Email Analytics: 6 Email Marketing Metrics to Track
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 6:47 am
Having an optimized email template, an email marketing strategy that covers the most critical components, or a large database can make you successful, but if you can’t see the results of your efforts, none of that matters.
Whatever your goals are, the next thing you need to do is figure out what metrics you should be tracking to determine how you're progressing toward that goal.
So, before you create your next email, stop and ask yourself, “What is the goal of my email marketing?” or “What does the company expect from these emails?”
What Email Metrics Should I Track?
Your goal for email marketing may be very different from another company’s goals, and may even change over time within your own company. However, it’s still important to determine exactly what you want to achieve with your emails before you start (or continue) sending and measuring them.
Grow your database? Find more leads? Convert leads into active customers?
Before moving on to metrics, it is important to remember an important point; all of these metrics vary by sector, and this variable should be taken into consideration when determining a specific percentage target.
Click Rate
What it is: The percentage of email recipients who click on one or more links in a given email.
How to Calculate: (Total clicks OR unique clicks ÷ Number of emails delivered) * 100
Example: 500 total clicks ÷ 10,000 delivered emails * 100 = 5% click-through rate
Click rate is one of the most common metrics used in email marketing. It is also often used to determine the results of A/B tests, as these tests are often done to find new ways to get more clicks on your emails.
Click-through rate is a very important metric to track in email marketing because it gives you direct insight into how many people in your database are interested in your company and engaging with your content.
Conversion Rate
What it is: The percentage of email recipients who click on a overseas chinese in worldwide data link in an email and complete a targeted action, such as filling out a lead generation form or purchasing a product.
How to Calculate: (Number of people who completed the requested action ÷ Total number of emails delivered) * 100
Example: 400 people who completed the requested action ÷ 10,000 total emails delivered * 100 = 4% conversion rate
Once your target audience clicks on your email, the goal is usually to get them to perform the desired action. For example, if you are sending an email to your target audience asking them to download an e-book, you would consider everyone who downloads the e-book as a conversion, not everyone who opens the email.
To measure the conversion rate on your emails, you need to integrate your email automation system with your website. You can do this by creating unique URLs for your email links. In some systems, this is done automatically.
Bounce Rate
What is it: It is the percentage of total emails sent that cannot be delivered to your target data.
How to Calculate: (Total number of bounced emails ÷ Total number of sent emails) * 100
Example: 75 bounced emails ÷ 10,000 total emails sent * 100 = 0.75% bounce rate
There are two types of bounces to monitor: Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce.
What are Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce?
A Soft Bounce is a temporary non-delivery issue that can occur due to a problem with the inbox of a valid email address or the recipient's server. The recipient's server may hold these emails for delivery once the problem is resolved, or you can try sending your email again.
A Hard Bounce is a failure to deliver to an invalid, closed, or non-existent email address. These emails are never delivered successfully. Since Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use bounce rates to determine your company's reputation, you should regularly remove email addresses identified as Hard Bounces from your list.
Return on Investment (ROI)
What it is: The total return on investment of your email campaigns. In other words, total revenue divided by total spend.
How to Calculate: [Revenue from additional sales - investment in the campaign) ÷ investment in the campaign] * 100
Example: ($1,000 in additional sales - $100 invested in campaign / $100 invested in campaign) * 100 = 900% ROI for campaign
This is the most basic formula for calculating ROI, but you may prefer a different one depending on your business type.
Open Rate
What is it: The percentage of emails you send that are opened by recipients.
Email marketing teams often try to optimize their content for higher open rates. While this strategy can have a positive impact, optimizing for click-through rates instead may be more effective for your conversion goals.
If you use it as a comparative metric and A/B test it, you can get results from open rate. For example, if you compare open rates (for the same mailing list) on different days or times of the week, the results can give you an idea.
Unsubscribe Rate
What is it: The percentage of email recipients who leave your mailing list after the email you sent is opened.
There are different opinions about the unsubscribe rate. The first is that it is not a reliable picture of the health of your email list. Many subscribers who are tired of receiving emails from your company will not bother to go through the unsubscribe process. They will simply stop opening, reading, and clicking on your emails. Another view is that checking your unsubscribe rate monthly will help you estimate your list growth rate.
Notes
Be intentional about which metrics you track and make sure you can effectively measure your email performance, the effectiveness of your email list, and your progress toward your goals. As long as you can identify each of these, you’re on the right track to more effective email marketing.
Whatever your goals are, the next thing you need to do is figure out what metrics you should be tracking to determine how you're progressing toward that goal.
So, before you create your next email, stop and ask yourself, “What is the goal of my email marketing?” or “What does the company expect from these emails?”
What Email Metrics Should I Track?
Your goal for email marketing may be very different from another company’s goals, and may even change over time within your own company. However, it’s still important to determine exactly what you want to achieve with your emails before you start (or continue) sending and measuring them.
Grow your database? Find more leads? Convert leads into active customers?
Before moving on to metrics, it is important to remember an important point; all of these metrics vary by sector, and this variable should be taken into consideration when determining a specific percentage target.
Click Rate
What it is: The percentage of email recipients who click on one or more links in a given email.
How to Calculate: (Total clicks OR unique clicks ÷ Number of emails delivered) * 100
Example: 500 total clicks ÷ 10,000 delivered emails * 100 = 5% click-through rate
Click rate is one of the most common metrics used in email marketing. It is also often used to determine the results of A/B tests, as these tests are often done to find new ways to get more clicks on your emails.
Click-through rate is a very important metric to track in email marketing because it gives you direct insight into how many people in your database are interested in your company and engaging with your content.
Conversion Rate
What it is: The percentage of email recipients who click on a overseas chinese in worldwide data link in an email and complete a targeted action, such as filling out a lead generation form or purchasing a product.
How to Calculate: (Number of people who completed the requested action ÷ Total number of emails delivered) * 100
Example: 400 people who completed the requested action ÷ 10,000 total emails delivered * 100 = 4% conversion rate
Once your target audience clicks on your email, the goal is usually to get them to perform the desired action. For example, if you are sending an email to your target audience asking them to download an e-book, you would consider everyone who downloads the e-book as a conversion, not everyone who opens the email.
To measure the conversion rate on your emails, you need to integrate your email automation system with your website. You can do this by creating unique URLs for your email links. In some systems, this is done automatically.
Bounce Rate
What is it: It is the percentage of total emails sent that cannot be delivered to your target data.
How to Calculate: (Total number of bounced emails ÷ Total number of sent emails) * 100
Example: 75 bounced emails ÷ 10,000 total emails sent * 100 = 0.75% bounce rate
There are two types of bounces to monitor: Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce.
What are Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce?
A Soft Bounce is a temporary non-delivery issue that can occur due to a problem with the inbox of a valid email address or the recipient's server. The recipient's server may hold these emails for delivery once the problem is resolved, or you can try sending your email again.
A Hard Bounce is a failure to deliver to an invalid, closed, or non-existent email address. These emails are never delivered successfully. Since Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use bounce rates to determine your company's reputation, you should regularly remove email addresses identified as Hard Bounces from your list.
Return on Investment (ROI)
What it is: The total return on investment of your email campaigns. In other words, total revenue divided by total spend.
How to Calculate: [Revenue from additional sales - investment in the campaign) ÷ investment in the campaign] * 100
Example: ($1,000 in additional sales - $100 invested in campaign / $100 invested in campaign) * 100 = 900% ROI for campaign
This is the most basic formula for calculating ROI, but you may prefer a different one depending on your business type.
Open Rate
What is it: The percentage of emails you send that are opened by recipients.
Email marketing teams often try to optimize their content for higher open rates. While this strategy can have a positive impact, optimizing for click-through rates instead may be more effective for your conversion goals.
If you use it as a comparative metric and A/B test it, you can get results from open rate. For example, if you compare open rates (for the same mailing list) on different days or times of the week, the results can give you an idea.
Unsubscribe Rate
What is it: The percentage of email recipients who leave your mailing list after the email you sent is opened.
There are different opinions about the unsubscribe rate. The first is that it is not a reliable picture of the health of your email list. Many subscribers who are tired of receiving emails from your company will not bother to go through the unsubscribe process. They will simply stop opening, reading, and clicking on your emails. Another view is that checking your unsubscribe rate monthly will help you estimate your list growth rate.
Notes
Be intentional about which metrics you track and make sure you can effectively measure your email performance, the effectiveness of your email list, and your progress toward your goals. As long as you can identify each of these, you’re on the right track to more effective email marketing.