What is the Goal of Your Email Marketing?

Is it to grow your subscriber database? Generate more leads? Convert existing leads into customers?

Whatever you decide your goal is (and you can have more than one), the next thing you need to do is figure out which metrics you'll need to track in order to determine how you're progressing toward that goal. The most important metrics to track are listed below.

Clickthrough Rates:

What it is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links in a given email.
How to calculate: (Total clicks OR unique clicks ÷ Number of delivered emails) * 100

Example: 500 total clicks ÷ 10,000 delivered emails * 100 = 5% clickthrough rate (Using either total clicks or unique clicks in the calculation above works, as long as you use the same approach consistently.)

Conversions:

What it is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link within an email and completed the desired action, such as filling out a lead generation form or purchasing a product.
How to calculate: (Number of people who completed the action ÷ Number of total emails delivered) * 100

Example: 400 people who completed the desired action ÷ 10,000 total email delivered * 100 = 4% conversion rate.

Bounce Rate:

What it is: The percentage of your total emails sent that could not be successfully delivered to the recipient's inbox.
How to calculate: (Total number of bounced emails ÷ Number of emails sent) * 100

Example: 75 bounced emails ÷ 10,000 total emails sent * 100 = 0.75% bounce rate.

List Growth Rates:

What it is: The rate at which your email list is growing.

How to calculate: ([(Number of new subscribers) minus (Number of unsubscribes + email/spam complaints)] ÷ Total number of email addresses on your list]) * 100

Example: (500 new subscribers - 100 unsubscribes and email/spam complaints) ÷ 10,000 email addresses on the list * 100 = 4% list growth rate.

Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate:

What it is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a “share this” button to post email content to a social network, and/or who clicked on a “forward to a friend” button.
How to calculate: (Number of clicks on a share and/or forward button ÷ Number of total delivered emails) * 100

Example: 100 clicks on a share/forward button ÷ 10,000 total delivered emails * 100 = 1% email sharing/forwarding rate.

Overall ROI:

What it is: The overall return on investment for your email campaigns. In other words, the total revenue divided by total spend.
How to calculate: [($ in additional sales made minus $ invested in the campaign) ÷ $ invested in the campaign] * 100

Example: ($1,000 in additional sales - $100 invested in the campaign / $100 invested in the campaign) * 100 = a 900% return on investment for the campaign.