I remember the first analytics dashboard I ever looked at.  It was shiny like a new toy on Christmas morning.  It even had the added sense of victory after I had won the battle to complete the code implementation on the sites I was responsible for.  Then it dawned on me, I had so much I could measure and I hadn’t given a single thought as to what I should measure.

I eventually got myself organized and turned a small part of my first job out of college into a career, but it is an issue that faces many marketers as they dive into the world of analytics.  Some of us started at the deep end and learned how to swim as we went, while others had the benefit of playing in the kiddy pool first. However, what most of us have in common is that we started with a blank slate.

This still begs the question though, if I could go back and do everything over, knowing what I know now about analytics, what would I do differently?

The number one thing I would have dedicated a significantly larger portion of my time measuring would have been my email campaigns.  Most all of us as marketers use email campaigns on a regular basis.  For many of us it is something we take for granted as an easy means to communicate with an audience we have already worked to build.  However, we can’t let ourselves get complacent when it comes to the audience that is most likely to be the furthest along in the funnel.

Which brings us to our topic, what email marketing metrics actually matter?

If I were to educate my slightly younger, slightly less ADD self, here are the top-5 metrics I would focus on:

List Growth Rate

I’ve often noticed that list growth rate has somewhat flown under the radar until more recently.  While it is easy to focus in only on the users we have currently engaged on our lists it is essential to the future validity of the list that it continues to grow.

Bounce Rate

As your list gains users and emails progress in time you will need to make sure you are keeping an eye on your bounce rate to ensure the validity of your list.  This is where your bounce rate will help you determine how many subscribers you are potentially losing.  It is also important to note that, if you happen to get blacklisted (please try to avoid this) you will not always get notification and you might only be able to find out from a significantly increased bounce rate.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

This is where email starts to get fun! If you are measuring your CTR you can track how successful you were in crafting the messaging behind your email and the offers you have paired with that messaging.   If you have a high CTR (Education’s average is roughly 3.42% as a benchmark), then good job, you have successfully engaged your audience! If you have some work to do in this area you can also look to your CTR to A/B test different messaging and offers as you continue to improve.

Conversion Rate

If CTRs are where email marketing gets fun, then conversion rates are where email marketing gets rewarding.  This one metric, provided you established a clear goal for the email campaign from it’s onset, is what will tell you if subscribers are completing your goal and at what rate.

Return on Investment (ROI)

At the end of the day, all of us want to know what we are doing in our marketing efforts are worth it.  The measure of ROI will allow you to expand upon your conversion rate to put a tangible dollar amount on your marketing campaigns.  Provided you are returning more than you are investing (by the percentile you would like to achieve) in time, resources, and effort, your email campaigns are a success!

This blog was influenced by Sarah Golinger’s blog “The Essential Email Marketing Metrics You Should Be Tracking” on Hubspot Blogs.