Essential KPIs for Email Marketing Campaigns

The email marketing boom is not something new. It’s only expanding in 2023, and we're excited to be a part of it!

But building and sustaining an email list takes time, effort, and iteration. It takes patience. And most of all, it takes assessment and adjustment.

Many new creators and businesses are launching their own newsletters–but email campaign success requires careful consideration of key performance indicators (KPIs), including open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and so much more.

In this post, we’ll review the most important email marketing KPIs to master your marketing, including open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates.

We'll also discuss tracking tools, including email marketing platforms and analytics software, to help you easily and effectively monitor and analyze your KPIs and increase your email campaign performance with data-driven decisions.

Getting Started

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to figuring out the email marketing strategy that works the best for you. One creator could share a newsletter on “cooking from scratch every week,” and another creator could write about “the best hacks to keep yourself fit while working 9-5.” While related, one of these could be much more successful than the other for numerous reasons. It could just be a difference in the creator’s community, for example, or even plain old luck. Or, it could be something else.

Trying out different strategies and tweaking along the way is the best way to get the results you want. If you want to win, you need to be up for experimenting and iterating. The more you try, the better you understand your audience and their needs. The more you understand their wants and needs, the better your performance will be.

This process of trial and error helps in identifying what works best for your specific audience and improves the performance of your email campaigns over time. But how do you know what to experiment with?

No one has time to speak to every subscriber individually to gather feedback. This is where KPIs come in! To better understand your audience, you will have to deep dive into the email marketing realm and learn to read between the lines.

Our theoretical health creators may be shooting in the dark, iterating on content ideas and strategies on a whim.

My bet, though? The more successful creator is using a data-driven marketing strategy that includes assessing their KPIs.

Once you understand them, KPIs can provide a helpful guide. Consider your KPIs as clues. Change one thing at a time, and compare KPIs before and after to see what works and what doesn’t.

Ready to learn more?

Let’s start with some of the most important KPIs to monitor.

Email Marketing KPIs (5 Important Metrics)

KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, is a metric that businesses use to measure progress toward a specific goal or objective. KPIs can help you understand your performance based on your goals. For example, if you want to increase the number of visitors to your newsletter, you need to keep track of the number of unique new visitors who arrive on your website from various sources. This allows you to assess and adjust as needed.

There are many KPIs that you could use in your marketing strategy, but they’re not all equally important. Here are five of the most critical KPIs that can help you understand and modify your email marketing strategies:

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

If you send 1,000 emails and 200 of them are opened, your open rate is 20% ((200/1000) x 100).

A high open rate indicates that the subject line and preheader text enticed recipients to open the email and interact with the content. A low open rate, on the other hand, may indicate that the subject line was not compelling or that the email was not delivered to the inbox of the intended audience.

Three Ways you can increase your open rate:

• Personalized subject lines (keep them short and simple).

• Send your emails at a time when your audience is the most engaged.

• Keep your email list clean. Quality > quantity.

To see what works and what doesn’t, you can try out A/B testing and tweak your subject lines and headings based on the results.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

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 instance, if 200 people opened your email and 50 of them clicked a link, your CTR would be 25% ((50/200) x 100).

The design of the email, the placement and wording of the CTA, and the relevance of the content to the recipient are all factors that can influence email CTR. A high click-through rate indicates that your audience trusts you. And a reader that trusts you will not only read your content, but will also take action if you ask them to.

CTAs are your best friends here. Make it clear when you want your audience to take action. Make sure your CTA is visible amidst your content. Again, personalization is the key here. Tell people why they need to take an action and click on that CTA tab.

To begin, you can segment your list to provide a more personalized experience with your content.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the proportion of recipients who took an action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. Here’s an example of how to calculate conversion rate:

Conversion rate = (Total conversions / Total clicks) x 100

If 10 people completed a purchase after clicking a link in your email that received 50 clicks, your conversion rate would be 20% ((10/50) x 100).

You can use the conversion rate to determine how effective the email was in driving the desired action (in this case, product purchases) and make changes to future campaigns to improve the conversion rate. Experiment with different CTAs, landing page designs, or email content, for example, to see what works best for your audience and drives higher conversion rates.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the proportion of emails that were returned as undeliverable. A high bounce rate may indicate that the email list should be cleaned or updated. Here’s how to calculate bounce rate:

Bounce rate = (Total bounces / Total sent) x 100

Divide the overall number of bounces by the total number of emails sent and multiply by 100 to get the bounce rate. If you send 1,000 emails and 100 of them bounce, your bounce rate is 10% ((100/1000) x 100).

Bounces are classified into two types: hard bounces and soft bounces.

Hard bounces occur when an email is returned as undeliverable due to an invalid or non-existent email address. Hard bounces should be removed from the email list so that future emails won’t be sent to them.

Soft bounces happen when an email is returned as undeliverable due to a temporary issue, such as an overflowing inbox or a server error. Soft bounces can be retried in future email sends if they are deliverable.

Unsubscribe Rate

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 sent 1,000 emails and 10 people unsubscribed, your unsubscribe rate is 1% ((10/1000) x 100).

It is critical to improve your unsubscribe rate, and you can do so by:

• Making sure your email content is relevant and engaging to your target audience.

• Managing your email frequency and avoiding sending too many emails.

• Offering exclusive content, promotions, or information to your subscribers to add value to their experience.

• Segmenting your email list and targeting specific audience groups with your messaging.

• Allowing your 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

Email Marketing Campaign KPIs (Strategy)

Getting started with tracking email marketing campaign KPIs can be overwhelming, but it’s essential to measure the success of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions. Here are some steps to get started:

Identify Your Goals

Determine what you want to achieve with your email campaigns, whether it’s increasing sales, driving website traffic, or building brand awareness. Once you've decided what you want, you can see which KPIs correlate with that goal. So if you want people to reach your website and buy your merch, you need to make sure you have a high click-through rate and high conversation rate.

Set Benchmarks

Research industry benchmarks and set goals for your KPIs based on your industry and competition. This can inspire you to do better in some areas of your strategy. You can also set benchmarks based on your own goals. But never be disheartened if you’re going slow. Stick around and keep working on it.

Track and Analyze Data

Use tracking tools to monitor campaign performance. Analyze data regularly to identify trends and areas for improvement. Analyze both the campaigns that are performing well and the ones that need to be worked on. The right platform will help you grow and will provide all the insights that you need to track your data–beehiiv does this for you!

Make Data-Driven Decisions

Use the insights gained from tracking KPIs to make data-driven decisions and adjust your email marketing strategy accordingly. For instance, if your open rates are low, you can try optimizing your subject lines and preheader text to improve them. By continuously tracking and analyzing KPIs, you can make informed decisions and improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Maximize Engagement

If people engage with your content, they believe in the value you provide, and that is one of the most important things that you need to consider when you’re focusing on maximizing your email marketing strategy.

Engagement is king. Deep down, people love attention and validation, and personalized content is one of those things that makes them feel good and keeps them engaged. By focusing on engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates, etc), businesses can improve the customer experience, increase customer loyalty, and ultimately drive revenue.

Keeping your audience engaged starts with the little things. Make it entertaining, funny or valuable. You decide what works the best. Try to understand what your audience needs. Nobody wants to be spammed four times a week, but sending out your emails twice a week might be the sweet spot.

What Are 3 Ways of Measuring Success in Email Marketing?

Success is a relative team, but there are many ways to measure success in email marketing. Here are three that I suggest you can begin with:

Comparing KPIs over time: You can track progress and identify trends by comparing your KPIs over time. This allows you to make informed choices about your email campaigns and adjust your strategy as needed.

For example, if your open rates have been declining over time, you can try different subject lines, sender names, or email content to increase engagement. By comparing your KPIs before and after making changes, you can assess their impact and determine whether they are worthwhile to pursue.

Benchmarking your KPIs against industry averages: You can also compare your KPIs to industry benchmarks to see how you compare to your competitors. Though competing against others is not the best way to measure success, by analyzing their content and engagement, you can learn a lot about what works and what doesn't. This enables you to set realistic email campaign goals and adjust your strategy to meet industry standards.

Revenue tracking: You can determine which campaigns are most effective, and adjust your strategy accordingly, by tracking the revenue generated by each campaign. While KPIs such as open rate, CTR, and conversion rate provide useful information, the amount of revenue generated by your email campaigns is a summary of all the KPIs combined. Analyze which campaigns are most effective, and adjust your strategy accordingly, to maximize your ROI by tracking revenue.

What Is the Most Important Metric in Email Marketing?

If we had to suggest just one metric to start with, it would be open rate. A high open rate is crucial to ensure that your message is being seen and read by your target audience.

Personalization is one factor that highlights the importance of open rate. Today's consumers expect a personalized experience, and email marketing is no exception. By customizing your subject lines and content based on the recipient's interests and preferences, you can increase the likelihood of them opening and engaging with your email. When recipients feel that the message is relevant to their needs, they are more likely to open it and engage with your brand.

A/B testing is another way to improve open rates, and it is becoming increasingly important in 2023. By testing different subject lines, send times, and content variations, you can determine what resonates best with your audience and optimize your email campaigns accordingly. A/B testing helps you identify the best practices for your specific audience, leading to higher open rates and improved campaign performance overall.

KPIs Email Marketing (Best Tracking Tools)

Here are the two best tracking tools I’d recommend:

Google Analytics: Google Analytics allows you to track email campaign performance and measure KPIs such as conversion rate and revenue. You can also track website behavior and create custom reports to analyze data.

beehiiv: Your all-in-one newsletter platform that includes email marketing capabilities. It provides detailed reporting and 3D analytics on email campaign performance, including KPIs such as open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate.

Get Ready to Measure Your Growth

And that’s a wrap!

By understanding and working on these key performance indicators, you can do much more with your email newsletter and increase its value for the readers and yourself.

You don’t need to calculate the open rate or CTR yourself; you just need to start writing on beehiiv. With 3D analytics, you get a report of all the rates, demographics, and much more.

Sign up today, and start writing! 🚀