Common metrics such as open and click rates are often used to measure campaign success. These metrics are available in all email marketing solutions and indicate success. However, you can only measure that if you compare these statistics with the open and click rates of previous campaigns. And there are several other metrics to measure success.



Although you will probably have to update some of the statistics below yourself in Excel, it is very valuable to make an overview. By periodically updating statistics below, you will quickly see trends and you can optimize and adjust if necessary. In this article you will find an overview of seven metrics that give you a good picture of the success of your email marketing.



1. Percentage of Clicks to Valuable Pages



This is a variant of the click rate. The percentage indicates the relationship between the campaign objective and the behavior of recipients. You only take the clicks to landing pages that are important to the organization. A click on the unsubscribe link, the online version, the general terms and conditions, and the privacy policy do not count. Divide the number of clicks to the correct landing pages by the total number of clicks.



With a good campaign, this percentage is above 98%, but that depends very much on the links that you consider valuable. You can also use the variant where you only count the clicks to conversion pages.



2. Database Growth Rate



It is crucial to keep up with the growth of your database. The size of the database is important because, in general, you can achieve more with email marketing if you have a large database. Calculate the growth rate of the database by subtracting the number of unsubscribes, bounces, and complaints from the number of new registrations in a specific month. Then divide that number by the number of recipients at the beginning of the month. Note: do not include all bounces in this calculation. Only include a bounced e-mail address in the calculation if it is automatically removed from the mailing list due to the bounce.



3. Attrition Rate per Campaign



This statistic partly corresponds to the above-mentioned calculation of the growth rate of the database. With the attrition rate, you calculate what percentage of the recipients on the mailing list you are no longer allowed to mail in the next campaign. With a good campaign and a healthy database, this percentage does not exceed 1%.



Recipients unsubscribe, bounce, or mark a message as junk. They no longer receive your campaigns. Add up all unsubscribes, bounces, and complaints and divide by the number of messages sent. As with the 'Growth database' statistic, you only include the email addresses if they are automatically removed from the mailing list due to the bounce.



4. Opens and Clicks over Time



Regularly check the progress in the number of activities (opens and clicks) within a sent campaign. In general, 70% of opens and clicks are received within 3 hours of sending the newsletter depending on your target group. Consider choosing a different send time if you see that most recipients open and click only hours after a campaign has been sent. It is more effective to send a campaign when recipients are busy in their inboxes.



The reports below show that the campaign was sent at 4 AM, while most opens are between 8 AM and 10 AM. In this case, you should consider choosing a different send time.




5. Receiver Lifetime



How long does an average person remain active in the newsletter? The length of an entry is often easy to calculate in Excel. Put the registration and deregistration dates next to each other and calculate how much difference there is between these dates. In the calculation, do not only include recipients who have already unsubscribed, but also look at existing recipients who no longer show any activities (opens and clicks). An e-mail address loses its value if the recipient changes jobs, changes internet provider or simply forgets the password of the email account.



You can recognize an inactive email address by analyzing the opens of the past period. With a daily newsletter, it is best to use 1.5 months to measure whether a recipient is inactive. With a monthly newsletter, a period of 6 to 9 months is usual. Use the date of the last registered open as the unsubscribe date, so that you can also calculate the lifespan of these email addresses.




6. Content Virality



This statistic indicates the value of the content of the newsletter. How often has specific content in the campaign or the campaign itself been shared with others? It's not just about sharing via social media, but also about forwarding the campaign by email. Look closely at this stat to find out which content is the most viral. Viral content can greatly increase the reach of your campaign.



In the calculation, you can go a step further by taking into account the size of the network of the recipient who has shared your content. The value of sharing on social media depends on the size of the recipient's network.



7. Average Value per Recipient



Determine the average value per receiver by multiplying several factors. While this may seem like a lot of work, most professional email marketing software already collects a great deal of needed results. Use the following factors:



Recency: How many campaigns has it been since the average recipient clicked?
Frequency: How many times has the average recipient opened and clicked on campaigns in a given period?
Monetary value: What is the average order value of purchases from campaigns? Determine the average value of a click yourself, if you do not offer any products.

By calculating the recipient's average value, you know how much money it may cost to recruit a new recipient.



Update the metrics mentioned in this article regularly to spot trends that will take your email marketing to the next level. Which email marketing metrics are most valuable to you?