10 Email Marketing KPIs & Metrics in 2024 (With Examples)
Running an email marketing campaign isn’t just about sending messages and hoping for results.
It’s about strategically crafting your emails and continuously monitoring your performance using key email marketing metrics to ensure that your efforts are delivering value.
The right KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) offer a clear window into what’s working and what needs improvement.
This article explores the essential KPIs for measuring email campaign success, provides examples using tools like MailTracker and Hunter.io, and offers strategies to improve your email marketing strategy for future campaigns.
Why Do You Need KPI for Your Marketing Effort?
Marketing KPIs provide essential insights that help marketers understand the effectiveness of their campaigns and make informed decisions to optimize their strategies, including email key performance indicators that track email marketing KPIs.
Identifying Success and Areas for Improvement
Email marketing KPIs serve as a diagnostic tool, allowing marketers to pinpoint what is working and what isn’t.
For example, a low open rate may indicate that the subject lines are not engaging enough, while a high click-through rate but a low conversion rate could suggest issues with the landing page.
By analyzing these email marketing metrics, marketers can implement targeted changes to enhance campaign performance, ensuring that each email sent is more effective than the last.
Justifying Marketing Investments
Tracking KPIs also plays a role in justifying marketing expenditures to stakeholders. By demonstrating the impact of email campaigns through measurable results, marketers can secure additional budgets for future initiatives.
For example, if a campaign shows a significant return on investment (ROI), it becomes easier to convince stakeholders to continue or increase funding for similar marketing efforts.
Continuous Improvement and Adaptation
The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and so are consumer behaviors.
Regularly reviewing KPIs allows marketers to adapt their strategies in real-time, ensuring that their campaigns remain relevant and effective.
By leveraging tools like MailTracker and Hunter.io, marketers can gain deeper insights into their email performance, enabling them to refine their tactics and enhance overall campaign success.
10 Email KPIs to Measure Your Email Campaign Success
1. Open Rate
Open rate is the percentage of people who open your email out of the total number of emails delivered. It’s the first indicator of whether your email grabbed attention.
Achieving a good open rate is essential because even the most compelling email marketing message is useless if nobody sees it.
Open rates are affected by factors such as the subject line, timing, and sender name, and even how frequently you send marketing emails.
Why It Matters
Open rate gives insight into how effective your subject line is, how recognizable and trustworthy your sender name is, and whether you’re sending emails at the right time.
If your open rate is low, it’s likely that your audience isn’t even seeing the content of your message.
Open Rate Metrics
Industry-wide, a good open rate ranges from 20-25%. However, this varies depending on your industry and audience. For example, B2B emails typically have higher open rates compared to B2C.
How to Improve
You can start by A/B testing different subject lines to see which formats work best.
Experiment with adding personalization, such as including the recipient’s name, or sparking curiosity with a question or intriguing statement.
Timing also matters—a general rule is to send emails midweek in the morning, but always test different times for your audience.
Example Using MailTracker: Let’s say you send an email campaign promoting a seasonal sale. MailTracker reports that out of 1,000 emails sent, 250 were opened, giving you an open rate of 25%. You notice that emails sent on Tuesday mornings perform better than those sent on Friday afternoons. Using this data, you can optimize your future sends for peak times and use proven subject lines to boost your open rate.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is the percentage of people who clicked on one or more links in your email out of the total number of emails delivered. It measures how effectively your content encourages email recipients to take the next step.
Why It Matters:
A high CTR indicates that your content is relevant and that your call-to-action (CTA) is compelling enough to drive action.
If people open your email but don’t click, it suggests a disconnect between your subject line and the email content or that your CTA isn’t clear or attractive enough.
CTR Metrics
The average CTR is between 2-5%, depending on your industry and the type of email. Emails with rich content, clear value propositions, and a well-placed CTA generally see better click-through rates.
How to Improve
To increase CTR, focus on creating concise, action-oriented content. Your CTA should be easy to find, visually distinct, and clearly communicate the benefit of clicking.
Use actionable language like “Get Started,” “Learn More,” or “Claim Your Offer.” Additionally, using engaging visuals, like buttons instead of text links, can improve click rates.
3. Conversion Rate
The conversion rate tracks the percentage of email recipients who complete a desired action after clicking a link in your email.
This could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a free ebook. The conversion rate is a key email marketing KPIs for measuring the success of your email marketing strategy.
Why It Matters
CTRs show that people are engaging with your content, but conversions are where the real value lies.
A high conversion rate means that your email not only piques interest but also delivers on its promise, leading to tangible results like sales or lead generation.
Conversion Rate Metrics
Conversion rates can range from 1-3% on average, though they can be much higher for targeted, well-optimized campaigns.
How to Improve
To boost conversion rates, ensure your landing page is user-friendly and mirrors the message in your email. Consistency between your email content and landing page is key.
Use strong social proof, clear benefits, and streamlined forms to reduce friction in the conversion process.
Example Using Hunter.io: Suppose you’re using Hunter.io to identify potential leads, and you launch a campaign inviting them to schedule a consultation call. Out of 200 recipients who click the scheduling link, 20 actually book a call, giving you a conversion rate of 10%. By analyzing your leads who convert, you can refine your targeting strategy and focus on high-quality leads in future campaigns.
4. Bounce Rate
Bounce rate measures the percentage of emails that were not successfully delivered.
Bounces are categorized as either “hard” (permanent failures, like an invalid email address) or “soft” (temporary issues like a full inbox).
Regularly cleaning and verifying your email list is important for keeping bounce rates low. Over time, email lists naturally degrade as people change jobs, abandon old email addresses, or simply lose interest.
Why It Matters
High bounce rates can damage your sender's reputation, leading to more of your emails being marked as spam or not delivered at all.
Maintaining a low bounce rate ensures that your messages reach the intended audience and helps you maintain healthy deliverability.
Bounce Rate Metrics
A bounce rate under 2% is ideal. Anything above that suggests you need to clean up your list by removing inactive or invalid addresses.
How to Improve
Use email verification tools like Hunter.io to validate addresses before sending campaigns. Also, avoid purchasing email lists from unreliable sources, as these are often filled with outdated or fake addresses.
Regularly audit your list and remove inactive subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails in several months.
Example Using Hunter.io: You launch a campaign using an email list you haven’t cleaned in a while. After the campaign, Hunter shows that 50 out of 1,000 emails bounced, giving you a 5% bounce rate. Using Hunter.io, you verify and delete the email list, reducing the bounce rate to under 1% in your next campaign. This results in better deliverability and more accurate performance data.
5. Unsubscribe Rate
The unsubscribe rate tracks the percentage of recipients who opt out of receiving your future emails. While some unsubscribes are normal, an increasing trend could indicate problems with your content, frequency, or list segmentation.
Why It Matters
A rising unsubscribe rate suggests that your emails aren’t resonating with your audience, or worse, that they find them irrelevant or annoying.
By understanding why people are opting out, you can make adjustments to retain more subscribers.
Unsubscribe Rate Metrics
An unsubscribe rate of 0.2-0.5% is considered normal. If your rate exceeds 1%, you need to examine what might be causing people to leave.
How to Improve
Regularly segment your email list to send targeted content that aligns with your subscribers’ interests. Offering preferences for email frequency (e.g., weekly or monthly updates) can also reduce unsubscribed.
Lastly, make sure you’re not overloading your audience with too many emails, as frequency fatigue is a common cause of unsubscribes.
6. List Growth Rate
The list growth rate measures how quickly your email list expands. It takes into account new subscribers minus unsubscribes and bounces, providing a net growth figure.
A healthy list growth rate not only indicates successful lead generation efforts but also shows that your brand is maintaining relevance.
Why It Matters
A shrinking or stagnant list suggests that you’re not bringing in enough fresh leads to offset natural churn.
List Growth Metrics
Aim for a steady growth rate of 2-3% per month. Growth that’s too rapid could indicate low-quality sign-ups, while very slow growth could suggest problems with your lead generation strategies.
How to Improve
Promote your email sign-up forms across various channels, including your website, social media, and even offline marketing materials.
Offering incentives like discounts, free guides, or exclusive content can entice more people to subscribe.
7. Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate
This KPI tracks the percentage of recipients who share or forward your emails. High sharing rates indicate that your content is valuable enough that subscribers want to pass it along to others.
Emails that provide practical tips, exclusive deals, or shareable resources tend to have higher forwarding rates.
Why It Matters
Email sharing is a powerful way to expand your audience organically. When people forward your emails, they effectively endorse your content, bringing new subscribers who are more likely to engage.
Email Sharing Metrics
While a 1% sharing rate might seem small, it can make a big impact if your emails are forwarded to highly engaged new subscribers.
How to Improve
Include social sharing buttons and clear prompts like “Share this with a friend!” in your emails. Incentivize sharing by offering rewards, discounts, or access to exclusive content for those who refer others to your list.
8. Spam Complaint Rate
The spam complaint rate tracks how many recipients mark your emails as spam.
A high spam complaint rate can damage your sender's reputation, leading to fewer emails delivered and potentially landing your emails in the spam folder.
Why It Matters
Getting marked as spam not only affects your deliverability but can also lead to your domain being blacklisted.
Even if recipients don’t unsubscribe, frequent spam complaints are a sign that your emails are poorly targeted or irrelevant.
Spam Rate Metrics
Keep your spam complaint rate below 0.1%. Exceeding this can lead to penalties from email service providers (ESPs) and damage your overall email performance.
How to Improve
Make sure you’re sending emails only to people who have opted in and clearly understand what they’re signing up for.
Use double opt-in mechanisms to confirm that subscribers truly want to receive your content. Regularly clean your list to remove inactive subscribers who are more likely to mark your emails as spam.
9. Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI measures the overall profitability of your email campaign. It compares the revenue generated from the campaign to the total costs involved, including tools, content creation, and any advertising spend.
Why It Matters
ROI is the ultimate measure of whether your email campaigns are delivering value. High open and click rates are great, but if they don’t translate into revenue, your efforts may not be sustainable.
ROI Metrics
Email marketing typically offers one of the highest ROIs in digital marketing, with an average return of $36 for every $1 spent.
However, these figures can vary depending on your business model, audience, and the complexity of your sales cycle.
How to Improve
One way to maximize ROI is to focus on the campaigns that generate the highest revenue relative to their costs.
For example, you can use segmentation to target high-value customers with personalized offers and nurture campaigns.
You can also optimize your sales funnel, from email content to landing pages, to ensure you’re converting as much traffic as possible.
10. Engagement Over Time
Engagement over time tracks how your audience interacts with your emails over a specified period.
This includes metrics like open rates, click rates, and conversions, allowing you to identify trends and optimize your strategy.
Why It Matters
Monitoring engagement trends helps you identify the best times to send emails and spot potential issues early.
For example, if engagement starts dropping off over time, it may indicate that your content is becoming stale or that you’re sending emails too frequently.
Engagement Over Time Metrics
There’s no single benchmark for engagement over time, as this varies widely based on your industry and goals.
However, consistently high engagement indicates that your email strategy is resonating with your audience.
How to Improve
Test different sending times and frequencies to find what works best for your audience.
Use email automation tools to send behavior-triggered emails, such as abandoned cart reminders or follow-ups, which tend to have higher engagement.
Analyzing long-term trends with tools like MailTracker can help you optimize your strategy for sustained engagement.
Example Using MailTracker: Over a three-month period, you notice that emails sent in the middle of the week around 10 AM consistently have higher engagement rates. With this data, you adjust your email schedule, resulting in a 15% increase in overall engagement.
Use MailTracker and Hunter.io for Successful Email Campaigns
Both MailTracker by Hunter and Hunter.io offer practical tools to improve and measure the success of your email campaigns. Whether you’re running targeted outreach campaigns, nurturing leads, or tracking the performance of individual emails, these tools have you covered.
MailTracker: Track Your Emails in Gmail
MailTracker is a free email tracking tool designed for Gmail users. It helps you monitor when your emails are opened, how many times they are opened, and on what devices. Here’s how to use it effectively:
- Installation and Setup: Add the MailTracker extension to your Chrome browser and connect it to your Gmail account. Once set up, you’ll see tracking icons next to every email you send, which allow you to monitor real-time data on opens and clicks.
- Practical Use Cases: Let’s say you’ve sent a follow-up email to a potential lead. Using MailTracker, you can see exactly when they opened the email and gauge their interest by how many times it was opened. If you don’t see any activity, you might want to adjust your approach or follow up with different content.
- Notifications and Insights: MailTracker sends you notifications when your emails are opened, helping you stay on top of important communication. This is especially useful in sales, where timing is key.
For campaigns involving more complex outreach needs, Hunter.io’s Campaigns feature is an excellent companion to MailTracker.
Hunter.io Campaigns: Automated, Targeted Outreach
Hunter.io provides a comprehensive platform for email outreach, particularly useful for cold email campaigns. Here’s how to use it:
- Set Up Your Campaign: Start by connecting your Gmail or other email provider through Hunter.io’s integration. This ensures your emails are sent directly from your account, improving deliverability and avoiding spam filters.
- Personalize Your Emails at Scale: Use Hunter.io’s personalization features to include custom attributes like recipient names, company names, or other specific details that make your emails more relevant. Personalization increases open and response rates, leading to better campaign results.
- Automate Follow-Ups: You can schedule automated follow-ups based on recipient behavior (e.g., no response within a week). Hunter.io handles the timing and sends follow-ups in a way that appears natural and doesn’t overwhelm recipients.
- Track Engagement and Analyze Results: Hunter.io’s Campaigns tool tracks opens, clicks, and responses, allowing you to adjust your approach based on real-time data. Detailed reporting helps you understand which parts of your campaign are working and where improvements can be made.
- Advanced Features: For more sophisticated campaigns, you can use features like link tracking, adding attachments, and even rotating between multiple email accounts to scale your outreach while maintaining deliverability.
Want to Track Emails in Gmail for Free?
Start today by using the MailTracker Chrome extension for free with no email signature and track up to 20 emails per month at no cost.
This powerful tool provides valuable insights into your email campaigns, helping you optimize your strategies and drive better results.
If you need to track more emails in Gmail or access additional features, you can always upgrade to one of our paid plans.
Click here to get started with the MailTracker free plan and take the first step toward optimizing your email marketing efforts.
