8 Email Marketing Metrics Every Marketer Needs to Track

Email Marketing Metrics

Email marketing is still a reliable way to reach your customers, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Email marketing metrics let you know how well your campaigns are performing, but there are 8 key metrics that every marketer should be tracking to ensure their email campaign has the best chance of success possible.

This blog post will discuss what these 8 email marketing metrics are and why they’re essential for any business owner or marketer looking to grow their customer base via email!

Let us get started with the fundamentals!

What are email marketing KPIs and why are they crucial?

Email marketing KPIs are used to guide an email campaign to align with the metrics you want to measure. You don’t need one or two KPIs for the success of your email campaign but a balanced set of metrics.

However, identifying the right email marketing metrics for your business is not easy. You’ll have to check different optimization points and iterate your campaigns until you find out what works for your growth goals. 

Nevertheless, to make the process much less cumbersome, we have compiled a list of 10 email marketing metrics that will help you stay on track.

1. Email Open-Rate

Open rate is one of the key metrics to measure as an email marketer. It measures how many subscribers opened up your email.

Email open rates usually indicate your email subject line’s effectiveness and how well it resonates with your target audience.

For instance, subject lines using subscribers’ first names are 26% more likely to be opened than subject lines without a name. Other strategies, like using emoticons in subject lines or keeping them short and direct, can also increase email open rates.

2. Email Click-Through Rate (CTR)

One standard metric that marketers can use to determine the performance of their email campaigns is CTR. It measures what percentage of people click on links within a given email, for instance, when they offer information and rewards.

There are many ways to increase an email’s click-through rate. For instance, including links throughout the email at appropriate places and adding a conspicuous call-to-action button that subscribers can click to redeem an offer are some proven tactics.

However, bear in mind that your CTR will always be less than the open rate – and it floats around 4% for most campaigns.

3. Conversion Rate

Tracking email marketing metrics is essential for assessing the success of your email campaigns. You can measure these by two different metrics: click-through rate measures how many people clicked on the given email link, while conversion rate assesses how many people clicked on the link and then completed something specific (i.e., purchase, download, or form submission).

Understanding your conversion rates tells you a lot about whether or not marketing through email has been successful. Conversion rates tell you how many people who subscribe are interested enough in your product to give out their information and make a purchase. This is why conversion rate is a direct indicator of your ROI.

4. Unsubscribe Rate

Tracking the number of unsubscribes is an effortless task. Upon receipt of your email, the number of unsubscribed people can usually be found in your main dashboard or metrics dashboard.

Unsubscribes should not be discouraging. Email marketers often see unsubscribe rate as an essential metric because you are refining your subscriber list and sending it to them via email.

Moreover, a clear option to unsubscribe from your mailing list also indicates you are a trustworthy brand that chooses to opt in or opt out content & business communication with people.

5. Email Bounce Rate

When sending an email campaign, one metric to track is the subscriber’s bounce rate. Bounce Rate indicates how many subscribers didn’t receive your email.

There are two types of email bounce rates – Soft bounce and hard bounce. Soft bounces track temporary problems with an email address, and a hard bounce means something is wrong with the email account in question.

Comparing bounce rates with open rates will give you an idea about the quality of your subscriber list. For instance, a high percentage of hard bounces may indicate that your list has many fake or old email addresses.

6. Spam Score

It’s a huge bummer when your email marketing messages get marked as spam. You might think it’s not worth listening to these complaints, but there are plenty of reasons why this should be taken seriously.

You should also continually monitor your email service provider reports to ensure that the number of spam complaints you receive is still at an acceptable level or else risk other action being taken against your account.

Most email service providers track spam reports for their client brands. However, you can keep an eye on this number, stick to email, copywriting, and design standard practices to minimize spam reports.

7. ROI Bottomline

Every marketer should be tracking overall ROI. It tells you the net return on campaign investment for your campaigns. You can calculate this by taking the sales revenue generated from the campaign minus any expenses spent executing that campaign, dividing it by the money invested in that specific campaign, and multiplying it by 100.

Email marketing makes for one of the best marketing investments for almost all business niches due to its predictable ROI.

8. Email Share/Forward Rate

One crucial email marketing metric is the forward rate, which measures how many recipients shared your post via social media or forwarded it to a friend.

The email forwarding rate is the direct indicator of your brand’s advocates. It tells you how many of your customers from the list are recommending your brand to their network – and driving more potential referrals.

It has been observed that consumers often make decisions based on friends’ social media posts. Influencing them with email forwards can significantly benefit your brand, as 81% of purchasing decisions are influenced by friends’ social media posts.

Are You Tracking it All?

As e-commerce growth aficionados, we are constantly helping our clients and customers make the most out of their e-tail businesses. That is why we developed a full-fledged customer data platform with Email Marketing Automation capabilities – Wigzo.

With Wigzo, you get to;

  • delve deep into customer analytics 
  • deploy custom automation in all digital marketing channels 
  • create highly optimized customer journeys and funnels
  • learn more about your customers through RFM analysis
  • track and manage campaigns
  • unleash the power of integrated CRM data management – 

…all over one dashboard.

Power up your e-commerce growth with Wigzo. Sign up for the FREE trial today!

Also Read: 5 Tips To Avoid Spam Filters For Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Parth Kapoor

Parth Kapoor

Parth is a computer science graduate from the University of Delhi. He is a Manager - Customer Success at Wigzo and having over 4 years of experience in the e-commerce and SaaS industry. In his spare time, you will find him reading about the latest tech and playing games.

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