Are you struggling to find out which key performance indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking for your email marketing? You’re certainly not alone.
While this blog doesn’t cover every metric, it covers the ones I personally use every day. It has even helped us grow +55% in the last 12 months.
What does this mean? It means that not only do they work, they work well.
Let’s jump in!
1. Open Rate KPI:
The open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened an email out of the total number of emails sent. It measures how many people actually viewed the email you sent.
You can calculate your open rate by dividing the total number of emails opened by the total number of emails delivered and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. A good open rate is between 17% and 28%, depending on what industry you are in.
How to increase your open rate
- Subject line: The subject line is the first thing people see, and it helps them decide whether to click on your email. Your subject line should be catchy and relevant. Nobody likes clickbait in an email, and it will lead to more people unsubscribing.
- Sender name: The sender’s name should be easily recognizable. People trust names they have seen before, so it should be familiar. If they sign up for your newsletter on your website, using your website brand name will lead to the highest open rate.
- Personalized Targeting: I get it—you want as many people as possible to see your email. However, people don’t click on irrelevant content. If you have a broad subscriber list, it might be worth splitting it into different segments so that each segment receives more personalized emails.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR):
Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the percentage of people who click on a link in an email. It essentially shows how many recipients actively engaged with the email by clicking on a call to action or link provided within the message.
This is important because if people aren’t clicking on your call to action, your email may not be the right fit for them.
How to increase your click-through rate
- Personalization: People love personalization and feel like you put effort into it. A great way to portray this is to use their names and any relevant information you might have on that person/group of people.
- Mobile optimization: Design emails that look great on all devices, especially mobile phones. Most users open emails on their smartphones, so it can be easy to forget about our mobile friends when designing emails on a computer. Make sure that the email looks great on all devices before sending it out. 61.9% of emails are opened on a smartphone.
- Clear CTAs: Your call-to-action should be something that clearly tells the recipient what they should do next. To the recipient, it should feel like the right next step.
3. Conversion Rate KPI:
An email conversion rate is the percentage of recipients who perform a desired action after opening an email, such as making a purchase, signing up for a service, or downloading a resource. It essentially measures how effective an email campaign is at driving the desired behavior from its recipients.
If your conversion rate is high, that means your email was very good. If your CTR is high but your conversion rate is low, that means your email was good, but the link they clicked on was not.
How to increase your conversion rate
- Quality Content: If you are leading people to a landing page, it is important that you have high-quality content that matches the quality of your email. It should look sleek and professional, showing that you are a reputable brand.
- Relevant to email: Your landing page must be relevant to the email. Whether you are trying to get people to sign up for something or buy one of your products, if the email isn’t relevant, then people clicked on your CTA for nothing.
- User-friendly design: Like the email, the landing page should be user-friendly on all devices, especially mobile. This means ensuring that all forms, buttons, and images work properly on every device.
4. Bounce Rate KPI:
Email bounce rate is the percentage of emails that fail to reach the intended recipient’s inbox. It’s a KPI that can help you understand the effectiveness of your campaign. A higher-than-average bounce rate can hurt your sender’s reputation and cause your emails to end up in spam or, even worse, get blacklisted by email providers, stopping you from sending emails altogether.
How to decrease your bounce rate
- Double opt-in: On your opt-in forms, you can have users enter their email twice to make sure there weren’t any mistakes. You can also have users confirm their email once they have signed up to add an extra layer of validity.
- List cleaning: You should be removing any hard-bounced email addresses from your list any time they pop up. Most marketing platforms allow you to do this at the click of a button.
- Avoid purchased lists: This is an extremely common pitfall. Although purchased lists may look promising, they often contain outdated or invalid addresses that others have spammed. It’s better to ignore this list completely.
5. Unsubscribe Rate KPI:
The email unsubscribe rate is just like it sounds; it is the number of email subscribers who opt out of receiving emails from a company. A good email unsubscribe rate is generally considered to be below 0.5%.
How to decrease your unsubscribe rate
- Quality list building: Make sure that your entire email list of full of users who have consented and want to join.
- Content relevance and personalization: Make sure the content is what the receipt might expect. For example, if you have a skateboard brand, the content should be related to skateboarding.
- Email frequency management: Nobody likes getting spammed, even by brands they like. Make sure you aren’t sending emails too frequently. The ideal number is 1-2 emails a week. Anything beyond that might be perceived as spam.
6. List Growth Rate KPI:
Your list growth rate measures how your email list is growing over a specific period of time. A good month-to-month email growth rate is about 2.5%, which includes keeping a well-maintained list while gaming new subscribers.
How to increase your email list
- Create compelling lead magnets: People are usually happy to give their email in exchange for something of value. You can offer free content like ebooks, cheat sheets, or exclusive discounts in exchange for email addresses.
- Optimize signup forms: Keep forms short and easy and collect only the information you need, such as a name and email. Anything else might turn people away.
- Use pop-up forms: Well-timed pop-ups are great for grabbing a visitor’s attention, but they should be minimal and not annoying.
7. Revenue Per Email KPI:
Revenue Per Email (RPE) is a KPI that measures the average revenue generated by each individual email sent in a marketing campaign. It is calculated by dividing the total revenue generated by the campaign by the total number of emails sent.
Your revenue goals should be entirely dependent on your niche and what your past revenue has been. In general, email marketing should account for about 20-25% of total revenue, but it can’t change depending on your brand.
How to increase your revenue per email
- Abandoned Cart Emails: If you run an eCommerce store where people can buy products on your website, you should set up automated emails to customers who left things in their shopping cart. You can do this with 1-3 emails just reminding them to complete their purchase.
- Welcome Series: You can set up a series of welcome emails to introduce new subscribers to who they are. These emails should also incentivize people to make a purchase, but they shouldn’t be a full sales pitch.
- A/B Testing: You can create multiple emails that go out to different subscribers to see which one performs better. You can test out different subject lines, design choices, CTA’s, and more to determine what works best with your audience. You should frequently do these tests as your audience grows and your brand changes.
Final Thoughts
Tracking core KPIs is important for your email marketing strategy to be successful. By focusing on personalization, mobile-friendly designs, and clear calls to action, I have no doubts that you will see results. For quick improvement, consider running an A/B test on your subject lines or calls to action in your next email campaign—this simple step can reveal what your subscribers want to see.
Pro Tip: Keep your list clean and targeted; sending relevant content not only protects your deliverability but also builds trust.
Ready to supercharge your email marketing? Check out our resources at Slade Marketing to take your campaigns to the next level.
