9 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for Email Marketing
You already know that email marketing is still effective and provides a significant ROI. But before you hit send on your first eCommerce email, we want to ask — do you know how to differentiate a successful email from one that falls flat?
Will it be sales? Or social media mentions? Or a combination of key performance indicators (KPIs) that truly tell you what’s working and what’s not?
Without understanding KPIs and how they directly link to every email you send, you’re threading a needle in the dark and are less likely to reach your goals.
What Are KPIs for Email Marketing?
KPIs are the numbers that give you a picture of the overall performance, good or bad, of an email campaign. You’ll learn who’s opening your emails, when, and sometimes where, like on a mobile device or desktop computer. But these numbers can go even deeper to reveal clicks, forwards, and others that you can use to create winning campaigns and see email marketing results.
How Do You Measure The Effectiveness of Email Marketing?
Knowing what KPIs matter for your goals, tracking the numbers, and adjusting your email marketing as needed. While many people consider the open rate a major KPI, it’s much less effective today than it was.
Apple users have the option to use Mail Privacy Protection[1] which stops analytic programs, such as the dashboard in your email marketing service, from tracking the pixel linked to email opens and device use.
Most email marketing service providers include an email marketing analytics dashboard, but many eCommerce companies supplement it with Google Analytics (GA). GA lets you dive into the traffic on your website to a granular level to evaluate elements like user flow.
This area allows you to see which users came to your website from an email and where they traveled on the website. Knowing how users interact with your emails and website lets you personalize and optimize for their needs.
KPIs for Email Marketing: 9 Email Metrics to Track
Any time spent researching KPIs for email marketing is likely to return different metrics from different thought leaders. But we believe these nine are the best ones to track and the ones most likely to provide actionable data to grow your email marketing.
1. Open Rate
It’s the percentage of people who opened an email out of all emails sent to the list or segment. Perhaps the simplest KPI to use, it has become harder to track and maybe even more so if more email providers follow Apple’s lead.
Many companies find the open rate is different depending on the device used to view or open the email. Keep this in mind as you mull a good or abysmal open rate for your next email campaign.
2. Unsubscribe Rate
This is the percentage of unsubscribes for a sent email. This can happen with every email you send as people decide they’re not interested in your product or service or feel overwhelmed by how many emails you send.
But, calculating your average unsubscribe rate for a set amount of time, such as a quarter or six months, should give you a starting point for what percentage your business can handle while still growing its subscribers.
Five common reasons behind people unsubscribing are unrecognizable sender’s name, irrelevant content, unsolicited emails, sending too many emails, and opting in only to take advantage of an offer.
3. Clickthrough Rate
This is the percentage of readers who opened the message and clicked on at least one link. Your clickthrough rate (CTR) is a good measure of the strength of your email when accounting for the copy, messaging, and/or offers. It also goes hand-in-hand with the next KPI.
4. Conversion Rate
The goal of every email is for a reader to travel somewhere else, like a landing page or your eCommerce website. The conversion rate is the percentage of readers who complete a call-to-action, such as clicking a button to view a sales page on your website.
To accurately track this rate, you’ll want to add Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters to your email campaigns. These tags correctly attribute clicks and actions in and from emails to your website analytics, making it easier for you to drill down what readers are engaging with.
5. Bounce Rate
An email bounces when it can’t be delivered to the specified server. The rate is expressed as a percentage of bounced emails divided by the total sent multiplied by 100. It could be a soft bounce, usually a temporary delivery issue like a server error or a full inbox. If it’s a hard bounce, it means the email address doesn’t exist, or delivery is blocked by the email server.
6. List Growth Rate
This rate reflects how quickly — or not — your subscriber list grows. It’s calculated by taking the number of new subscribers minus unsubscribes and spam complaints, then dividing that total by all the addresses on your list and multiplying by 100.
Knowing what your list growth rate is at any given time should help guide future email plans and campaigns. Stagnant or decreasing growth needs more attention than an all-new campaign idea.
7. Social Shares
Similar but different from the conversion rate, social shares encompass which social network a subscriber shared the email on. Make sure you attach UTMs to the social share buttons for full attribution. You can also use this data to figure out which social media networks your customers use more than others.
8. Forward Rate
Forwarding is a digital form of word-of-mouth advertising and a great way to grow your subscriber list. The rate is the percentage determined by dividing the number of forwards on an email by the total emails delivered times 100.
Encourage your current subscribers to share or forward every email with others and start tracking the rate. You’ll be able to see the content types more likely to be shared than others and can tailor future emails accordingly.
9. Spam Complaints
Spam complaints are the emails people report as spam, whether using a “report spam” link or unsubscribing and listing spam as the reason. Obviously, having any email marked as spam isn’t good, but if you compile enough complaints, you might begin having deliverability issues from email service providers.
How Can I Improve Email Marketing Metrics?
If your metrics and analytics aren’t quite where you want them, make a conscientious effort over time to use these tips. Don’t be afraid to make changes again if a tactic still doesn’t work.
How to Improve Email Marketing Open Rate
The higher, the better, but your open rate is affected by a long list of influences. Here are four you can test and adjust to improve.
1. Subject line
These words are often the first thing a subscriber sees when they open their inbox. Make sure your subject lines use strong verbs, entice action, and are relevant to the content inside.
2. Sender information
Your subscribers want to read emails from a company or person they’re familiar with, if only in name. Ensure your sender information is either the company name or “name at XYZ eCommerce.” The sender information is one area you can A/B test with to see if subscribers open more emails from one or the other.
3. Send time
Periodically checking the analytics to find out when your subscribers are mostly opening emails is the best way to avoid bad timing. Sending emails when your readers are ready to read and engage subtly shows you’re respectful of their time. They, in turn, are less likely to overlook the email or delete it without reading it.
4. Segmentation
Not segmenting your overall subscriber list is a great way to have a really high unopened rate. Segmenting lets you send relevant information, like sales, discounts, and product previews, to people who’re interested and most likely to make opening the message the first action they take.
How to Reduce Email Marketing Unsubscribe Rate
An unexpected unsubscribe rate isn’t insurmountable. In fact, spending a little time working through these tips is a good way to bring the rate down and grow your subscribers.
Use clear opt-in methods: Unsolicited emails are the new dinnertime telemarketer call — nobody likes them and opts out as quickly as possible.
Don’t buy email lists: Along with barging into inboxes, you run the risk of being marked as spam which affects open rates and deliverability.
Periodically clean email lists: Remove users who opted out and update/correct existing email addresses.
Create a suppression list: Put users who’re unengaged or inactive on this list to avoid a higher unsubscribe rate.
Make sure emails are responsive & accessible: Not everyone opens emails on the same type of device, nor are they able to see or read all designs clearly.
Find your email cadence: Send the right emails to the right people at the right time based on data.
How to Improve Email Marketing Clickthrough Rate
Your subscribers open, read, and interact with your emails because the content is relevant. This is where knowing your subscribers and having them in the appropriate segmented lists is key. You haven’t segmented your lists? Consider this a gentle reminder that if you want a good clickthrough rate, you need to segment.
How to Improve Conversion Rate from Email Marketing
While your conversion rate can depend on the type of email sent and the action you want subscribers to take, a good rule of thumb is the higher the rate, the better.
Engaging subject line: Remember, it’s one of the first things a reader sees as their reason to open the email.
Personalized content: Back to segmenting here, but would you click on any buttons or links related to cocktail party shoes when you’re looking for running kicks?
Compelling call-to-action: Simple, compelling, and actionable CTAs convince people to click through to your website.
Include testimonials: Potential customers are more likely to make a purchase when they hear or read about a product from a current and satisfied customer.
How to Reduce Email Marketing Bounce Rate
Across all industries, a good bounce rate is 2% or less. A higher rate could result in your emails being flagged as spam by email service providers.
Periodically clean email lists: People change email addresses over time, and sending to bouncing addresses lowers your potential KPIs.
Use permission-based emails: Make sure the emails you’re sending to are valid, and you have their permission to send to.
Use a regular send cadence: Consistency in your sending schedule helps readers remember they did sign up for your messages.
Use relevant and personalized content: Slapping whatever comes to mind into an email and hitting send is a good way for email providers to flag your messages as spam.
How to Boost Email List Growth Rate
On average, email lists lose 20% to 22% of subscribers every year for a wide range of reasons. The natural loss sounds extreme, but there are ways to maintain your list and business growth.
Encourage shares and forwarding: Use social sharing buttons and a button to forward the email to someone else easily. The easier you make it for someone to share, the more likely they will.
Create a re-engagement campaign: Develop an opt-in message that encourages stale or inactive email subscribers to opt-in again but lets them know you’ll remove them from the list if they don’t engage.
Promote your emails on social media channels: Tease a new product launch by stating email subscribers receive a sneak peek, then include an opt-in link on your channels.
Use QR codes on print ads: If your business uses print ads, use a QR code that links to an email sign-up.
How to Get More Social Shares for Email Marketing
Social media and eCommerce email marketing complement and accent each other when you use the strengths of both, such as:
Build a campaign around your active social media networks: Highlight extra reasons people should follow you on social media and the value the follow brings.
Use reward-based referrals: Link “liking” and “sharing” your social media pages to a value like early sales access or bonus reward points.
Retarget your subscribers with social media ads: Tailored ads are a great way to reach your subscribers across channels and stay front of mind as a brand.
How to Improve Email Marketing Forward Rate
Improving this rate is straightforward — keep your emails targeted and relevant, accessible and mobile-friendly, and encourage your subscribers to share with someone else who’d find the information valuable.
How to Reduce Spam Complaints for Email Marketing
The closer to zero you can keep your rate of spam complaints, the better. But, sometimes, people hit the report as spam button just for giggles. There’s not much you can do about them, but you can keep the rest of the complaints low with these tips.
Never use purchased email lists: This could easily be the number one way to reduce spam complaints.
Send a sequence of welcoming emails: People sign up for emails every day, but many don’t remember every list they signed up for. Make it easier for them to remember you by sending a welcome sequence, such as how often you’ll be emailing.
Keep company and email branding consistent: Don’t try out a new color scheme or other unknown branding elements in emails. It creates a disconnect and a surefire way to be reported as spam.
Need More Help with KPIs for Email Marketing?
Setting KPIs is the first step to sending out engaging eCommerce emails to your subscribers’ list. Then, tracking the KPIs is how to measure email marketing success.
If you have several email marketing goals for your business but aren’t sure which KPIs can help achieve those goals, contact The Winbox. We offer one-on-one consulting and are happy to dive into your business and goals to pave the way to a successful email marketing campaign.
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