Email Analytics - The 6 Email Marketing Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking

6/13/2017 Email Analytics: The 6 Email Marketing Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking
Mǻřķěțįňģ Șǻŀěș
February 18, 2016
Ěmǻįŀ Ǻňǻŀỳțįčș: Țħě 6 Ěmǻįŀ Mǻřķěțįňģ Měțřįčș &

ĶPİș Ỳǿų Șħǿųŀđ Bě Țřǻčķįňģ
Written by Lindsay Kolowich | @lkolow
SHARE
There's a lot to say when it comes to how to do email marketing well. We could talk
for days about the most critical components of an optimized email, common email
marketing mistakes you might be making, and examples of brilliant email
marketing that will inspire you. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how
optimized your emails are if you can't see the results of your efforts -- not to
mention measure whether email is helping you hit your goals.
So before sending your next email, pause for a few minutes and ask yourself: What
is the goal of my email marketing? Is it to grow my subscriber database? Generate
more leads? To convert more existing leads into customers?
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/metricsemailmarketersshouldbetracking#sm.0000ger14jyp3eiyxvh2cwnx8ryuk 1/12
Whatever you decide your goal is (and you can have more than one), the next thing
you need to do is figure out which metrics you'll need to track in order to determine
how you're progressing toward that goal.
Download our free email tracking template here to easily

track your email campaign metrics.
Let's take a look at the metrics you should be paying attention to in your email
marketing efforts. We'll start with the metrics every email marketer should be
tracking, and then we'll take a look at how to tie certain metrics to your specific
goals.
6 Email Metrics Every Marketer Should

Include in Their Email Report
1) Clickthrough Rate
What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more

links contained in a given email.
How to Calculate It: (Total clicks OR unique clicks ÷ Number of delivered
emails) * 100
Example: 500 total clicks ÷ 10,000 delivered emails * 100 = 5% clickthrough
rate
(Using either total clicks or unique clicks in the calculation above works, as long as
you use the same approach consistently.)
Clickthrough rate (CTR) is likely the first answer you'll get when you ask an email
marketer what metrics they track. It's what I like to call the "day-to-day" email
marketing metric, because it lets you easily calculate performance for every
individual email you send. From there, you can track how your CTR changes over
time.
CTR is also frequently used for determining the results of A/B tests, as these tests
are often designed with the intention of finding new ways to get more clicks in your
emails. Clickthrough rate is a very important metric for all email marketers to be
tracking, as it gives you direct insight into how many people on your list are
engaging with your content and interested in learning more about your brand or
your offer. Read this blog post to learn what a "good" clickthrough rate is, according
to industry benchmarks.
(HubSpot customers: Click here to learn how to easily set up click tracking in your
emails using HubSpot.)
2) Conversion Rate
What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link within an

email and completed a desired action, such as filling out a lead generation
form or purchasing a product.
How to Calculate It: (Number of people who completed the desired action ÷
Number of total emails delivered) * 100
Example: 400 people who completed the desired action ÷ 10,000 total email
delivered * 100 = 4% conversion rate
After an email recipient has clicked through on your email, the next goal is typically
to get them to convert on your offer -- in other words, to take the action that your
email has asked them to take. So if you're sending an email to offer your audience
the chance to download, say, a free ebook, you'd consider anyone who actually
downloads that ebook to be a conversion.
Because your definition of a conversion is directly tied to the call-to-action in your

email, and your call-to-action should be directly tied to the overall goal of your email
marketing, conversion rate is one of the most important metrics for determining the
extent to which you're achieving your goals. (We'll discuss more specific goal-
related metrics later.)
In order to measure conversion rate on your emails, you'll need to integrate your

email platform and your web analytics. You can do this by creating unique tracking
URLs for your email links that identify the source of the click as coming from a
specific email campaign.
3) Bounce Rate
What It Is: The percentage of your total emails sent that could not be
successfully delivered to the recipient's inbox.
How to Calculate It: (Total number of bounced emails ÷ Number of emails
sent) * 100
Example: 75 bounced emails ÷ 10,000 total emails sent * 100 = 0.75%
bounce rate
There are two kinds of bounces to track: “hard” bounces and “soft” bounces.
Soft bounces are the result of a temporary problem with a valid email address, such
as a full inbox or a problem with the recipient’s server. The recipient’s server may
hold these emails for delivery once the problem clears up, or you may try re-
sending your email message to soft bounces.
Hard bounces are the result of an invalid, closed, or non-existent email address,
and these emails will never be successfully delivered. You should immediately
remove hard bounce addresses from your email list, because internet service
providers (ISPs) use bounce rates as one of the key factors to determine an email
sender’s reputation. Having too many hard bounces can make your company look
like a spammer in the eyes of an ISP. (Read this blog post to learn more about the
difference between hard and soft bounces.)
4) List Growth Rate
What It Is: The rate at which your email list is growing.

How to Calculate It: ([(Number of new subscribers) minus (Number of
unsubscribes + email/spam complaints)] ÷ Total number of email addresses
on your list]) * 100
Example: (500 new subscribers - 100 unsubscribes and email/spam
complaints) ÷ 10,000 email addresses on the list * 100 = 4% list growth rate
Aside from the call-to-action metrics (CTR, conversion rates), you'll also want to be
keeping tabs on your list growth and loss. Of course, you should be aiming to grow
your list in order to extend your reach, expand your audience, and position yourself
as an industry thought leader. But believe it or not, there's a natural decay of your
email marketing list, and it expires by about 22.5% every year -- which means that
it's more important than ever to pay attention to growing your subscriber list and
keeping it at a healthy size.
5) Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate
What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a “share this”

button to post email content to a social network, and/or who clicked on a
“forward to a friend” button.
How to Calculate It: (Number of clicks on a share and/or forward button ÷
Number of total delivered emails) * 100
Example: 100 clicks on a share/forward button ÷ 10,000 total delivered
emails * 100 = 1% email sharing/forwarding rate
The rate at which your email recipients forward or share your email with others may
not seem all that significant, but it's arguably one of the most important metrics you
should be tracking.
Why? Because this is how you generate new contacts. The folks on your email list
are already in your database. So while conversion is still a primary focus, this
doesn't help you attract new leads. Encourage your readers to pass along your
email to a friend or colleague if they found the content useful, and start tracking
how many new people you can add to your database this way. (Read this blog post
for tips on getting people to forward your emails.)
Keep a careful eye on your sharing rates to discover which types of articles and
offers tend to get shared the most, and use that insight when you plan email
campaigns in the future.
6) Overall ROI
What It Is: The overall return on investment for your email campaigns. In
other words, total revenue divided by total spend.
How to Calculate It: [($ in additional sales made minus $ invested in the
campaign) ÷ $ invested in the campaign] * 100
Example: ($1,000 in additional sales - $100 invested in the campaign / $100
invested in the campaign) * 100 = a 900% return on investment for the
campaign
(Note: This is the most basic formula to calculate ROI — but there are several ways
to approach calculating the ROI of your email campaigns. Depending on your type
of business, you might prefer a different one.)
As with every marketing channel, you should be able to determine the overall ROI
of your email marketing. If you haven't yet, set up an SLA system whereby you
assign different values to various types of leads based on their likelihood to
generate revenue for your company.
How many of each of these types of leads did you generate via email marketing?
How does this translate to potential revenue? Actual revenue? These are the types
of metrics that will help you show your boss and your sales team how valuable
email marketing is as a channel that drives real, tangible results.
How to Know Which Email Metrics to Track,

Based on Your Goals
The goal of your email marketing may be very different from the goals of another
company like yours, and may even vary within your own company over time. But
again, it's crucial that you determine exactly what it is you're looking to achieve with
your email marketing before you begin (or continue) to send and measure your
emails.
Here's how you can align your specific goal with key metrics.
Subscriber List Growth Rate
If your focus is on growing the top of your funnel -- attracting more visitors to your
site, signing up more blog subscribers, getting more people to use your free tools,
that kind of thing -- your goal will probably be growing your subscriber list. Your
emails will likely contain calls-to-action such as "Subscribe to Our Blog" or "Join Our
Weekly Email List." So of course, the most important metric you should be tracking
for this goal is the growth rate of your subscriber list. (Read this blog post for more
detailed tips on how to grow your subscriber list.)
Unengaged Subscribers
Just as you want to track and grow your subscribers, it's also important to keep an
eye on your unengaged subscribers -- and consider removing them from your list
altogether. Why? Because sending emails to people who aren't engaged with your
emails (called "graymail") can hurt the deliverability of your email overall. Email
clients might get tipped off by low engagement rates and deliver email from known-
graymail senders straight to recipients' "junk" folders, meaning your emails will
technically get sent and delivered, but won't necessarily be seen.
Here at HubSpot, we deliberately unsubscribed 250,000 people from HubSpot's

Marketing Blog, which included people who had opted in to receive emails about
new content we published on the blog. This subscriber purge brought our total
subscriber count from 550,000 down to 300,000. Read this blog post to learn more
about why and how we purged our subscriber list, and why you might consider
doing the same.
Number of New (or Total) Leads Generated
Maybe instead of focusing on subscribers, you'd like to work on growing lead

generation. If this is the case, you should be sending emails that offer lead
generation content -- in other words, content that requires the viewer to fill out a
lead capture form in order to access it.
If the goal of your email marketing is lead gen, you should be tracking how many
leads you're capturing every day, and every month. You can decide to focus on all
leads generated, or only new ones added to your database, depending on your
priorities.
Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate
Finally, let's say you want to focus more toward the middle/bottom of your
marketing funnel, and convert more of your existing leads into customers. If this is
your goal, the emails you're sending will likely provide content more closely related
to your business and your product or service. Your calls-to-action may include "Get
a demo," "Watch a Video of Our Product in Action," or "Start a Free Trial." If this is
your goal, you should be tracking changes in your lead-to-customer conversion
rate.
As obvious as this all seems, you'd be surprised how many email marketers
determine their goals and then don't bother to track their progress against them.
Make sure that you're able to track how closely you're trending toward your goal at
any point during the month, and that you're looking carefully at any changes in
these metrics month over month.
Unreliable Email Marketing Metrics

It's worth mentioning that there are also a couple of email marketing metrics that
really aren't worth tracking closely.
Open Rate
What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who open a given email.
Most email marketers are still bent over backwards trying to optimize their subject
lines for higher open rates. While this can have a positive impact -- and more opens
are a great thing -- they really should be focused on optimizing their clickthrough
rates, instead.
The fact of the matter is that open rate is actually a very misleading metric for a few
reasons. Most importantly, an email is only counted as "opened" if the recipient also
receives the images embedded in that message. And a large percentage of your
email users likely have image-blocking enabled on their email client. This means
that even if they open the email, they won’t be included in your open rate, making it
an inaccurate and unreliable metric for marketers, as it underreports on your true
numbers.
Note: You can get some value out of open rate as a metric if you use it as a
comparative metric. For instance, if you compare the open rates of this week's
email send to last week's email send (both to the same lists) it might give you some
insight since the variables are somewhat controlled.
Unsubscribe Rate
As with open rate, the unsubscribe rate isn’t a reliable picture of the health of your
email list. Many subscribers who are tired of receiving email messages from your
brand won’t bother to go through the formal unsubscribe process. They’ll just stop
opening, reading, and clicking on your email messages.
That's why it's much more effective to measure subscriber engagement by

clickthrough rates and conversion rates. From there, you can keep an eye out on
unengaged subscribers so you can consider removing them at some point, like we
went over earlier. Checking your monthly unsubscribe rate is helpful for calculating
your overall list growth rate, though, so do keep an eye on it every once in a while.
The bottom line? Be smart about which metrics you're tracking, and make sure
you're able to effectively measure your individual email performance, the health of
your email list, and your progress toward your overarching goals. As long as you're
able to determine each of those, you're on the right track for more effective email
marketing.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in March 2014 and has been
updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
Topics: Email Marketing
Șųbșčřįbě țǿ ĦųbȘpǿț'ș Mǻřķěțįňģ Bŀǿģ

Join 300,000+ fellow marketers! Get HubSpot's latest marketing articles straight to
your inbox. Enter your email address below:
SUBSCRIBE
4 COMMENTS
Previously: Checklist: How Well is Your School's Site Optimized for SEO?
Next up: How to Create a Sensible Social Media Strategy for Your Business
[Infographic]

Email Analytics - The 6 Email Marketing Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Email Analytics - The 6 Email Marketing Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

6/13/2017 Email Analytics: The 6 Email Marketing Metrics & KPIs You Should Be Tracking

February 18, 2016

Ěmǻįŀ Ǻňǻŀỳțįčș: Țħě 6 Ěmǻįŀ Mǻřķěțįňģ Měțřįčș &

Download our free email tracking template here to easily

6 Email Metrics Every Marketer Should

What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more

What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link within an

Because your deﬁnition of a conversion is directly tied to the call-to-action in your

In order to measure conversion rate on your emails, you'll need to integrate your

4) List Growth Rate

What It Is: The rate at which your email list is growing.

5) Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate

What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a “share this”

How to Know Which Email Metrics to Track,

Subscriber List Growth Rate

Here at HubSpot, we deliberately unsubscribed 250,000 people from HubSpot's

Number of New (or Total) Leads Generated

Maybe instead of focusing on subscribers, you'd like to work on growing lead

Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

Unreliable Email Marketing Metrics

That's why it's much more eﬀective to measure subscriber engagement by

Topics: Email Marketing

Șųbșčřįbě țǿ ĦųbȘpǿț'ș Mǻřķěțįňģ Bŀǿģ

You might also like