KPIs are key performance indicators, or in other words, gauges whose value will help you know the progress or results of a specific action.
Applied to email marketing, KPIs are metrics that help you measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Thanks to them, you can know if you have achieved your objectives.
In the world of digital marketing, there are many key performance indicators. Still, in email marketing, there are 8 fundamental KPIs that you must analyze without fail. In this article, we want to tell you what they are so that you can always include them in your strategy and give you some tips to improve their performance.
Finally, we also want you to know some facts about the world of email marketing that will help you better target your actions.
And that’s all you’ll find here, ready?
The Most Important KPIs in Email Marketing
1. Deliverability rate
The deliverability rate is a metric that measures the percentage of emails that reach their destination correctly, that is, your contact’s inbox. Although it does not consider whether those emails are opened, it is exciting to know if your database is up to date or if your emails frequently end up in the spam folder.
A deliverability rate is considered good if it is above 90% and acceptable between 80% and 90%. Less than 80% is regarded as an area for improvement.
2. Open Rate
The opening rate in email marketing is one of the KPIs that will help us know the percentage of emails opened by recipients compared to the total number of emails sent.
The open rate metric will help you understand users’ interest in your messages and your audience’s commitment to your brand.
In this case, there is no specific percentage from which an open rate is considered acceptable, as it varies depending on the sector to which your brand belongs and the type of campaign, among other factors. But, if your open rate is between 15% and 35%, you can consider it positive. And keep in mind that a 100% opening rate is practically impossible.
3. Bounce rate
The bounce rate indicates the percentage of sent emails that could not be delivered to the recipient and were returned to the sender.
In this case, it is essential to note that there are two types of bounce rates, which will indicate the reason for the return:
- Soft bounce rate: The return to the sender occurs because the recipient’s mailbox is complete, there are temporary connection problems, or the message is too large. In these cases, the server will try to accept the email later.
- Hard bounce rate: In this case, the sending is unsuccessful because the recipient’s email address is incorrect or does not exist. In this case, the recipient’s server will not try to receive the message again later since the address is wrong.
If your bounce rate is within acceptable parameters (below 2%), it is a sign that your contact list is up to date. A higher percentage would indicate an error in how the emails are being sent or that the mailing list is not clean.
4. Click-through rate
The click-through rate in email marketing is one of the most critical KPIs. It tells us the percentage of recipients who open the email and click on the link or links it contains concerning the number of emails sent.
As you click through, the click-through rate is even more critical than other KPIs, such as the opening rate. It is much more valuable for a recipient to click on the email than to open it. This indicates much more interest, and the chances of conversion are much higher.
In this case, a click-through rate greater than 2% is optimal for an email marketing strategy.
5. Click Through Rate
This rate is straightforward and needs clarification compared to the previous one. However, they have a crucial difference. The click-through rate also calculates the percentage of recipients who click on a link in the email but not the number of emails opened.
If the rate exceeds 1%, it would already be considered an optimal result. However, this figure is indicative and may vary depending on the industry in this case and the previous one.
6. Cancellation fee
The cancellation rate is another metric we should consider. It is also known as the unsubscribe rate, and, as its name suggests, it tells us the percentage of people who have unsubscribed from our email list. In other words, it tells us the number of people who no longer wish to receive our emails.
A high unsubscribe rate may be a sign that the content of our messages is uninteresting and lacks value. It may also be due to the high frequency of our messages, poor segmentation, or unattractive subject lines.
In this case, the higher the cancellation rate, the worse, so keep it as low as possible. Generally, there is nothing to worry about as long as it is below 2%. But we also recommend that you research your industry’s average cancellation rate.
7. Spam Complaint Rate
The Spam Complaint Rate is a metric that indicates the percentage of recipients who have marked your message as spam.
In this case, it is recommended that this rate does not exceed 0.1%. Otherwise, it may be a sign that recipients consider your messages spam, although there may be other causes. In the section on improving results, we will give you some tips to keep this metric under control.
8. Conversion rate
Finally, the conversion rate represents the percentage of email recipients who carry out the desired action for which the email was created. This could be, for example, downloading a document, signing up for a webinar or purchasing a product. Many possibilities exist, but we should distinguish it from the click rate.
The click-through rate only represents the number of clicks that the email receives. This is a good sign, as the more clicks there are, the more chances there are of conversion, but it only sometimes translates into more conversions.
A high conversion rate is a sign that the user is very interested in our product or service and that we have been able to sell it well.
Again, while it varies by industry and other factors, an optimal conversion rate will be above 2% in most cases.
