Tracking and analyzing your email marketing efforts is essential for understanding your audience, enhancing what works, and fixing what doesn’t. A clear plan for measurement should be integrated from the start of any campaign. Here’s how to set it up and make every email count.
Create a Measurement Plan in Three Steps
- Choose your timing
Monitor your email campaigns regularly—weekly, monthly, or by campaign. This allows you to identify patterns, compare against benchmarks, and evaluate performance by audience segments, email types, or external events. - Set goals and objectives
Define clear, measurable goals from the outset. Align your KPIs with these objectives to track how well your emails meet specific business aims. - Analyze what’s working
Review which content—such as links or visuals—generates clicks. Use these insights to better understand subscriber interests and to refine your messaging.
Understand the Key Email Marketing KPIs
- Open Rate
Shows the percentage of delivered emails that were opened. Use A/B testing on subject lines to discover what boosts open rates. Be aware of how your platform counts re-opens. - Click Rate
Indicates how many recipients clicked any tracked link. Helps measure engagement and optimize future content. - Bounces
A bounce means an email wasn’t delivered. Hard bounces are permanent (e.g., invalid email address), while soft bounces are temporary (e.g., full inbox). High bounce rates harm sender reputation. - Unsubscribes
Tracks how many users opt out. Spikes may signal issues with content or frequency. - Device Statistics
Reveals the types of devices used to read emails. Use this to optimize layout and design for different user segments. - Spam Score
Measures how often your emails are marked as spam. High scores damage your reputation and reduce deliverability.
Evaluate Email Impact on Business KPIs
- Conversion Rate
Tracks how many recipients take the intended action (e.g., signing up for an event) based on the total number of recipients. - Return on Investment (ROI)
Calculated as (profit – cost) / cost. Email marketing often delivers high ROI, making it a critical metric to track. - Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Estimates the total value a customer brings during their relationship with your business. This helps assess long-term success. - Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
Determines how much it costs to gain a new customer. Calculated as total campaign cost divided by the number of conversions.
Apply Data Insights to Improve Results
Metrics only matter if you act on them. Use performance data to identify trends, spot underperforming segments, and guide creative improvements. For example, if mobile click rates are high but desktop engagement is low, optimize layout for larger screens.
While platforms like Mailchimp provide detailed reports, human insight is needed to interpret results and respond strategically. The more effectively you analyze and adapt, the better your email campaigns will perform over time.
Written by Jenna Tiffany for Mailchimp. Jenna is a specialist in digital marketing strategy.
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