effect on your open rates. If you send your emails at the wrong time, like when your subscribers are “purging” their inboxes, you’ll see much lower open rates than you should.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to avoid early mornings, lunchtimes, and after work, because that’s when people are likely to be cleaning out their inbox. that means it’s probably safe to send email between 8:30 and 10:00 AM. m., between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. m. or between 8:00 and midnight.
However, your best send times will vary from email list to email list, so try sending emails at different times of the day and track your open rates.
For more information, check out our in-depth guide on The Best Time to Send Emails (Here’s What Studies Show).
2. theme
The subject of your email can have a big effect on your open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates.
As a general rule, be sure to tag and segment your email subscribers by interest so you can send them the topics most relevant to them.
At a minimum, you should tag new subscribers based on the lead magnet they downloaded. you can use optinmonster integrated with any major email provider that offers tags to do this.
There are also many other ways to segment your list to increase the relevance of your emails. here are 50 smart ways to segment your email list like a pro.
Even after you’ve segmented your email list, you’ll still want to monitor which topics your subscribers respond to best (and which topics they don’t resonate with). this will give you important insights on how to create better content and better products for your subscribers and customers.
3. subject line
Your subject line is the single most important factor affecting your email open rate. There are two main types of subject lines you should use in your campaigns…
direct subject lines
Direct subject lines are just that: direct and direct. these subject lines focus on the great benefit the recipient will get from opening the email.
Here are some examples of direct subject lines:
- “Cyber Monday! save 35% optinmonster + bonus”
- “69 lead magnets to grow your email list”
- “my favorite optinmonster tricks to increase conversions”
curiosity subject lines
Curiosity subject lines don’t tell you exactly what you’ll get when you open the email. instead, they say just enough to pique your curiosity, but you’ll have to open the email to satisfy that curiosity.
here are some examples of curiosity subject lines:
- “do you want $40?”
- “santa was early this year…”
- “don’t open this email”
For even more subject line ideas, check out the 101 Best Email Subject Lines to Increase Your Email Open Rates. Do you want information to help you understand what works? check out these subject line stats.
4. link anchor text
You’ll also want to test the actual anchor text for your links, as this will affect your click-through rates.
To enhance your anchor text, use a strong call to action that inspires action. here are some examples:
- “click here to get optinmonster now”
- “read the full case study”
- “go ahead and read the full article”
To make your CTAs even more engaging, try adding power words to them. Power words are words that writers use to trigger a psychological or emotional response. For a full list, check out these 700+ Power Words That Will Boost Your Conversions.
conclusion
that’s it! In this guide, we show you the 9 important email marketing metrics to measure, when and how to track them, and what to try to improve them.
Now it’s your turn. Go ahead and look at the state of your email marketing performance right now by following the 5-step benchmarking process outlined above. then you can set some improvement goals and track your progress weekly and monthly.
If you enjoyed this guide, you may also want to check out 19 Quick & Dirty Tricks for Writing Better Emails, as well as our complete guide to email marketing.