The 10 Key Email Marketing KPIs Your New Hire Should Be Tracking
Keith Kipkemboi
The 10 Key Email Marketing KPIs Your New Hire Should Be Tracking
Engagement KPIs: Measuring Audience Interest
1. Open Rate
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
3. Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)
4. Unsubscribe Rate
Conversion & Revenue KPIs: Measuring Business Impact
5. Conversion Rate
6. Revenue Per Email (RPE)
List Health & Deliverability KPIs: Measuring Program Sustainability
7. List Growth Rate
8. Bounce Rate
9. Spam Complaint Rate
10. Deliverability Rate
Conclusion
References
The 10 Key Email Marketing KPIs Your New Hire Should Be Tracking
Email marketing success isn't about guesswork. It's about tracking the right numbers and making smart decisions based on what they tell you. When you hire an email marketer, they need to know which metrics actually matter for your business goals. These ten KPIs will help you and your new team member measure what counts, optimize campaigns, and prove real value.
Think of KPIs as your email program's vital signs. Just like a doctor checks blood pressure and heart rate, your email marketer needs to monitor specific metrics that reveal the health of your campaigns. This goes way beyond vanity metrics like total subscribers. We're talking about the numbers that directly connect to business results and help with evaluating the ROI your new hire generates. These same metrics form the foundation for building a powerful email marketing strategy that actually drives growth.
Engagement KPIs: Measuring Audience Interest
Your audience's behavior tells you everything about whether your emails hit the mark. These engagement metrics are like instant feedback on your content quality and relevance. They show you what's working, what's not, and where to focus your optimization efforts.
1. Open Rate
Open rate shows the percentage of people who actually opened your email. It's the first hurdle every campaign needs to clear. If people aren't opening, nothing else matters.
Here's the thing about open rates in 2024: they're not as straightforward as they used to be. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection and similar features can inflate these numbers. Your new hire should understand this context. A 25% open rate might actually be 20% real opens, depending on your audience's email client mix.
Still, open rates remain valuable for comparing subject lines and send times. If Campaign A gets 30% opens and Campaign B gets 15%, that's a clear signal about which approach resonates better. Your email marketer should test different subject line styles, lengths, and personalization tactics to find what works for your specific audience.
Industry benchmarks vary wildly. B2B emails might average 15-25% open rates, while retail can see 20-30%. But don't obsess over industry averages. Focus on beating your own baseline and improving steadily over time.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is where engagement gets real. This metric shows the percentage of recipients who clicked at least one link in your email. It's the truest measure of whether your content compelled action.
A solid CTR depends on several factors working together. Your subject line got them to open, but now your content needs to deliver on that promise. The design needs to guide the eye naturally toward your call-to-action. The copy needs to build interest and urgency. And the CTA itself needs to be crystal clear about what happens next.
Most email programs see CTRs between 2-5%, but this varies by industry and email type. Promotional emails might hit 2-3%, while targeted product recommendations could reach 7-10%. Your new hire should segment these metrics by campaign type to set realistic benchmarks.
Watch for patterns in what drives clicks. Maybe emails with video thumbnails consistently outperform static images. Perhaps shorter emails with single CTAs beat longer, multi-offer messages. These insights help refine your approach over time.
3. Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)
CTOR zooms in on the effectiveness of your actual email content. It answers a specific question: Of the people who opened this email, how many found it compelling enough to click?
Calculate CTOR by dividing unique clicks by unique opens. If 1,000 people opened and 150 clicked, that's a 15% CTOR. This metric strips away deliverability and subject line factors to focus purely on content performance.
Strong CTOR usually falls between 10-20%, though highly targeted campaigns can exceed 30%. Low CTOR often points to a disconnect between your subject line promise and email content. Maybe your subject line oversold, or the email design buried the main message.
Your email marketer should use CTOR to test content variations. Try different layouts, copy lengths, image styles, and CTA placements. Small improvements in CTOR can significantly impact overall campaign performance.
4. Unsubscribe Rate
Nobody likes seeing unsubscribes, but this metric provides crucial feedback about audience satisfaction. Normal unsubscribe rates hover around 0.1-0.5% per campaign. Anything above 1% signals potential problems.
High unsubscribe rates usually stem from a few common issues. You might be emailing too frequently, overwhelming subscribers' inboxes. Your content might have drifted from what people originally signed up for. Or you could be hitting the wrong segments with irrelevant offers.
But here's a counterintuitive truth: some unsubscribes are actually healthy. They keep your list clean and engaged. Someone who hasn't opened your emails in six months and finally unsubscribes is doing you a favor. They're improving your overall engagement metrics and deliverability.
Your new hire should monitor unsubscribe rates by campaign type and segment. Maybe your weekly newsletters perform fine, but aggressive promotional pushes trigger opt-outs. This data helps find the right balance between revenue generation and audience retention.
Conversion & Revenue KPIs: Measuring Business Impact
Engagement metrics are nice, but conversions pay the bills. These KPIs connect email activities directly to business outcomes. They're what executives care about and what justifies your email marketing investment.
5. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the ultimate measure of email campaign success. It tracks the percentage of recipients who clicked through and completed your desired action. That might be making a purchase, downloading a resource, or scheduling a demo.
Calculating conversion requires proper tracking setup. Your email platform needs to communicate with your website analytics or CRM. UTM parameters help attribute conversions accurately to specific campaigns and segments.
Average email conversion rates typically range from 1-5%, but this varies dramatically by industry and offer type. An e-commerce flash sale might convert at 8%, while a B2B webinar invitation might hit 2%. The key is understanding your baseline and improving from there.
Your email marketer should analyze the full conversion path. Where do people drop off between click and conversion? Is your landing page aligned with the email message? Does the checkout process create unnecessary friction? Small improvements at each step compound into major conversion gains.
Segmentation supercharges conversion rates. Sending the right offer to the right person at the right time can double or triple your results. Your new hire should prioritize building segments based on behavior, preferences, and purchase history.
6. Revenue Per Email (RPE)
RPE cuts through the complexity to show exactly what each email earns. Take your total campaign revenue and divide by emails delivered. Simple math, powerful insight.
This metric helps compare different campaign types and strategies. Maybe your monthly newsletter generates $0.15 per email, while abandoned cart emails produce $5.00. That data shapes resource allocation and campaign priorities.
RPE also reveals the true cost of poor list hygiene. Sending to unengaged subscribers dilutes this metric. If half your list never opens, you're essentially cutting your RPE in half. Smart marketers regularly clean their lists to maintain strong revenue efficiency.
Track RPE trends over time to spot opportunities and problems. Declining RPE might indicate list fatigue or increased competition. Rising RPE could show that your personalization efforts are working. Your new hire should benchmark RPE by campaign type and use it to guide strategy decisions.
Don't forget to factor in indirect revenue. Some emails drive immediate sales, while others nurture relationships that pay off later. Attribution modeling helps capture the full revenue impact of your email program.
List Health & Deliverability KPIs: Measuring Program Sustainability
A thriving email program needs a solid foundation. These metrics ensure your emails actually reach inboxes and your list continues growing with quality subscribers. Ignore these at your peril.
7. List Growth Rate
Your email list is a valuable business asset that needs constant nurturing. List growth rate measures whether you're adding subscribers faster than you're losing them. Calculate it by subtracting unsubscribes and bounces from new subscribers, then divide by total list size.
Healthy programs typically see 1-3% monthly growth, though this varies by industry maturity. Newer brands might grow faster, while established companies focus more on quality over quantity.
Your email marketer should track growth by source. Which channels bring the most valuable subscribers? Maybe your blog opt-ins have higher lifetime value than social media signups. This data guides where to invest acquisition efforts.
Quality matters more than quantity. A list of 10,000 engaged subscribers outperforms 100,000 uninterested emails every time. Your new hire should balance growth initiatives with engagement requirements. Consider double opt-in for higher quality or sunset policies to remove inactive subscribers.
Watch for seasonal patterns in list growth. Many businesses see spikes during holiday promotions or industry events. Plan content calendars around these natural growth periods to maximize momentum.
8. Bounce Rate
Bounces are emails that never reached their destination. They come in two flavors, and your email marketer needs to handle each differently.
Hard bounces mean the email address doesn't exist. Maybe someone made a typo during signup, or they left their job and the address was deactivated. These should be removed immediately to protect your sender reputation. Most email platforms handle this automatically, but your new hire should verify the process works correctly.
Soft bounces are temporary delivery failures. The inbox might be full, or the server could be down. These addresses usually get a few more chances before removal. Monitor soft bounce patterns for potential issues with specific domains or ISPs.
Keep bounce rates below 2% to maintain good deliverability. Higher rates suggest list quality problems or technical issues. Regular list cleaning prevents bounce rates from creeping up over time.
Your email marketer should investigate bounce rate spikes immediately. A sudden increase might indicate a data import problem, form bot attacks, or deliverability issues with specific providers. Quick action prevents lasting damage to your sender reputation.
9. Spam Complaint Rate
Spam complaints are the email marketer's nightmare. When recipients hit that spam button, it directly damages your sender reputation and future deliverability. Keep this rate below 0.1% - ideally much lower.
Several factors trigger spam complaints. Unclear opt-in processes leave people wondering why they're getting your emails. Difficult unsubscribe processes frustrate recipients into hitting spam instead. Sudden frequency changes or content shifts violate subscriber expectations.
Your new hire should treat every spam complaint as a learning opportunity. Review the specific campaign that triggered complaints. Was the subject line misleading? Did the content stray from your usual topics? These insights prevent future issues.
Prevention beats cure every time. Make your unsubscribe link prominent and the process simple. Set clear expectations during signup about email frequency and content. Use preference centers to let subscribers control what they receive. These proactive steps keep complaint rates minimal.
10. Deliverability Rate
Deliverability rate shows what percentage of sent emails actually reached inboxes. It's the foundation everything else builds on. If your emails land in spam folders or get blocked entirely, all other metrics become meaningless.
Calculate deliverability by subtracting bounces from total sends, then dividing by total sends. Aim for 95% or higher. Anything below 90% indicates serious problems requiring immediate attention.
Many factors influence deliverability. Your sender reputation, built over time through consistent good practices, carries the most weight. Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) provides technical credibility. Content quality and engagement rates signal to ISPs that recipients want your emails.
Your email marketer should monitor deliverability by ISP and domain. Maybe Gmail delivers fine, but Outlook sends you to spam. These patterns reveal specific issues to address. Tools like seed testing and inbox placement monitoring provide deeper insights.
Maintaining strong deliverability requires ongoing vigilance. Regular list cleaning removes problematic addresses. Consistent sending patterns build ISP trust. Relevant, engaging content keeps recipients happy. Your new hire should treat deliverability as a daily priority, not a set-and-forget task.
Conclusion
These ten KPIs form the backbone of effective email marketing measurement. Your new hire doesn't need to obsess over every metric, but they should understand how each contributes to overall program success. Start by establishing baselines for each KPI, then work systematically to improve them.
Remember that metrics tell a story when viewed together. High open rates with low CTR might indicate misleading subject lines. Strong CTR but poor conversions could point to landing page problems. Your email marketer should analyze KPIs holistically to identify improvement opportunities.
Set up automated reporting to track these metrics consistently. Weekly reviews catch problems early, while monthly deep dives reveal trends and opportunities. Make data-driven decisions, but don't forget the human element. Behind every metric is a real person deciding whether your email provides value.
Focus first on the KPIs that directly impact your business goals. If you're building awareness, prioritize engagement metrics. If you need immediate revenue, concentrate on conversion and RPE. As your program matures, expand tracking to ensure long-term sustainability through list health and deliverability metrics.
Most importantly, use these KPIs to iterate and improve continuously. Test new approaches, measure results, and scale what works. With consistent tracking and optimization, your email program will become an increasingly valuable business asset that drives predictable growth.
References
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Posted Jun 14, 2025
Go beyond open rates. Discover the 10 essential email marketing KPIs—from CTR and conversion rate to list growth—that truly measure campaign success.
