Email marketing KPIs: 12 metrics to fuel creator growth

Email Marketing
Updated: July 23, 2024
Email marketing KPIs: 12 metrics to fuel creator growth
15 min read
In this Article

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.

How to improve list growth rate

Consider these tips to grow your email list faster:

  • Add a newsletter referral program to your email marketing. Creators with newsletter referral programs grow their lists 35% faster than those without.
  • 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.

How to improve open rate

The average open rate for creators is 43%. To increase your open rate:

  • A/B test each subject line.
  • Write compelling preview text copy.
  • Personalize subject lines. Open rates increase by 50% for personalized subject lines.
  • 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.

A good conversion rate for different types of emails (newsletter, abandoned cart, follow-up…) varies, and should be taken into account when analyzing this important email marketing KPI.

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

How to improve revenue per email

Give your RPE a boost by:

  • A/B testing subject lines
  • 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.

Track and analyze your next email marketing campaign with Kit. Start your free trial today!

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Dana Nicole
Dana Nicole

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)