Newsletters are a popular way to share a brand’s latest content, and nearly half of businesses use them to engage their audience.
But are your email newsletter templates hitting the mark?
Do your subscribers find them helpful, relevant, and personal? Tracking your newsletter’s success is key to knowing what works. Sure, basic metrics like open rates and clicks are easy to track, but the real value comes from asking the tough questions and digging deeper. As marketing expert Seth Godin says, “Measuring what matters is worth it.”
Image Source: Mailjet
In this blog, we’ll show you the most important metrics you should be tracking to ensure your newsletters don’t just land in inboxes—they deliver real results.
Thinking you can just “set and forget” your email newsletters? Think again. After you hit send, it’s crucial to dig deeper than just checking for a boost in sales. Sales alone can be a misleading measure of success, as not all email campaigns are designed to drive immediate sales.
For example, a B2B company running a campaign to promote an upcoming webinar might focus on lead generation and brand awareness rather than instant sales. To get a true sense of your newsletters’ performance, you need to look at a range of key performance indicators (KPIs).
From open and click-through rates to overall engagement, these metrics offer valuable insights into how well your newsletters perform.
Analyzing these KPIs allows you to generate detailed reports that compare your email campaigns over time and against industry standards. Understanding and tracking the right KPIs helps you measure success accurately and adjust your newsletter strategy to continuously improve results.
Let’s look at the KPIs you should be tracking to gauge the performance of your email newsletters.
Before you worry about open or click rates, your email newsletters must land in inboxes. If your emails end up in spam folders or bounce back, it doesn’t matter how great your newsletter content is because it’s not being seen.
The delivery rate is where it all starts.
The email delivery rate is calculated as follows:
(Number of Email Sends – Number of Bounces) / Number of Email Sends
Plus, the delivery rate is interconnected with other email marketing KPIs. In fact, if your emails end up in spam folders or bounce back, every other metric becomes irrelevant. You could have a stellar open rate, but if your email delivery rate is low, it just means only a small portion of your audience is even seeing your emails.
Conversely, a healthy delivery rate ensures that your emails are clearing the critical first hurdle: actually getting to the people you’re targeting. By tracking this metric, you can catch early issues like poor sender reputation or technical problems that might be blocking your emails from reaching inboxes.
The higher your delivery rate, the better the chance your emails will be opened, read, and acted upon.
Our inboxes are flooded with emails daily, but how many do we open? A Mailjet survey found that nearly half of consumers (49.2%) open only a few brand emails daily. Tracking your open rate is essential—it shows how many people are engaging with your email newsletters.
The open rate measures the percentage of delivered emails that recipients open, and it’s calculated as follows:
(Number of emails opened ÷ Number of emails delivered) × 100
For instance, if 200 out of 1,000 delivered emails are opened, your open rate is 20%. A high open rate suggests your subject lines are effective and your audience is interested. It also means that your segmentation and send frequency are on point.
But open rates aren’t always perfectly accurate. Factors like image caching, image blocking, and certain email clients can affect open rates. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) can also inflate open rates, making them seem higher than they actually are.
Does this mean you should ignore open rates? Not at all. While they may not be 100% precise, open rates still provide a solid gauge of how well your emails are doing. After all, if an email is opened, it’s at least getting a chance to perform. So, while you can’t rely on the exact number, open rates remain a valuable indicator of engagement.
Getting your audience to open your newsletter is just the first step. The real test of how compelling your email is comes next: do they actually click on your links? That’s where the click-through rate (CTR) comes in.
CTR measures the percentage of people who opened your email and clicked on at least one link inside. It’s a strong indicator of how engaging your content, messaging, or offers are. If your audience clicks, your email did more than just get opened—it inspired action.
Here’s how to calculate CTR:
(Unique Clicks / Delivered Emails) x 100
For example, if you email 300 people and 30 of them click on your link, your CTR is 10%. A high CTR signals that your email campaign is on the right track. It means your content and CTA are grabbing attention and driving engagement.
But if your CTR is low, it’s time to ask some tough questions. Is your messaging clear? Are your links easy to spot and enticing to click? Tweaking these elements can boost your CTR and improve the success of your email newsletter.
Your unsubscribe rate tells you how many people are choosing to leave your email list. While it’s not always the happiest metric to track, it’s crucial to understand how well your content resonates with your audience.
A healthy unsubscribe rate is generally below 0.5%. If you’re seeing rates higher than that, it’s a sign something’s off—whether it’s the frequency of emails, the relevance of your content, or just an overload of messages.
Whatever the reason, when someone unsubscribes, they’re gone for good. This makes it important to track the unsubscribe rate regularly and take action if it starts creeping up.
The key to lowering your unsubscribe rate is sending relevant and timely content. Segmenting your audience and personalizing your newsletters can help ensure you’re sending the right message to the right people instead of blasting the same email to your entire list.
And growing your list is just as important as keeping it healthy. Make sure you have strategies in place to keep bringing in new subscribers at a higher rate than you’re losing them.
One of the most frustrating metrics for email marketers is the bounce rate—the percentage of emails that weren’t successfully delivered to recipients.
The bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of bounces by the total number of emails sent and then multiplying by 100.
(Bounces / Sends) * 100
The bounce rate is a key indicator of how clean and accurate your email list is and how email service providers (ESPs) view your sender’s reputation.
A high bounce rate can be damaging, making ESPs like Google and Apple think you’re a spammer. That’s why tracking your bounce rate—and understanding why emails are bouncing—is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation.
There are two types of bounces you need to watch out for:
Soft Bounces
A soft bounce happens when there’s a temporary issue on the recipient’s end. Maybe their inbox is full, or their mail server is temporarily down. These types of bounces aren’t a big deal since the email could be delivered once the issue is resolved. You can usually resend these emails without any long-term problems.
Hard Bounces
Hard bounces, on the other hand, are more serious and can harm your sender reputation. These occur when you send an email to an invalid or non-existent email address. A high number of hard bounces suggests you’re falling behind on list maintenance, and it’s a red flag for ESPs.
Keeping your contact list up to date is essential to preventing hard bounces. Regularly cleanse your email list, remove inactive or incorrect addresses, and consider using a double opt-in process to ensure subscribers provide valid email addresses. A low bounce rate keeps your email campaigns more effective and strengthens your reputation with ESPs.
Conversion rate answers the most important question: Did your email newsletter prompt recipients to take the action you wanted them to?
The conversion rate measures how many of your email recipients clicked on a link in the email and then completed a desired action—whether that’s filling out a form, signing up for a webinar, or purchasing a product.
The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of people who completed the desired action by the total number of emails delivered, then multiplying by 100.
(Number of people who completed the action ÷ Number of total emails delivered) * 100
Unlike metrics like open rates or click-through rates, the conversion rate gives you a clear picture of whether your email is actually achieving its end goal. A high conversion rate means your email and landing page effectively work together to drive results.
Ensure your landing page is as compelling and relevant as your email. A seamless experience from email click to action is crucial for maximizing conversions.
The list growth rate measures how quickly your email list is expanding. A growing list means more people are interested in your content and engaging with your brand.
Conversely, a stagnating or shrinking list could signal issues with your strategy or a disconnect with your audience.
Here’s how to calculate it:
List Growth Rate= (New subscribers – Unsubscribers)÷Total subscribers×100
A rising subscriber list reflects positively on your brand’s reach and engagement efforts. It shows that your email content resonates with new audiences, and your strategies work. However, natural attrition—like unsubscribes or inactive accounts—means you should aim for a growth rate that significantly surpasses these losses.
One of the best ways to increase the reach of your email campaigns is through the email forwarding rate. This metric measures how often recipients share your email content with others by clicking a “share” or “forward” button.
When subscribers forward your email, they essentially advocate for your brand, helping you reach new leads.
Your current email list is valuable, but growth comes from reaching beyond it. If you want your emails to reach new people, tracking the email forwarding rate is key. This metric shows how often subscribers share your email content by clicking “share” or “forward.”
When someone forwards your email, they recommend your brand to others, helping you expand your audience.
To calculate the email forwarding rate, use this formula:
(Number of shares or forwards ÷ Total number of delivered emails) * 100
For example, if 10 recipients out of 1,000 forwarded your email, your forwarding rate would be:
(10 ÷ 1,000) * 100 = 1%
To increase your forwarding rate, ensure your emails are easy to share. Include clear share buttons, create content worth passing on, and even add a quick note encouraging readers to forward the email.
The spam score measures how often your emails get flagged as spam. Email providers use spam scores to filter messages. If your score is high, your emails may go straight to the spam folder, missing your audience entirely. It damages your sender reputation and reduces email deliverability.
Factors like content, sender reputation, and recipient preferences influence your spam score. The more irrelevant or spammy your emails appear, the higher your score will be.
Send relevant content, maintain a clean email list, and avoid spammy language. This will help keep your emails out of the spam folder and in front of your audience.
Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most critical metrics in email marketing. It measures how much revenue your campaign generates compared to your spending. Simply put, it shows how cost-effective your email campaigns are.
You can calculate it using this formula:
ROI=Cost(Profit−Cost)×100
ROI isn’t just about the revenue; it also factors in labor costs, like the time your team spends on email creation and marketing. Different campaigns may have different ROI targets depending on your goals—brand awareness, customer acquisition, or sales conversions.
To wrap things up, while tracking metrics like ROI, bounce rates, and subscriber growth is important, the real key to success is simply creating great email newsletters. Data helps fine-tune your strategy, but at the end of the day, the quality of your content matters most.
The metrics will care for themselves if your newsletters consistently offer value and connect with your audience. Clicks, conversions, and shares will naturally follow when you prioritize what your readers actually want. Keep it simple—focus on delivering content that matters, and the results will come.
