If you aren’t leveraging your email marketing reports, you may be missing out on a valuable resource.
Marketing is like science, so data becomes fundamental for growth.
If you understand email reports well and know what metrics you should look for, they can become your best ally in improving your marketing campaigns.
Join me as I share an introduction to email marketing reports, how to analyze them, and even how to write your email campaign reports.
TL;DR: Why Email Reports Matter in 2025
Email marketing is now data-driven, not guesswork.
Reports should highlight open rate, CTR, conversions, and unsubscribe rate, but also AI-powered insights and subscriber engagement trends.
With beehiiv’s 3D analytics and AI tools, you can measure real-time performance and take action faster.
In 2025, static PDFs are outdated. Your best reports live inside dashboards, not docs.
What Is Email Marketing Campaign Summary?
This is a shorter version of an email marketing campaign report.
The email marketing campaign report would include many items like a description, objectives, return on investment, and more. The campaign summary can provide a snapshot of the campaign in just a few metrics.
Most email marketing software does this for you automatically. The idea is that you can see the name of the campaign, the date it was sent, and the most relevant metrics (like the open rate and the click-through rate).
For a campaign summary to be effective, you need to share it by taking a screenshot and copying/pasting it on your messaging app or email. That's it.
Email Campaign Report (What Is It?)
An email marketing campaign report shows specific KPIs to decision-makers in one place, so they can understand how the campaign performed compared to their standard, goal, or previous campaigns.
While the KPIs and format may vary slightly because each company or project will have a different focus or goal, there are a few metrics we should never underestimate (I will cover those in the next section).
The email campaign report is an extended version of the campaign summary. However, I would not recommend making it longer than one page (especially if this will be a PDF or print document).
You don't need to create a book-like report for each campaign; you likely won’t have the time and resources to execute this and it would be too lengthy for anyone to quickly review.
Sit down and determine the sweet spot where these two realities can intersect for your project:
Include all of the relevant information you need to measure and compare.
Simplify as much as possible.
If you do those things simultaneously, you will create a balanced report that is relevant and effective for everyone involved.
I recommend playing with other elements that could add value to your report and not just the KPIs alone (unless that makes sense for you). For example:
Graphics or other supporting visuals
Links or snapshots of previous campaigns
A section for comments or interpretation
Also, consider the fact that creating a document or PDF is not the only way to create and share a report today.
You can create your email campaign report within your project management or team collaboration tool to use enhanced features like comments, tags, rich content, and more.
A few things need to happen before you can create your first report. You need to:
Send your campaign
Wait enough time for it to be “completed” or give relevant data
Analyze the data
Write the report
What to Include in Every Campaign Report
Campaign name and send date
Audience segment and list size
Core metrics (open, CTR, conversions, bounce, unsubscribes)
Visual charts or graphs
Key takeaways and recommendations
How AI Is Transforming Email Reporting
AI has redefined what’s possible in email analytics. In 2025, data isn’t just measured — it’s predicted.
Modern Use Cases:
Predictive Analytics: Forecast open and click probabilities before sending.
Smart Insights: AI suggests subject line tweaks, send times, and content length.
Personalized Benchmarks: Compare your results with similar creators automatically.
How Do You Analyze an Email Campaign?
Now that you know what an email campaign summary and report are, it’s time to learn how to analyze their data.
At this point, you have sent your emails, and the campaign results have already been settled.
To analyze the campaign, you must understand the essential KPIs for email marketing campaigns to focus on what moves the needle when improving or creating new campaigns.
There are several metrics that you could be tracking. However, avoid the temptation of tracking everything and paying attention to unessential information. These are the five metrics that should be integral to any campaign:
Open Rate

Open rate is the proportion of email recipients who opened your message. Here is an example:
Open rate = (Total opens / Total delivered) x 100
Suppose you send 500 emails; out of those 500, 100 emails are opened. Your open rate would be 20% [(100/500) x 100].
A good open rate tells you that the subject line and preheader text were attractive to your subscribers, so they felt motivated to open the email and engage with its content. Conversely, a low open rate could imply that the subject line lacked appeal or that the email failed to reach the intended audience's inbox.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The click-through rate is the proportion of recipients who followed a link in your email. Here’s an example:
CTR = (Total clicks / Total opens) x 100
For example, let's say your email received 300 opens, and 75 recipients out of those 300 clicked on a link. In this case, your click-through rate (CTR) would be 25% [(75/300) x 100].
The design, placement, and wording of the email's CTA and the relevance of the content to the recipient play crucial roles in influencing an email's click-through rate (CTR). The higher the CTR, the higher indication of the trust and confidence your audience has in your brand or message.
When readers trust you, they engage with your content by reading it and take the desired actions when prompted by your calls to action. Be clear and concise when you want your audience to take action.
Conversion Rate

The conversion rate refers to the percentage of recipients who have completed a specific action, such as purchasing or filling out a form. Here’s an example of how to calculate the conversion rate:
Conversion rate = (Total conversions / Total clicks) x 100
Suppose your email generated 80 clicks on a specific link, and 15 recipients completed a purchase. In this scenario, your conversion rate would be 18.75% [(15/80) x 100].
The conversion rate allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your email in driving desired actions, such as product purchases or new users signing up for a free trial.
Bounce Rate

The bounce rate represents the percentage of emails that were undeliverable and returned. A significant bounce rate suggests that the email list may require cleaning or updating to improve deliverability and ensure successful communication with recipients. Here’s how to calculate the bounce rate:
Bounce rate = (Total bounces / Total sent) x 100
Divide the bounced emails by the total emails sent. Then, multiply the result by 100. For instance, if you send out 500 emails and receive 25 bounces, your bounce rate would be 5% [(25/500) x 100].
Bounces are classified into two types: hard bounces and soft bounces.
Hard bounces are encountered when an email cannot be delivered due to reasons like invalid or non-existent email addresses. It is crucial to promptly remove hard bounces from your email list to ensure that future emails are not sent to these addresses, maintaining the efficiency and deliverability of your campaigns.
Soft bounces occur when an email cannot be delivered temporarily due to an overflowing inbox or a server error. Unlike hard bounces, soft bounces have a chance of successful delivery in future email sends. Therefore, it is advisable to retry sending to soft bounces as they may become deliverable once the temporary issue is resolved.
Unsubscribe Rate

The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of recipients who unsubscribed from your email list. Here’s how to calculate it:
Unsubscribe rate = (Total unsubscribes / Total delivered) x 100
If you send 500 emails and receive 5 unsubscribe requests, your unsubscribe rate would be 1% [(5/500) x 100].
Moving towards a healthy unsubscribe rate is always the best. You can do so by following these strategies:

Segmenting your email list and targeting specific audience groups with your messaging
Offering exclusive content, promotions, or information to your subscribers to add value to their experience
Making sure your email content is relevant and engaging to your target audience
Managing your email frequency and avoiding sending too many emails
Allowing subscribers to unsubscribe by providing an unsubscribe link and making it simple for them to opt-out (This will also help you understand the aspects where you didn’t meet their expectations.)
Once you review this information, take the time to process it (even discuss it with some of your team members), and add other relevant elements to your raw data, it’s time to write or create the report.
Most Overlooked Email Metrics in 2025
Beyond the essentials, there are secondary metrics that reveal deeper trends.
Metric | Why It Matters |
---|---|
Engagement Over Time | Measures how long subscribers stay active before churning. |
List Growth Rate | Tracks how fast your audience expands net of unsubscribes. |
Revenue Per Email (RPE) | Essential for creators and ecommerce newsletters. |
Device Performance | Optimizes design for mobile vs. desktop. |
Send-Time Optimization Score | Predicts when each segment is most likely to open. |
Use Case: beehiiv’s analytics can now auto-segment subscribers by engagement pattern, helping creators send at the exact time readers are most responsive.
How Do You Write an Email Campaign Report?

Imagine if beehiiv gave you a 10-page report for each email campaign you send. Would you read it?
One of your top priorities in creating your report must be to keep it succinct.
At the same time, it’s not advised that you create a new report from scratch each time.
This is not a blog post. You need to be efficient; your sole objective is to transmit the data and have your team take action and improve.
Follow the following steps to ensure success:
Create a System
The purpose of your system is to implement a workflow that streamlines your email campaign report creation process.
Minimize the need for your input as much as possible. Set specific times, reminders, and a step-by-step process to remove the dependency on your memory and the need to ask “What is next?” every time.
This system would need to include (at least) the following:
Reminders for when a campaign is sent
A set amount of time that needs to pass to consider the campaign completed
Software to gather the information automatically
A specific date to review the information gathered and add other elements
Create a Template
Your system wouldn’t be complete without optimizing the content part of your report.
I cannot get very specific here because every system and its tools will differ.
The general idea is to take what I mentioned in the previous sections and create a template document that makes it easy for you to generate this report each week.
The idea is to create a plug-and-play system that keeps updating your campaign reports simple.
By now, you should know how to read a campaign report. Use that skill to improve your campaigns and witness how data transforms your marketing.
Feel free to check out more email marketing guides by beehiiv here.
Example Layout
Campaign Name: “Weekly Growth Digest #42”
Audience: 10,245 subscribers (Startup + Creator)
Send Date: Sept 18, 2025
Metrics:
Open Rate: 43%
CTR: 7.2%
Conversion: 3.4%
Unsubscribes: 0.3%
Key Insight:
Personalized subject line (“[Name], your growth checklist”) lifted opens by 12%. Testing shorter CTA text next.
Key Takeaways: The Anatomy of a High-Performing Email Report
Focus on the 5 essential KPIs: open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate.
Include context and recommendations: data without insight is noise.
Visualize your numbers with charts and trend lines, not just bullet points.
Use AI to identify trends, forecast results, and personalize follow-up campaigns.
____________________________________________________________________
Why Trust Us?
Mateo Melgar is a family-first freelancer and digital entrepreneur from Mexico. He started monetizing the internet in 2016 (before “remote work” was cool) and never looked back. Mateo has reached hundreds of thousands of readers through his content marketing and newsletter initiatives with companies like Testimonial, NotionForms, Freelancer Fire, and beehiiv.
FAQ: Common Questions About Email Marketing Reports
1. What Is an Email Marketing Report?
An email marketing report is a summary of how your email campaigns perform over time. It includes metrics like open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversions, bounce rate, and unsubscribes.
The goal is to turn raw data into insights, helping you see what content, subject lines, or segments drive the most engagement.
2. How Much Is a 10,000-Subscriber Email List Worth?
The value of a 10,000-subscriber email list depends on your niche, engagement rate, and monetization model.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Model | Average Monthly Revenue | Example |
---|---|---|
Paid Subscriptions | $5–10 per paid reader (5–10% conversion) = $2,500–$10,000 | Premium newsletter with gated content |
Sponsorships / Ads | $20–50 CPM = $200–500 per send | Weekly brand placements |
Affiliates / Boosts | $500–2,000+ | Promoting tools or partner newsletters |
Digital Products / Courses | $2,000–5,000+ | High-ticket info products |
3. What Is the 60/40 Rule in Email Marketing?
The 60/40 rule helps balance content so your emails don’t feel overly promotional.
60% Value: Educational, entertaining, or story-driven content.
40% Promotion: Calls to action (CTAs), offers, or product mentions.
This keeps readers engaged while still supporting conversions. It’s especially useful for newsletters that blend content + commerce.
4. What Are the Four Types of Email Marketing?
Email marketing generally falls into four main categories:
Newsletter Emails: Regular updates, insights, or news (e.g., weekly creator digests).
Promotional Emails: Product launches, discounts, or special offers.
Transactional Emails: Confirmations, receipts, or account updates.
Lifecycle / Automated Emails: Personalized journeys such as welcomes, onboarding, or re-engagement flows.
5. How Do I Write a Marketing Report?
A marketing report summarizes campaign performance and insights across all channels, email, social, paid, and more.
To write one effectively:
Start with Objectives: Define what success looks like.
Collect Key Metrics: Focus on KPIs that matter (e.g., open rates, conversions, ROI).
Visualize Results: Use charts or dashboards for clarity.
Interpret the Data: Explain why results happened, not just what they are.
Recommend Actions: Outline next steps for optimization.