All great email marketers know the importance of tracking the right email marketing KPIs. These insights help you see what’s working—and what’s not—so you know where to dedicate your energy.
But for many creators, the biggest question mark is determining which email KPIs to use as north stars.
When you track the right KPIs, scaling your business is a breeze. But if you track the wrong ones, you’ll be distracted from your goals.
Luckily, narrowing down which KPIs to track is a cinch when you have a clear understanding of each one.
What are email marketing KPIs?
Email marketing KPIs (key performance indicators) are metrics you continually track to measure your email marketing efforts. The metrics you choose as KPIs for your business are personal to your goals and niche.
Why do email marketing KPIs matter?
Tracking the right email marketing KPIs eliminates the guesswork so you can make confident business decisions and scale your business. They help you understand which content and products your audience loves, why they unsubscribe, and more.
12 email marketing metrics for creators
1. List growth rate
List growth rate calculation
[(number of new subscribers) – (number of unsubscribers + spam complaints)] ÷ total number of subscribers} * 100
List growth rate is a useful metric to gauge how fast your email list is growing, and it’s better than looking at the number of new subscribers you get each day. Here’s why:
Let’s say you get 300 new subscribers each month. Sounds great, right?
However, if you also have 300 unsubscribers every month, your email list growth rate is 0%. You miss a prominent piece of the puzzle when you don’t look beyond the number of new subscribers.
Tip: Kit automatically calculates your net new subscribers so you can quickly calculate your list growth rate.
Experiment with different lead magnets like ebooks, coupons, and free email courses, and see which one drives the most signups.
Run paid ads to popular lead magnets.
Reduce your unsubscribe rate by ensuring your newsletters align with subscriber expectations.
2. Unsubscribe rate
Unsubscribe rate calculation
(total number of unsubscribes ÷ total number of emails delivered) * 100
The unsubscribe rate tells you the percentage of people who unsubscribe from your list. People unsubscribe to newsletters for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they’re no longer in a place where they need your content, and that’s ok. Other times, the content you send doesn’t align with the experience your audience expects. So, how do you know whether it’s the former or the latter?
If your unsubscribe rate increases sharply—or it’s always above average—your alarm bells should sound. For reference, the average unsubscribe rate for Kit creators is 0.5%.
How to improve unsubscribe rate
To reduce the number of people who unsubscribe:
Give subscribers the power to manage their preferences and choose how often you email them.
Enable the unsubscribe survey to see why people leave so you know what to fix.
Unsubscribe surveys give you a glimpse into why your subscribers leave
3. Open rate
Open rate calculation
(total number of opens ÷ total number of emails delivered) * 100
Open rates help you understand what percentage of people open your emails. However, Apple’s Mail Protection Privacy (MPP) prevents email senders from tracking things like opens. Despite MPP, it’s still worth tracking your open rate over time to see how it fluctuates. Open rates that drop suddenly can clue you into bigger issues—like deliverability problems.
Use BIMI to add a logo beside your email sender name. Red Sift and Entrust conducted a study and found senders with logos increased open rates by 21%, as consumers felt more confident
in brands who displayed their logos.
Adding a logo can boost confidence in your brand
4. Click-through rate (CTR)
Click-through rate calculation
(number of unique clicks or total clicks ÷ number of emails delivered) * 100
Your CTR is the percentage of people who click links (unique or total) in your emails. A high click-through rate means people love the content you’re sending. However, clicks are challenging to capture accurately with Apple’s MPP. If you want to see which links drive traffic from your email newsletter, consider setting up a dedicated dashboard in Google Analytics and using unique links for each email campaign.
How to improve click-through rate
The average CTR for creators is 4.7%. To increase yours:
Keep it simple and pick one call to action per email. Asking subscribers to read your latest blog post, buy your course, and take a survey is overwhelming.
Make CTAs easy to spot by turning them into large clickable buttons, using contrasting colors, or using a larger font.
Add your CTA multiple times throughout your email. This way, even subscribers who don’t read your full email can still come across your CTA.
For time-sensitive CTAs, add a countdown timer. Countdown timers trigger loss aversion, and psychologically, humans are more motivated by loss than by gains.
5. Click-to-open rate (CTOR)
Click-to-open rate calculation
(unique clicks ÷ unique opens) * 100
CTOR tells you the percentage of people who opened your emails and clicked a link. It’s a great email marketing KPI to tell you if subscribers enjoy your emails.
How to improve click-to-open rate
Average CTORs vary significantly among industries. Research your niche to see where you fit, and if you notice your CTORs are lower—or they start to slip over time—consider:
Writing better CTAs that give readers a reason to click.
Surveying your subscribers to ensure the content you’re sending is what they want to receive.
Re-designing your emails, so they’re scannable and easy to digest. By making it easier for subscribers to find your links, you’ll increase the likelihood they click them.
6. Conversion rate
Conversion rate calculation
(number of conversions ÷ total number of emails sent) * 100
Conversion rate measures the percentage of subscribers who take a desired action after opening your email. Things like buying a product, enrolling for a webinar, or clicking a link.
When you nail your messaging and send subscribers relevant content, conversion rates will follow.
How to improve conversion rates
Applying these tips can help you improve conversion rates:
Add testimonials and social proof to emails pitching your products
Include FAQs to address any barriers that are preventing people from hitting “buy now”
Write benefit-rich sales copy that appeals to your subscriber’s emotional side
7. Email ROI
Email ROI calculation
(what you earned – what you spent) ÷ what you spent
Email ROI is the amount you earn for every dollar you spend with your email marketing. Tracking revenue from email is easy when you connect your email marketing with Google Analytics. This way, you can attribute every dollar you make back to the right channel.
How to improve email ROI
Brands typically earn $35 for every $1 spent on email marketing. If you want to improve your email ROI, try these strategies:
Use automated funnels to warm up your audience—on autopilot. The more subscribers know, like, and trust you, the more likely they’ll want to buy from you.
Segment your list to send highly relevant emails that reflect where subscribers are in their customer journey.
Remove cold subscribers to keep your list full of people who are engaged and excited about your offers. (Removing cold subscribers also improves deliverability. More on that later.)
8. Revenue per email (RPE)
Revenue per email calculation
total revenue ÷ total number of emails delivered
Similar to ROI, revenue per email tells you which emails and email campaigns best sell your offers. Although RPE doesn’t account for expenses, it’s much easier to calculate than ROI and still provides plenty of useful info, like which emails drive the most revenue.
When you know which emails are money makers, you can drill down to determine why they’re so effective at selling your offers.
With campaign URLs and custom dashboards in Google Analytics, you can assign an RPE to individual emails or specific email marketing campaigns.
Campaign URLs are a great way to tie clicks and revenue back to specific emails and campaigns in Google Analytics
Experimenting with the CTA on low-performing emails
Improving segmentation so subscribers receive relevant emails
9. Revenue per subscriber (RPS)
Revenue per subscriber calculation
total revenue generated ÷ total number of subscribers
Similar to RPE, RPS tells how much money you make from each subscriber. If RPS is low, you’ll want to determine why people aren’t buying your offers. Like other metrics, RPS varies among industries, so we recommend researching your own industry to determine which benchmark works for you.
How to improve revenue per subscriber
The higher your RPS, the easier it is to scale your business with email marketing. To improve RPS:
Dive into subscriber scoring. Subscriber scoring tells you which subscribers to re-engage so you can move them from cold to warm and, eventually, increase your RPS.
Use automations for a customized—and hands-off!—buying process. Personalization is key to increasing sales, especially considering that 76% of consumers are more likely to consider buying from brands that personalize the buying process. For example, move people interested in your product but didn’t buy it into a soft-pitch sequence.
Experiment with different pricing strategies like subscriptions or pay-what-you-want pricing to encourage more conversions.
Note: If you want a simpler way to track conversions, ROI, revenue per subscriber, and revenue per email, try Kit Commerce. You can sell products and send emails all within the same platform, making tracking your email metrics a breeze.
Use Kit Commerce to get detailed insight into your sales and email marketing efforts
10. Bounce rate
Bounce rate calculation
(total number of bounced emails ÷ total number of emails sent) * 100
A good email marketing KPI to keep a close rate on is your bounce rate. Bounce rate tells you the percentage of people that didn’t get the email you sent. Your emails could’ve bounced because:
Your recipient entered their email incorrectly
The recipient’s inbox is full
Your email was too large for the recipient’s inbox
The recipient’s email server is down
If your bounce rate is creeping up or is greater than 2%, it’s time to figure out why.
How to improve bounce rate
Get your emails back in your subscribers’ inboxes by:
Enabling double opt-in to prevent fake or invalid email addresses from getting on your list in the first place
Authenticating your email with a DMARC record
Cleaning your list frequently
11. Deliverability rate
Deliverability rate calculation
(number of delivered emails ÷ total number of emails sent) * 100
Your deliverability rate is the percentage of emails that make it to your subscribers’ inboxes. Email deliverability ensures your emails aren’t blocked or marked as spam by subscribers’ internet service providers. Things like low open rates and lack of engagement with your emails can hurt your deliverability, and slipping deliverability rates need immediate attention.
How to improve deliverability rate
Your deliverability rate should be as high as possible (the average deliverability rate at Kit is around 99.8%). Try these tips to improve yours:
Remove inactive subscribers
Enable double opt-in
Choose a reputable email service provider
Keep your open rates and CTRs high by sending content that meets audience expectations
12. Spam report rate
Spam report rate calculation
(number of spam reports ÷ total number of emails delivered) * 100
Another email marketing KPI creators need to keep an eye on is their spam complaints reports. Your spam report rate is the percentage of subscribers who mark your email as spam. When a subscriber marks you as spam, it hurts your deliverability and makes it harder to land your emails in subscribers’ inboxes.
How to decrease spam report rates
Ideally, your spam report rate should be less than 0.10%. If yours is higher, take time decreasing it by:
Making your unsubscribe button easy to find. Subscribers may get frustrated if they can’t find your unsubscribe button and mark you as spam instead of simply unsubscribing.
Pruning your email list frequently.
Adding a note in your footer to remind people why they’re on your email list. For example, “you’re receiving this email because you signed up at www.yourwebsite.com.”
Sending out regular emails, so subscribers don’t forget who you are (and mark you as spam).
Valuable KPIs for different stages of business
While all email marketing metrics are useful, choosing which are relevant for your own email marketing strategy depends on which stage of business you’re in.
KPIs for new creators
List growth rate
Victor Mutta, a seven-figure email marketer, tells me, “the most important thing [for new creators] is to avoid running out of money.” Touché. He continues, “every email subscriber is a lead/customer, meaning your list growth rate is a decent proxy for how quickly you can get to break even.”
Click to open rate
Click rate is another important KPI for new creators. Your CTOR tells you if your audience enjoys the content you’re sending. When you’re just starting out, you may not know what your audience likes and dislikes. Paying attention to this KPI helps you understand your audience’s needs faster.
KPIs for creators looking to scale
Deliverability rate
Email marketer Victor mentions that deliverability rate happens to be a low-hanging fruit for creators looking to scale:
It’s not unusual for a list to generate more income purely from better inbox placement. When you get out of Spam and/or show up in the Primary Tab, opens and clicks tend to rise as well. You wind up making more from the exact same list. It’s low-hanging fruit and almost free money.
– Victor Mutta
Conversion rate
As your business grows, shift your attention to KPIs that will really move the needle. Victor tells me that for creators looking to scale, “a 10-50% bump in performance from better subject lines, email copy, and strategy can add four-, five-, or even six-figures a month to a business.”
Improve your email marketing strategy with metrics and KPIs
When you track the right email marketing metrics and KPIs, you’ll unlock more growth for your creative business.
Even better, Kit automatically calculates many of the above email marketing metrics, so you don’t need to worry about busting out your calculator every time you send an email.
Kit helps creators like you grow your audience, connect and build a relationship with that audience, and earn a living online by selling digital products.
Dana is a freelance writer who works closely with B2B SaaS brands to create content people enjoy reading. When she’s not working, you’ll find her sipping on a warm cup of tea and reading a good book (the scarier, the better). See what she’s up to at www.dananicoledesigns.com (Read more by Dana)