
Are you digging around to find the best ways to measure email marketing performance? With so many email marketing success stories, statistics and opinions circling online, it can be hard to gauge your email marketing success. So, how to measure email marketing effectiveness for your campaigns? In this blog, we discuss how to plan and measure email marketing success rates.
Let’s dig in without any further ado!
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a digital marketing stream which helps marketers build closer relationships with existing customers. Moreover, personalized email marketing is among the top marketing trends of 2022 and it is gaining popularity. Emails are the primary medium for link-building with existing customers and for eventually compelling them to take the desired action.
Suggested Read: Top 2022 Content Marketing Trends That Should be on Your To-Do List
How to Determine Email Marketing Success – 3-Step Email Performance Measurement Plan

Here are some quick steps to help you map out the perfect email marketing performance plan:
Pick the Correct Timing for Tracking Performance
Email marketing may show success overnight or after a fortnight. Therefore, it all boils down to what type of email campaign sequence you select and how receptive your emailing list is. Thus, you can pick a weekly, fortnightly or monthly schedule to track the performance of your email marketing. Set clear benchmarks before the launch of every email and compare them with the results you are receiving.
Establish Your Goals, Objectives and KPIs
Every industry has specific goals and objectives. Your email marketing strategy shall carefully incorporate those KPIs which are highly relevant to your industry and offering. Thus, it means that you must take email marketing strategy into account while planning your complete digital marketing strategy.
Some common goals for an email marketing success plan look like this:
- Brand Awareness
- New Product Announcements
- Promotions
- Sales
- Customer engagement
- Customer Retention
Rule Out What is Working From What is Not Working
Conduct an email success analysis based on the type of content that has shown the most success among your mailing list. Moreover, you can also analyze what is working based on the type of imagery and links driving you most results. Finally, focus on the success driving factors and refine them to optimize your email marketing success rate.
Also Read: Content Marketing Vs Email Marketing – How To Combine Both for Best Results?
Some Common Email Marketing KPIs Include

The success of email marketing depends upon different KPIs. The most common KPIs include:
Delivered Rate
Your email marketing campaign will only work if the intended audience is receiving the emails in their inbox. Make sure that your deliverability is optimized. In this step, you need to take special care about the email sending rate, so that your email address is not blacklisted.
Open Rate
The email open rate determines the percentage of email recipients who opened the email. A higher email open rate is preferred for the success of your email marketing campaign. Ensure that you include catchy subject lines, relevant email body and personalized message in every email to boost the email open rate.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
You will often come across this metric on your email dashboard and all the email marketing discussions. If someone is opening your email, they shall be compelled to click on your CTAs. CTR indicates how many people have clicked on the email buttons corresponding to your CTAs. Thus, it reflects the interest recipients are showing in your emails.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate reflects the success of your email marketing campaign. Ideally, the goal of most emails is to convert the recipients. If your conversion rate is high, it means that your email success rate is also high.
Email Marketing Average Benchmarks
According to data shared by a popular email marketing platform, the average open rate and click through rate across all industries is 21.80% and 2.78% respectively. The email marketing success rate varies depending upon the industry. For the marketing and advertising industry, the open rate and Click-Through rate is 17.81% and 1.92% respectively. [1]
Suggested Read: Is Email Marketing Effective? Top Reasons and Tips to Use It
However, bear in mind that open rate and click-through rates are only a fraction of the number of emails you send. Both these metrics differ for every industry. Therefore, you can gradually improve your email marketing success rate.
You can also take help from AI to bolster your personalized email marketing efforts.

Email Marketing Success FAQs

Which metrics should you track to measure the success of email marketing?
The best answer for how to measure email marketing effectiveness lies in tracking the success metrics. The email marketing success rate relies on 8 common metrics:
- Open Rate
- Click-Through Rate
- Bounce Rate
- List Growth Rate
- Email Share/Forward Rate
- Spam Rate
- Unsubscribe Rate
- Overall ROI
What are KPIs in email marketing?
KPIs for successful email marketing is different for each type of business and its corresponding goals. However, some common KPIs for email marketing across all industries are:
- Open Rate
- Click-Through-Rate
- Conversion Rate
How do you measure email marketing engagement?
Email marketing’s engagement is dependent on three metrics, the Open Rate, Click-Through Rate and Click-To-Open Rate. Usually, metrics are usually available on your email marketing tool’s dashboard. Additionally, you can manually measure them using the following formulas:
- Open Rate = (Number of Emails Opened + Number of Emails Delivered) x 100
- CTR = (Total Email Clicks + Number of Emails Delivered) x 100
- CTOR = (Number of unique Clicks + Number of Unique Email Opens) x 100
How can I improve my email metrics?
Don’t worry if your email performance is not up to the mark. Here are some tips that can help you achieve email marketing metrics:
- Conduct A/B Testing with subject lines and CTAs
- Include Stats or Emotional Words in Subject Lines
- Segment your audience more specifically
- Personalize Sender address and email body content
- Add an email pre-introduction or pre-header
- Set up auto-resend email campaigns
What is a good email engagement rate?
The average good email engagement rate for different industries ranges between 17% and 28%. Your engagement rate will reflect how many recipients opened the email.
References:
[1] Email Marketing Statistics and Benchmarks By Industry – MailChimp