21 Email Metrics You Should Start Measuring Today!

When it comes to email campaigns, it’s easy to get lost in all the different metrics available to measure. As tools and platforms become increasingly sophisticated, there’s almost no limit to all the different things you can measure and the ways you can manipulate the data.

That’s why it’s often helpful to set up a framework for measurement, one that allows you to have a holistic view of the performance of your campaign(s), all while remaining focused on your objectives.

One way to do so is by thinking of customers, prospects, or email recipients as going through four different stages of the email campaign lifecycle. Perhaps the emphasis here should be placed on the word “cycle,” as it’s truly a continuous and repetitive process through which you measure, learn, optimize, and repeat.

Here are the four phases I typically work with:

Please note that your phases may be different, depending on your business model and objectives, so this is just meant to provide some guidance.

Next, you’ll want to identify which metrics best measure your success in each one of these individual phases. I’ve identified 21 of them below:

Again, these metrics may not all apply to you. In this example, they are geared toward e-commerce and reflect transactions and average order values. If that’s not your space, think about other types of conversions or renewals that make sense to your business.

When measuring and evaluating the success of your email campaign, you’ll want to examine each phase separately, in order to identify any roadblocks or areas that require more attention.

Are your visitors engaged but not converting? Well, then, you might want to consider more compelling calls-to-action.

Are they converting but not renewing? Maybe you need to increase loyalty and incentives.

Analyzing each phase will guide you in terms of what actions you need to take, and whether your strategy needs adjustment. But that’s not to say you should slice and dice. You should still keep a holistic mindset and look at your campaigns as a whole, but do dig deep into individual components to identify areas that need to be addressed.

Are you tracking any of these 21 email metrics? Any others that you’ve found particularly interesting for your business? Share your thoughts and comments below.