Email Marketing Metrics: Understanding Your Audience

You’ve created an email campaign, minding every detail. The first results come in. Your email open rate is satisfying, click-throughs look decent, and the unsubscribe rate is low. These email marketing metrics show how well your campaign is performing.

Do these numbers tell the full story, though? The process of understanding your audience includes a number of variables. That’s why you should know where to look and how to interpret the message each email marketing metric conveys.

No email campaign is the same as the other. In many cases, their objectives might differ, too. But whether you’re going after promoting a new product or boosting your social media presence, there are some key metrics that you should always track. Combined, they will tell you the full story of what works and what doesn’t.

In this post, we’ll list the most critical email marketing metrics, why they matter, and how you can read the results and use them to switch your email strategy to perfection. 

6 Essential Email Marketing Metrics to Track

Below, you’ll find six important email marketing metrics to track, along with ways to fix potential issues and improve those numbers.

1. Deliverability Rate

In email marketing, your focus is to deliver your message to recipients. As its name suggests, the deliverability rate indicates the number of emails that successfully reached the intended subscribers vs the number of emails sent. Having a proper deliverability rate tells marketers their emails landed where they should, so subscribers get a chance to read their messages.

The higher your email deliverability, the more effective your campaigns. A low deliverability rate means email internet service providers reject your emails. As your messages fail to reach subscribers, email clients get the signal that you’re an unreliable sender, or even a spammer. Therefore, it could lead to a bad sender reputation. 

There are many reasons—both direct and less obvious—that cause deliverability issues. 

Some of them are technical: not setting up email authentication protocols (e.g., DKIM and SPF) or using a shared IP address instead of a dedicated one.

However, there are also non-technical things that could be hurting your deliverability. For instance, it could be the kind of content you send, who you send it to, or how you approach lead generation. 

Let’s see how you can boost your email deliverability:

• Optimize your email content and frequency as delivering too many or irrelevant emails could signal spammy behavior to ISPs and lead to subscriber fatigue.
• Keep your email “light,” avoiding heavy files and using visuals wisely since they’re usually the elements responsible for slow loading emails. 
• Identify the people most likely to be interested in your content. This helps you generate quality leads by collecting emails from the right audience while keeping unsubscribes and spam complaints low.
• Use double opt-in so every person joining your list can confirm they want to receive your email newsletters. Avoid purchasing lists to stay compliant with data privacy regulations.
• Perform regular list cleaning to make sure every email address in your database is valid and active, removing the ones that don’t match these criteria.

2. Open Rate

Let’s say you score high in email deliverability and your campaigns make it through spam filters. Meaning, the email gets delivered. But does it get opened, too? The answer comes through email open rate, that tells you how many subscribers opened your campaigns vs. the ones who received them.

For a long time, marketers used to turn to open rates to determine their subscribers’ level of engagement. Nowadays, marketers fear that this email marketing metric will become irrelevant. That’s because of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection update, preventing senders from knowing whether recipients open their emails. 

However, email opens are still an important metric to track. What has changed is that they won’t tell you everything on their own.

If your email reports display low open rates, here are some methods to improve your performance:

• Write intriguing and straightforward subject lines that match your email goal and content, so readers know what they’ll read.
• Ensure your preview texts are as valuable as your subject lines, providing extra context but leaving room for mystery.
• Decide on your sending times, ensuring recipients receive email marketing campaigns when they appreciate them the most.
• Use a real person’s email address as the sender instead of a no-reply address to give a human touch to your emails. Just like this:

Email sent by Moosend

3. Click-Through Rate

Click-through rate is the percentage of people who clicked on one of your email links and were directed to the dedicated page. CTR is an indicator of recipient engagement, giving you insight into what kind of content and email practices lead to increased interaction. 

So, a high CTR shows that your email content feels relevant, useful, and engaging to readers. Note that some email marketing platforms offer click heat maps, too, a visual tool that lets you see where subscribers clicked in your email content. 

What happens if this email marketing metric is suffering? Here are the most common measures to take:

• Invest in granular list segmentation for personalized email content based on each reader’s preferences and pain points.
• Ensure your email CTAs stand out with compelling copy and color contrast with the background.
• Experiment with different CTA placements to understand where it’s most prominent. See if putting it above the fold brings better results.
• Repeat the required action throughout the email content. You can use the same CTA button twice in the email or mix it with links that direct readers to that action.

Here’s how Uber Eats centers the email content around the main action. The email CTA is clear and actionable. Plus, the black color used makes it pop since it contrasts with the light green background. They repeat the suggested step to prompt immediate action. Instilling a sense of urgency is equally effective to persuade readers to click.

4. Conversion Rate

Your email recipients clicked on your call-to-action and landed on the destination page. But did they actually take the action you needed them to? That’s what the conversion rate indicates: how many subscribers performed a specific action. 

Converting readers usually equals meeting your campaign goal, bringing the recipients right where you want them in the customer journey. As a result, email conversions are one of the most surefire ways to evaluate the impact of your campaigns. 

If you see conversions dropping, your email content isn’t the only touch point to go through. A low conversion rate might indicate problems on your website or landing page, too. So, let’s see what you can do for subscribers to take the next step:

• Make sure your content puts the key action front and center, and that it’s aligned with your unique campaign objective.
• Don’t trick readers into clicking your email CTA. If the email content mentions a discount code, your landing page should deliver on the promise.
• Optimize the landing page copy, highlighting the benefits of converting and choosing a strong and action-oriented CTA. 
• Experiment with several incentives and offers to motivate users to act..
  

5. Unsubscribe Rate

The unsubscribe rate shows the percentage of people who choose to click on your unsubscribe option and opt out of your list. So, it’s only natural to get discouraged when facing an increase in unsubscribes. 

There’s a bright side to it, though. Unsubscribes are an invaluable tool to find potential bottlenecks in your list building process and remove them. By allowing disengaged recipients to leave, you focus on qualified readers that expect your business news—think of it as a free, effortless list cleaning. 

Plus, having a clear and visible unsubscribe option within your emails builds trust, letting people know you appreciate their choice.

However, you will want to keep unsubscribes at a bare minimum. Here’s how to do it:

• Create personalized emails with valuable and relevant content that addresses each group’s specific needs.
• Opt for a balanced email sending frequency by staying connected with subscribers but without overwhelming them.
• Add an email preference center to your emails, giving readers an alternative option, e.g., offering control over the frequency and type of emails they receive.
• Run A/B tests on several elements of your email campaigns, such as the design, copy, and CTA to identify the ones that resonate with your audience.

Clearscope places both an unsubscribe link and an email preference option in the footer so users can choose whether to engage with the brand in a more relevant way or not engage at all. That way, they keep only the most qualified subscribers while getting insight into recipient preferences. 

6. List Growth Rate

This email metric refers to the rate at which you’re generating new subscribers. A high list growth rate indicates that your lead acquisition efforts are bearing fruit. The more people who join your list, the more opportunities you get to promote your value proposition and drive sales.

To calculate your list growth rate, first take the number of new recipients minus the number of unsubscribes within a given period. Then, divide the result by the total number of email addresses on the list and multiply by 100. 

If you aren’t satisfied with the percentage, these strategies will help you turn things around:

• Place signup forms on your blog and social media channels apart from your website.
• Consider offering attractive lead magnets like a valuable piece of content or a discount code.
• Test your form copy, design, and offer to figure out which combination brings more signups.
• Create a straightforward and quick email signup process that doesn’t confuse users.

Are Key Performance Metrics Enough to Refine your Emails?

There’s no irrelevant performance indicator in your email strategy. Open rates might not be the Holy Grail of email marketing anymore. On the other hand, unsubscribes may occur due to personal reasons you can’t understand or predict—for instance, perhaps when prospects first interacted with your brand, they could be facing a pain point they no longer have. 

That’s why none of these key email metrics will tell you anything on its own. So, dive into your email marketing tool’s analytics and perform A/B testing regularly to see what works. Also, send an email survey to gather feedback directly from your readers, so you know where you can do better. 

With these strategies combined, you’ll capture the full picture of how to enhance your emails and connect with subscribers in the most meaningful way.