8 Email Marketing Metrics to Track Other Than Open Rate

The beauty of email marketing is its incredible ability to speak directly to consumers at every point in their customer journey. In fact, email marketing consistently offers the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel, with an average 4200% return, and it’s easy to see why. For consumers, email is as common as drinking a morning coffee or ordering pizza after a long day at the office. For marketers, email provides direct, personalized access to consumers. Email marketing can be used to generate new leads, nurture lukewarm consumers, and retain loyal customers—in short, it’s a low-lift win for everyone.

Email marketing is clearly an incredible tool, so the real question is this: how well am I tracking my email metrics and leveraging them to campaign more effectively? To help your brand elevate its digital marketing strategy beyond open rates, Leap Group has compiled a guide to 8 crucial email marketing metrics to monitor for superior campaign performance.

Top Email Marketing Metrics to Track in 2023

To truly determine marketing success and identify areas for growth, brands need to be tracking entire email marketing programs. While the easiest form of tracking success is noticing how many times a message has been opened, simple open rate metrics are just the tip of the iceberg. Marketers should be tracking multiple metrics that are based on specific campaign and brand goals. One metric alone cannot provide enough information to create a comprehensive picture of a program’s success. If you want to drive high-performing email marketing for your brand, here are eight additional email metrics to measure that will more accurately determine the success of future campaigns.

List Growth
The list growth metric measures the growth rate of your subscriber list. The more email subscribers you can connect with, the more likely you are to convert and maintain loyal customers. Successful list growth requires more than sending one monthly update email; it begins with offering consumers multiple, simple opportunities to sign up for your emails, as well as a relevant reason why they need your content in their inboxes. When your emails provide subscribers with value, either by including personalized educational content, engaging videos, insider peeks at new product launches, or promotional discounts, your email readership will naturally begin to grow. You can then move forward with leveraging subscriber segmentation to provide even more targeted email content that will keep readers coming back for more. If you notice some readers becoming inactive or unsubscribing, re-evaluate your email marketing strategy to ensure that your content is meeting consumer needs and adding value.

How do I calculate list growth?
[(Number of new subscribers) – (Number of unsubscribes + email/spam complaints)] ÷ Total number of email addresses on your list]) * 100 = list growth percentage
Unique Opens
Unique opens tell you the percentage of recipients who actually open your emails. The unique opens metric is different from total opens in that unique opens counts the number of recipients who have opened your email versus the total number of times an email is opened. For example, if one subscriber opens your email on three different occasions, this is recorded as one unique open and three total opens. The unique opens metric gives insight as to how well your email subject lines are performing, so if your unique open rate is underwhelming, reconsider the types of subject lines that would peak your target audience’s interest.

How do I calculate unique opens?
(Total opens ÷ total delivered) * 100 = unique opens percentage
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate records the percentage of recipients who click on email links. After we capture subscribers’ attention with a catchy subject line and they open our email, we need them to interact with any links embedded in the email. This KPI is a helpful tool for tracking exactly what types of content your readers desire, as well as how effective your CTA is at propelling your readers toward purchase. Measuring click-through rates is necessary not only for better content development, but also to track the results of A/B email campaign testing and help you create more effective campaigns in the future.

How do I calculate click-through rate?
(Total clicks OR unique clicks ÷ Number of delivered emails) * 100 = click-through rate
Bounce Rate
A bounce rate is a percentage measurement of unsuccessful email deliveries. Emails can bounce for two reasons: invalid, misspelled, or non-existent email addresses (called “hard bounces”) or email server issues and full inboxes (called “soft bounces”). Tracking your email bounce rate can help you identify undeliverable emails so that you can take steps to remove these addresses and improve the health of your email list. Keep in mind that too many hard email bounces can lead to internet service providers labeling you as a spammer, so taking proactive steps to manage your list is key. One great method of avoiding high bounce rates is to provide a double opt-in, which asks subscribers to verify their email addresses and confirm their desire to receive your emails.

How do I calculate bounce rate?
(Total number of bounced emails ÷ Number of emails sent) * 100 = bounce rate
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate highlights the percentage of subscribers who click to follow the CTA within an email. At a foundational level, every email campaign you design should be geared toward reaching a specific goal, whether that be to buy a product, visit a website, sign up for a class, or follow your brand on social media. The conversion rate metric shows you just how effective your CTA was in driving readers toward a specific action and allows you to track your progress toward your email marketing goals.

How do I calculate conversion rate?
(Number of people who completed the desired action ÷ Total number of emails delivered) * 100 = conversion rate
Unsubscribe Rate
Unsubscribe rate shows you the percentage of recipients who have unsubscribed to your emails. While unsubscribers can leave you feeling defeated, unsubscribe rates provide valuable information that can help future email campaigns be even more effective, and tracking your program’s unsubscribes can help you better understand your path toward growth.

How do I calculate unsubscribe rate?
(Total number of unsubscribes ÷ Total number of emails delivered) * 100 = unsubscribe rate
Email Share/Forward Rate
Email share and forward rate illustrates the percentage of recipients who share your email content on social media or forward it to a friend. This KPI is particularly important if you include a “Share” button in emails so that your readers can post your content on social media. The share/forward rate metric guides you toward content that resonates with readers and gives you insight as to what types of information they would like to see in future email campaigns. Email sharing is also an important tool to attract new leads and grow your subscriber list in an organic way.

How do I calculate email share/forward rate?
(Number of clicks on “Share” or “Forward” button ÷ Number of total delivered emails) * 100 = email share/forward rate
Overall ROI
Overall ROI measures the overall return on investment for your email campaigns. Naturally, you want tangible evidence that your time and money has been well invested, so the overall ROI metric quantifies the results of your campaign performance and highlights areas that are working well and areas that need improvement. For example, this metric can help you understand the types and quality of leads you’re generating and how those leads directly translated into revenue for your brand.

How do I calculate overall ROI?
(Total revenue) ÷ (Total spend) = overall ROI

Email marketing with Leap Group.

The most successful email marketing campaigns are multi-faceted. They account for multiple customer personas, consider a wide variety of consumer demographics, and are segmented and personalized according to individual needs. If your brand needs help optimizing your email metrics, Leap Group is here to support you. From connecting with customers to generating sales, Leap Group can guide your brand in developing its most effective email marketing campaign yet. Visit our website or contact us for a consultation to learn more!