Email marketing is a powerful weapon in the digital industry. There are over 4 billion daily email users, and 37% of brands are increasing their email budgets. It’s clear that email isn’t going anywhere. But how do you know if your email marketing efforts are hitting the mark? Here are some email marketing statistics:

• 4.5 billion people globally use email, and that number is projected to grow to over 4.8 billion by 2027.
• Email marketing platforms are widely used, with businesses leveraging their features to send, design, and track email marketing campaigns effortlessly.
• It has an average ROI of 3,600%, meaning for every $1 spent, you get $36 back.
• According to data from 2023, 52% of consumers made a purchase directly from an email.

What are email engagement metrics?

Email engagement metric refers to providing data on every user to whom you’ve sent an email. Metrics provide all types of data that is ultimately turned into useful information about active email readers, what emails they enjoy, clickable links, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and many more things.

Why prioritize email engagement metrics?

Email engagement is based on how your audience interacts with your emails. It provides a clear picture of the effectiveness of email campaigns and helps you figure out what resonates with your subscribers.

5 things to be prioritized when you are preparing an email campaign:

1. Understand the target audience: Engagement metrics provide insights into what content your subscribers find interesting and valuable. This helps you create future emails that are more relevant and engaging to them.

2. Measure campaign success: Click-through rate measures that interest more effectively. A high CTR indicates that your email has well-crafted and valuable content—whether users are visiting your landing page, making a purchase, or downloading something. It’s a strong indicator of user engagement.

3. Improve future campaigns: Analyze engagement metrics to craft more targeted emails based on your audience’s interests. High click-through rates on a topic? Create more content like it, promote it, and deliver engaging content. For brands looking to engage even more with their audience, utilizing a UGC platform for your brand can encourage user-generated content that drives further email interaction.

4. Boost deliverability: High engagement rates signal to email providers that your messages are valuable to them. This can improve your sender reputation and ensure your emails land in inboxes rather than spam folders.

5. Increase your return on investment (ROI): Email marketing is about getting results, and email engagement metrics are key to achieving those results. A low unsubscribe rate means its content is relevant, and high clicks mean users engage with your emails and products. By understanding engagement, you can build strong relationships and drive conversions.

8 email marketing metrics you should track

Now that we know what to prioritize, let’s discuss the most common and effective email marketing metrics that can be used by small businesses, large businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, and many more.

1. Deliverability rate

Email deliverability rate refers to what percent of your total emails successfully reach the user’s inbox. It’s not necessarily going to be found in the inbox—sometimes it can land in spam folders or the email may bounce. The email deliverability rate reflects how many emails are reaching the target audience.

A poor deliverability rate reduces your user engagement, and a high email delivery rate confirms that your email message has a good chance of managing engagement with users. Therefore, it’s essential to verify emails before sending them to improve the deliverability rate.

2. Bounce rate

Email bounce rate measures how many emails you have sent and how many emails get returned to your inbox because of an incorrect email address or if a particular email isn’t actively working.

• Soft email: A soft bounce rate is a temporary delivery issue because of a user’s full inbox, a server issue, or an autoresponder mode.
• Hard bounce: A hard bounce rate is a permanent failure due to an unfinished email validation process—for example, sending the wrong email, an invalid email address, a closed account, or not accepting emails for a particular domain. You need to plan out a re-engagement campaign to decrease the bounce rate.

3. Click-through rate

CTR is all about how many users click on any particular link that we have added to an email. It indicates that people find your ad or link interesting. These are common metrics used by marketing teams, especially for online advertisements and emails:

• Email marketing: A good CTR for email shows you have strong email content and subject lines. People want to click and learn more.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): CTR is also used to assess the quality of your organic search results and the effectiveness of SEO. A high CTR for a search result might suggest a good description and a great title that are effective at grabbing users’ attention.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) ads: CTR is crucial for PPC ads, where advertisers pay each time someone clicks on their ads. A high CTR can lead to lower costs and better ad placement.

4. Click-to-open rate

Click-to-open rate (CTOR) measures how many clicks on your emails out of the total unique number of emails open rate. It represents how engaging your title and content were to the people who read them and those who did not view them.

Example: Imagine you send an email to 1,000 people and 200 open it. If 80 of those who opened it clicked a link, your CTOR would be (80 clicks / 200 opens) x 100 = 40%.

CTOR provides a clearer picture of how engaging your email content is compared to only looking at open rates. A low CTOR may prompt you to improve your email subject lines and call to action.

5. Conversion rate

Email conversion rates are the overall percentage of email users who take action after opening your email. This action is based on your email campaign goals, but it typically involves them clicking on the link in the email content and taking a further step to your website.

Example: Let’s imagine you send an email campaign to 10,000 new subscribers promoting a new product with a “Buy Now” button in the email. If 200 people click the button and make a purchase, your conversion rate will be (200 conversions / 10,000 emails delivered) x 100 = 2%.

Through different metrics and analyzing email conversion rates, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your email marketing technique, make improvements based on your past results, drive more conversions, and achieve your sales goals.

6. Subscribe & unsubscribe rate

Email unsubscribe and subscribe rates are two sides of the coin in email marketing, measuring how your list grows and shrinks over time.

Subscribe rate: A healthy subscribe rate indicates that your signup process is effective and that your audience thinks your content provides valuable insights for them. The subscribe rate is the percentage of people who sign up for your total email list compared to the total number of people who were exposed to your signup form.

Unsubscribe rate: This measures the percentage of active subscribers who choose to opt out of receiving your emails in the future. A low unsubscribe rate is desirable as it shows your audience is engaged with your quality content. A high unsubscribe rate indicates irrelevant content, spammy practices, finding emails in spam folders, or frequent emails.

7. Revenue per email

Revenue per email (RPE), also sometimes called revenue per email sent, is a metric used in email marketing to measure the average amount of total revenue generated by each email sent in a campaign.

For example, imagine you have a campaign and send it to 50,000 email subscribers, and it generates $50,000 in sales. Your PRE would be $50,000 revenue / 50,000 emails delivered = $1 per email.

Overall RPE is a valuable metric for understanding the overall financial impact of your email marketing efforts. However, it’s also important to compare other relevant metrics to get a complete picture of your particular campaign’s performance.

8. Profitability per email

Profitability per email (PPE) is not a commonly used metric in email marketing, but it can be a more insightful measure than revenue per email. It’s considered both the revenue generated and the costs associated with the email campaign.

Example: Let’s say an email campaign generates $1,000 in sales and costs $200 to run (including software fees, design, and other costs). Let’s also say that you send 1,000 emails.

• Revenue per email (RPE) = $1,000/1,000 emails = $1 per email.
• Profitability Per Email (PPE) = ($1,000 – $200) / 1,000 number of emails = $0.80 per email.

This shows that while each email generated $1 in revenue, the actual profit per email sent was only 80 cents after accounting for campaign costs.

Overall, metrics of profitability per email can be a valuable addition to your email marketing metrics. It helps you understand the true financial benefits of your email marketing campaign and optimize them for maximum profit.

Incorporating customer feedback on your email marketing strategy

One crucial aspect of improving email engagement metrics is incorporating direct feedback from your customers. Listening to your audience and understanding what content and messaging resonate with them is key to optimizing your email campaigns.

Some ways to gather and act on customer feedback include:

• Surveys: Sending brief, targeted surveys to your email list can provide valuable insights on what type of content they find most engaging, how often they prefer to receive emails, and areas for improvement.
• Preference centers: Allowing subscribers to customize the type of content and frequency of emails they receive can enhance the relevance and impact of your messaging.
• A/B testing: Experimenting with different subject lines, calls to action, content formats, and other elements can help you identify what resonates best with your audience. Carefully analyzing the results can inform future email marketing strategies.
• Feedback forms: Embedding a simple customer feedback tool in your emails encourages existing or new subscribers to share their thoughts and ideas directly.
• Social monitoring: Tracking discussions and mentions of your brand on social media can surface unsolicited feedback and uncover opportunities to improve the email experience.

By actively incorporating this customer input into your email marketing strategy, you can create more engaging, personalized content that drives higher open rates, click-throughs, and conversions over time.

How do you track & measure email engagement metrics?

You can track your emails by using email marketing platforms. Nowadays, most email marketing platforms come built-in with email analytics that track and measure a variety of engagement metrics. Email marketing platforms automatically collect data every time you send a campaign, providing valuable insights into how your audience interacts with your emails. This data includes:

• Open tracking
• Click tracking
• Click-through rate
• Time spent reading
• Email forwarding details
• Campaign performance reports
• Subscriber engagement trends
• Other insights and features

By understanding these metrics and how they were measured, you can gain valuable insights into your audience engagement and optimize your email marketing efforts for a better outcome.

Top 3 tools for email engagement metrics

1. Omnisend

Omnisend is an email marketing platform specially designed for ecommerce businesses. It’s allowed to create email campaigns to send to targeted sectors. Also, you can create an automated workflow and track your results. All to boost customer engagement and drive sales through effective digital PR strategies.

Price: Ominisend provides a free plan with 250 contacts and 500 emails per month, and a paid plan starts at $16 based on contact selection.

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a leader in email marketing tools, so you’ve definitely heard of it. It’s easy to use for beginners with an intuitive interface. Providing a wide range of support and features according to your business marketing needs.

Price: Mailchimp provides a free plan with limited features, and a paid plan starts at $5 per month based on the selection of your total contacts.

3. Snov.io

Snov.io is a multifaceted tool. Its robust features include an email finder and verifier, ensuring that your outreach targets are accurate and up-to-date. Beyond that, it facilitates cold email and drip campaigns, streamlining your communication efforts.

With powerful lead generation capabilities, Snov.io empowers users to identify and capture potential prospects effectively. Additionally, it offers sales tools to enhance conversion rates and optimize sales processes. In essence, Snov.io is an indispensable companion for businesses seeking to maximize their email engagement metrics and drive successful outreach campaigns.

5 tips to increase email engagement

Here are 5 quick tips to increase email engagement for your business:

Subject line: The subject line is the most important factor for everyone because the user will decide whether or not to read your email based on the subject line. You need to use strong verbs, keep it concise, and consider A/B testing different options.

Segmentation: Don’t send a one-size-fits-all message to everyone. Segment your email list based on interest, demographics, or purchase history to deliver targeted content that finds a deeper connection with each group.

Personalization power: You need to personalize your emails based on users, segments, or geographical location. Include the recipient’s name, reference past purchases, or segment your audience for a more personal touch that grabs attention.

Mobile matters: For your business network security, you need to ensure your emails are optimized for mobile devices. With many people checking emails on their phones, a mobile-friendly design is crucial for a smooth reading experience and better engagement.

Calls to action (CTA): Tell your readers what you want them to do next! Using strong CTAs that are easy to understand and distinct with a contrasting color or button design.  Whether it’s “Shop Now” or “Learn More,” CTAs make it clear what action you want them to take, and you can generate leads easily.

Implementing data insights for best outcomes

Segmentation is key

Don’t send the same email to everyone. Leverage engagement data to segment your audience based on factors like open rates, CTR, purchase history, or a demographic profile. This allows you to tailor content and offers to resonate with specific segments, boosting engagement.

Personalization pays off

People respond better to messages that feel personal. Use subscriber data like usernames and purchase history to personalize greetings, product recommendations, or offers within your emails. It can significantly increase engagement and conversions.

Craft compelling subject lines

Subject lines are the first impression. Use data to understand what grabs your audience’s attention. Experiment with length, emojis, personalization, and strong action verbs to craft subject lines that get your emails opened.

Re-engagement campaigns

Not everyone opens your emails, and sometimes your emails might just not be what a subscriber needs at that particular moment. This doesn’t mean they’re no longer interested in your product. You need to design re-engagement campaigns to win back inactive subscribers.

Continuously analyze and adapt

Email marketing is a dynamic and ongoing process. You need to consistently analyze engagement metrics to identify areas of improvement and test new strategies. By adopting a new approach based on your current metrics, you can optimize your email campaigns for long-term success.

Conclusion

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for reaching customers and achieving digital marketing goals via marketing engagement metrics. By understanding and tracking key metrics like deliverability rate, open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate, you can gain valuable insights into how well your emails are performing, or you can change goals or marketing plans based on past email analytics results.

Just remember these 4 takeaways:

• Focus on audience engagement.
• Track key metrics.
• Optimize for profit.
• Test and refine.

By implementing these tips and closely monitoring your email engagement metrics, you can create effective email marketing campaigns that drive engagement, conversions, and ultimately, success for your business.

If you’re still unable to get results, you can opt for an email marketing program or choose Omniscient Digital as an engagement engine and growth partner specializing in crafting and disseminating high-converting content for your email marketing process to run your business smoothly.