It is easy to believe that email marketing is dead, especially since social media and influencer marketing have been making deep inroads in the marketing world. Despite social media’s increasing popularity, email marketing finds an integral place in most businesses’ marketing plans, and for good reasons. Around 50% of customers purchase after reading B2C marketing emails at least once a month. Further, the return on investment (ROI) for an email marketing campaign is $42 per dollar, making it one of the most powerful weapons in any marketer’s armoury.  

Every marketing manager understands the importance of identifying and tracking the key metrics of a marketing campaign. Spending hundreds or thousands of dollars only makes sense when you can monitor the key email marketing metrics and evaluate their performance. 

Many marketers are confused about where to look, so we have compiled a list of email marketing KPIs to guide them and measure success.  

But first, let us understand why these email marketing performance metrics matter.  

Why are Email Marketing Metrics Important? 

Email marketing metrics are important to determine how your email campaigns are performing. Are your emails ending up in the recipient’s spam folder? How many people open your emails? Which marketing emails perform well? As a marketer, it is crucial to answer these questions to ensure you are on the right track. If not, you must make changes and adjust your email marketing strategies.  

6 Key Email Marketing Metrics

Keep an eye on these email campaign metrics to ensure you reap the rewards for your efforts.  

1. Click-through Rate (CTR) 

The click-through rate of an email campaign is the percentage of recipients who click on the link or the call-to-action (CTA) button inside your marketing emails. The CTR is a key email performance metric as it signals how interesting or engaging your emails are. A CTR of around 3-5% is considered good across the email marketing world. Here’s how you can calculate the CTR of your email campaign.  

Number clicks÷total number of emails delivered×100 = CTR𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒔÷𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅×𝟏𝟎𝟎 = 𝑪𝑻𝑹

It is worth noting that a low CTR may not necessarily mean your emails are missing the mark. That said, you must proactively implement simple yet effective strategies to improve CTR. These include creating customised emails, placing the links correctly, and targeting the relevant audience.  

2. Open Rate

As the name suggests, the open rate is the frequency of opening emails vs the total number of delivered emails during the entire campaign. The open rate of an email campaign offers insights into the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. It is also a great way to measure the engagement of your emails. The open rate of your email campaign hinges on multiple factors including the frequency of email blasts, content quality, timing, and relevance.  

You can improve the open rate of your email campaigns by playing around with your subject lines and running A/B tests. Send emails with different subject lines, content, graphics, and other elements to understand how your audience receives them, allowing you to craft relevant emails in the future.  

This is how you can calculate the open rate of your emails.  

Number of emails opened ÷ number of emails sent × 100 = Open rate𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑 ÷ 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 × 100 = 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒

Typically, an email is considered open when someone clicks a link inside an email or if the recipient has enabled the “view images” option.  

3. Conversion Rate 

The conversion rate is one of the most important email marketing KPIs for almost every email campaign. It is the percentage of people in your subscriber list who have completed the desired action (buying something in most cases). The objective of most email campaigns is to improve conversion rates by increasing sales and thereby, revenue.  

So, what is a good conversion rate? Well, conversion rates vary from sector to sector. That said, on average, conversion rates between 2-5% fall in the “good” category. You can improve the conversion rate of your email campaigns by running A/B tests, enticing audiences with smart CTAs, and using aesthetically appealing email designs.  

You can calculate the conversion rate with this formula.  

Total conversions ÷ total clicks = Conversion rate𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 ÷ 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠 = 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒

4. Bounce Rate

The bounce rate indicates the percentage of emails that never reached your subscriber’s inbox. Email bounces are categorised into two; soft and hard bounces. While hard bounces typically occur when an email is sent to a non-existent or wrong email address, soft bounces occur when emails are rejected due to technical problems including server issues and full inbox. 

Email marketers must proactively monitor their hard bounces and eliminate them from their subscriber list to ensure a healthy email list. Additionally, it is equally important to determine the root cause of soft bounces to improve your delivery rate.  

Calculate the bounce rate of your email campaigns with this easy formula.  

Total number of bounced emails ÷ number of emails sent × 100 = Bounce rate𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 ÷ 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 × 100 = 𝐵𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒

5. Forwarding Rate 

Let’s admit it. Marketers are seeking validation in any shape and form and email forwarding is one of them (well, most of the time). If your recipient forwards an email to someone, it indicates that it has something worth sharing with others. Besides, it is also an important email marketing metric since it is a good measure of the virality of your email campaign or email content. You can boost the forwarding rates of your email campaigns by incorporating social buttons and creating shareable content.  

6. Return on Investment (ROI)

The ROI is arguably one of the most important email marketing KPIs every marketer is eagerly looking at. It is imperative to track the ROI of your email campaigns to ensure whether email marketing is working out for your business or not. The idea is to invest strategically and ensure you are not draining your resources.  

There are a few ways to improve ROI in email marketing. For starters, you should consider investing in an email marketing automation tool that allows you to monitor important email performance metrics, tweak your email marketing strategy based on data, and reach the right audience at the right time.  

While we have only listed six email campaign performance metrics, it doesn’t mean other parameters aren’t important. Some of these metrics include spam rate, unsubscribe rate, list growth rate, and cost per acquisition.  

Final Words

If you are doing something, do it right, and the same mantra applies to email marketing. However, you will never be able to determine whether your email marketing efforts are effective unless you know where to look. While defining your email campaign metrics is important, it is equally essential to monitor them regularly to understand the pulse of your target audience.  

Frequently Asked Questions

What actions can I take to reduce the bounce rates of my email campaigns?  

You can reduce the bounce rates of your email campaigns by removing wrong or non-existent email addresses from your subscriber list.  

What is the difference between CTR and CTOR in email marketing?  

While CTR is the percentage of email recipients who have clicked on at least one link in an email out of all the emails delivered. On the other hand, CTOR is the percentage of recipients who click on one link in an email out of all the opened emails.  

What is a good email marketing response rate?  

Most email marketers and marketing experts agree that a response rate of around 10% is considered good in the email marketing world.  

What are the actionable metrics and KPIs of email marketing?  

Some of the most actionable KPIs and metrics of an email campaign include the click-through rate, open rate, bounce rate, spam rate, overall ROI, email forward rate, and more.