For the advanced email marketer, this is a guide on which metrics you should be using to evaluate the success of your email marketing campaigns.

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Advanced Email Marketing
Metrics
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Bounces
# of undelivered emails (bounces) / total # of emails sent
It seems very obvious to say it, but if your marketing emails don’t reach peoples’ inboxes, then your
email marketing campaign isn’t going to be very successful or profitable. These are just a few of the
reasons why emails “bounce”:
 the Internet Service Provider (ISP) you are using
 incorrect email addresses (a data cleansing issue)
 subject headings and from addresses which look “spammy” (eg, ALL CAPS)
 recipients have previously identified your email as junk/spam
By determining the exact number of emails that were delivered and undelivered, there are many actions
to take away including looking at the quality of your customer database and how you use subject
headings to attract a recipient’s attention and encourage them to open. It also allows you to calculate a
whole big bunch of useful metrics like the ones mentioned below.
Open to Click Ratio
# of clicks / # of emails opened
Seeing how many emails were opened is one thing, but no email marketer wants his or her emails to be
read without resulting in an action of some sort. With this ratio we can get a good indication of how
engaging our emails actually are. There must always be at least one objective for each email marketing
campaign, whether that be that the campaign leads to sales, repeat purchases, cross/up-selling etc. By
using email marketing software you will be able to see how recipients interact with your emails by
tracking the clicks on any links contained within the emails, the first step in the process to your ultimate
result.
Conversion Rate
# of conversions on website or landing page / total # of emails delivered
Conversions, seemingly the holy grail of internet marketing (you’ll see why I only say “seemingly” when
you read about Customer Lifetime Value) is a very important metric. Conversion rate tells you how
effective your marketing emails are in generating sales, leads or any other type of conversion. If there’s
an extremely low conversion rate, you need to make changes to address it.
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Average Revenue per Email Sent
# of revenue generated by the campaign / total # of emails sent
The most common objective of an email marketing campaign is to increase sales for the company. By
seeing an average for how much revenue that each email (or each marketing segment) generates, you
will be able to determine if your future email campaigns should be sent to just those
customers/segments which generate the most revenue.
Profitability per Email Sent
(total revenue generated – cost of goods sold – campaign cost) / total # of emails sent
Email marketing is a very cost-effective channel for online marketing, however it’s still necessary to
evaluate how profitable each campaign has been. For this metric, always divide the profit by the total
numbers sent (not just delivered) as even though those emails may not make it to an inbox, you are still
paying to send it.
Complaint Rate
# of complaints / total # of emails delivered
This is a metric that often gets overlooked by many email marketers. It’s especially significant if you are
sending emails on behalf of a large brand for which brand reputation is of the utmost importance. Many
emails marketers do not report on complaint rate as a complaint is always going to be a negative and it
can be difficult to track a complaint for a specific email campaign. Of course, each complaint will differ in
severity however it is good to have an idea of how wide-scale complaints are, so that you can do some
further analysis afterwards if needed.
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Unsubscribe Rate
# of unsubscribes / total # of emails delivered
If the recipients of your marketing emails are unsubscribing from your mailing list in large numbers, then
you need to know about it. There may be something about the specific email campaign that doesn’t fly
with the customers in your database or they may not have realized that they originally opted-in to your
mailing list (in which case you should make it more clear). The main thing to remember with
unsubscribes is that there needs to be a facility to automatically cleanse your database of those people
who have unsubscribed; further problems could arise if people who don’t want to receive your emails,
keep on receiving them on a regular basis. The best way to ensure that this is happens is by using
integrated online marketing software.
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