14 essential email marketing metrics and how to improve them

We created this guide to help you focus on what matters. It covers the 14 most important email marketing metrics, highlighting what each one tells you about your campaigns, and the specific tactics that move them in the right direction. 

Where relevant, we've also included email benchmark data from MailerLite's analysis of over 3.6 million campaigns, so you can see how your results compare to others in your industry.

Email marketing metrics are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that help measure campaign performance. By tracking metrics over time, you’ll learn the types of content your audience responds to, allowing you to create more effective campaigns. 

MailerLite has powerful campaign tracking features that you can use to gain the insights you need. All the metrics mentioned in this article are available in the campaign overview page and the main dashboard. 

You can also track the metrics with custom reports. This feature lets you pull opens, clicks, orders, revenue, conversion rate, and more into a single dynamic graph. You can then filter the data by campaign, campaign type, subscriber group, or time period, and save as many reports as you need for different goals. 

The reports update in real time, so you always see current data without rebuilding anything. And if you need to share the data outside MailerLite, you can also export any report as a CSV or PDF file.

Here are 14 email marketing metrics you can track to see the impact of your campaigns. For each metric, we’ve highlighted relevant benchmarks, where you can find the data in your MailerLite dashboard, and steps you can take to improve.

Email open rate measures the percentage of email recipients who open your campaign. If you have a high open rate, it suggests your emails and subject lines are resonating with your target audience.

Based on data from over 3.6 million campaigns, the median email open rate across all industries in 2025 was 43.46%. Open rates by industry range from 30.1% (travel and transportation) to 55.71% (religion).

In MailerLite, you can find campaign open rates in your Sent folder, campaign reports and dashboard.

How to improve open rates

A/B test subject lines

Create 2 versions of your subject line and A/B test them with a small percentage of your list. The one that generates the most opens is automatically sent to your other subscribers. You can also use the insights about what results in higher opens to improve your future campaigns.

Use our AI subject line tool

Our AI subject line generator suggests subject lines based on your campaign content. Senders who apply AI suggestions see higher open rates on average: For campaigns sent to over 10,000 subscribers, open rates increased from 26.7% to 30.4%, a 13.7% uplift.

Personalize your sender address

Put a human face on your emails by using a real person’s name and email address. For example, “Blair from Interior Design Co.” and “blair@interiordesign.co” rather than “Interior Design co.” and “noreply@interiordesign.co.”

Add an email preheader

Preheader text appears after your email subject line in the recipient's inbox. It tells subscribers what to expect inside the email, which can lead to more opens. Our data shows that the most opened campaigns are 23% more likely to include a custom preheader than low-performing ones.

Remove inactive subscribers 

The simplest way to lift your open rate is to stop sending to people who never open your messages. Use the Clean up inactive tab in the Subscribers section of your MailerLite dashboard to remove or re-engage them.

Click-through rate, also known as “click rate” or simply “CTR,” is the percentage of your subscribers who click on a link in your campaign. If your click rate is high, it means the email content is compelling and your call-to-action (CTA) is strong.

The median click rate across 3.6 million campaigns in 2025 was 2.09%. Because click rate isn't affected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, it's currently the most reliable indicator of true email engagement.

In MailerLite, you can find the CTR of each individual campaign displayed in your Sent folder, as well as in your campaign reports. You can find your monthly CTR on your Dashboard page.

How to improve your email click-through rate

Segment your subscribers

Email segmentation is the practice of dividing your email list into different groups based on interests or demographics. It improves CTR because people are more likely to interact with campaigns that are relevant to their interests. Our e-commerce data shows that targeted emails have average click rates that are 267.21% higher than non-targeted campaigns.

Design a campaign with interactive content

Increasing CTR is often as simple as giving subscribers more interesting things to click on. Use interactive email blocks including surveys and quizzes, articles, videos, and embedded social media posts.

Provide sharing options

Make it easy for subscribers to share your content by adding social blocks to encourage social media shares, and our forward-to-a-friend feature to encourage email forwards. Each share is a click that will help improve your CTR.

Add a P.S section

Use P.S. sections to draw attention to aspects of your offer or content that you believe the subscriber will be most interested in. Get it right and the increased exposure will generate a higher number of clicks.

The screenshot below shows an example from one of our emails that generated an additional 148 clicks!

Create a CTA that works

Call-to-actions improve your click-through rates by telling the reader what to click on. Effective CTAs are clear, relate to the previous content, and appeal to the reader. Learn more about how to create a CTA that works here.

Your click-to-open rate (CTOR) is the percentage of subscribers who opened your newsletter and clicked a link inside it.

CTOR is a useful metric for determining how engaging your content is. Your readers are more likely to click through to discover more if your links, layout, copy, and overall content appeals to them.

Our data shows that the median CTOR across all campaigns in 2025 was 6.81%, ranging from 2.96% (politics) to 14.82% (manufacturing).

Calculating your CTOR

The formula to calculate your CTOR is unique clicks divided by unique opens multiplied by 100. This shows you the percentage of the people who opened the message who also clicked on it.

For example, 678 unique clicks divided by 2512 unique opens multiplied by 100 results in a CTOR of 26.9%. You can see this metric in the campaign overview part of your MailerLite dashboard.

You can improve your CTOR by implementing the same practices you would use to improve your overall click-through rates.

Total clicks is the raw number of clicks your campaign receives. Tracking total clicks alongside click rate gives you a clear picture of the actual volume of engagement your emails are driving.

In MailerLite, you can see total clicks in your campaign report. You can also build a custom report to track total clicks across multiple campaigns over time, making it easy to spot trends.

How to increase total clicks

Use click maps to see what works 

MailerLite's click maps show you exactly where in your email subscribers are clicking. Use this data to identify which types of content and CTAs drive the most engagement, and then replicate what works in future campaigns.

Add more ways to engage 

Give subscribers more things to click on, such as blog post links, product recommendations, surveys, quizzes, or resource libraries. You can even use our free tool to create an email scratch card with a special offer and add it to your email. Each additional relevant link is another opportunity to drive a click.

Total opens is the number of times your campaign was opened. While open rate shows the percentage of recipients who opened your email, total opens gives you a sense of your campaign’s reach.

In MailerLite, you can see total opens in your campaign report and use custom reports to track how total opens trend over time or across different subscriber groups.

How to increase total opens

Grow your list 

Total opens scale as the size of your list grows. Convert website visitors into subscribers with forms and pop-ups or use a link-in-bio page to grow your list on social media. The below article has a look at the most effective strategies you can use to grow your list and increase the number of people who read your emails. 

Bounce rate is the percentage of subscribers who didn’t receive your email marketing campaign due to their email addresses being invalid or otherwise undeliverable.

When tracking your bounce rate, it’s important to understand the difference between hard and soft bounces. The short version? Soft bounces are temporarily undeliverable whereas hard bounces are permanently undeliverable.

If you’re using MailerLite, you can find a campaign’s individual bounce rates in your campaign report.

Tips to improve bounce rates

Validate your email list

Use an email validation tool to identify and remove email addresses that are likely to bounce from your list before sending your campaign.

Use double opt-in

Use double opt-in to verify that every email address that joins your list is a real one. You'll vastly reduce the risk of bots joining your list with email addresses that bounce.

Avoid buying lists

When you buy an email list, you run the risk of adding addresses that are going to bounce. This is just one of many reasons why purchasing an email list is a huge mistake.

Avoid free email domains

Emails sent from free email domains like "@gmail.com" are more likely to be flagged as spam, which can increase email bounce rates. Instead, use an address from a branded domain name and authenticate your domain.

Spam complaint rate is the number of subscribers who report your campaign as spam. In MailerLite, you can find individual campaign spam complaints in your campaign reports, and your monthly spam complaints on the dashboard page.

Spam complaints are an unavoidable part of email marketing—even the most cautious marketers can receive them. But keeping an eye on your spam rate gives you insight into the quality of your subscriber list and the consistency of your content.

How to reduce the risk of spam complaints

Avoid using old subscriber lists

Sending to people who don’t remember subscribing can result in spam complaints. When messaging an old list, start with a campaign that reminds subscribers who you are and the kind of content you send. 

Keep your content consistent

Be consistent with your sending frequency and content so subscribers aren’t surprised when they receive your email. Segment your subscribers based on their interests and use dynamic content blocks to ensure subscribers only see relevant content.

Include a visible unsubscribe link

All marketing emails must include an unsubscribe link somewhere in the email content, usually in the email footer. This can also reduce spam complaints, as people who can't unsubscribe may instead mark your message as spam.

Unsubscribe rate is the percentage of campaign recipients who unsubscribe from your campaign. A high unsubscribe rate suggests that some aspects of your approach are weak (subscriber segmentation, subject matter, email frequency) and you should examine your email campaigns more closely.

The median unsubscribe rate in 2025 was 0.22%, up from 0.08% in 2024. This increase is likely due to Gmail changes that make it easier for people to unsubscribe without opening an email. 

The good news is that even at this elevated rate, only around 2 in every 1,000 recipients unsubscribe per send. 

In MailerLite, you can analyze the unsubscribe rate of individual campaigns in your campaign report and your monthly unsubscribe rates on the dashboard page.

Tips to improve your unsubscribe rate

Send the right number of campaigns

Our email cadence study found that accounts sending fewer than one email per month have the highest unsubscribe rate of any frequency group. At 0.87%, this was more than double the rate of weekly senders (0.38%). 

You also don’t want to overwhelm subscribers with too frequent emails, so track your data and find an email sending cadence that works for you.

Use interest groups inside forms

Use interest groups in forms, an email preference center or surveys to segment subscribers and send them relevant content they are unlikely to unsubscribe from.

Optimize your unsubscribe page

Use your unsubscribe to find out why your subscribers leave and how to fix it. All MailerLite unsubscribe pages come with a built-in survey for this purpose.

A conversion is when a website or landing page visitor completes a desired action. Use it to measure how effective your landing pages and forms are at turning website visitors into subscribers. 

In MailerLite, you can find your individual form conversion rates on the Forms and Sites pages. By keeping track of the conversion rates of multiple forms, you can see the types of content and offers that your audience responds to. 

Tips to improve conversion rates on your forms and landing pages

A/B testing

Use form or landing page A/B testing to create multiple versions of a form copy, design or offer and see which one converts best. You can then roll the winner out to all visitors.

Highlight your objective

Landing pages convert best when they have a single goal. Make this clear with a headline that highlights your offer, a section on its benefits, and a strong CTA. Also, avoid adding unneccessary links to other pages.

Discover more landing page inspiration when you check out these 11 tips on building effective landing pages.

Place signup forms strategically

Place your signup form somewhere everyone can see it or use website pop-ups to increase visibility further. Learn how to optimize your email signup forms with the examples in this article.

Email conversion rate is the number of people you send an email to who go on to make a purchase. 

You can track conversion rate by connecting your e-commerce store to MailerLite and enabling e-commerce tracking. An order is attributed to a campaign when a subscriber clicks a link in your email and makes a purchase within 30 days. The order is always attributed to the last campaign they clicked on.

Based on our analysis of over 300,000 campaigns, the average email marketing conversion rate is 0.32%, meaning around 3 purchases per 1,000 recipients. Automated emails perform even better, with an average conversion rate of 0.42%, which is 31% higher than campaigns.

Tips to improve email conversion rate

Use 2 to 5 links 

Emails with 2 to 5 links have a conversion rate of 0.56%, more than double the average. This is likely because these emails balance variety with focus. They give readers enough options to find something relevant without diluting the core offer.

Total active subscribers is the number of subscribers on your list, excluding spam complaints, unsubscribes, bounces, and deleted subscribers. This metric tells you if your subscriber acquisition strategies are working. 

With MailerLite, you can see the total number of new subscribers on any given day. Look for days or periods with a high list growth rate to identify the strategies that lead people to join your list. Also, look at the number of unsubscribes to see what isn't working as well.

Tips to increase total active subscribers

Add forms or pop-ups to your website

Forms and pop-ups are the easiest way to convert website visitors into subscribers. Create them in MailerLite and then add them to strategic places on your website. 

Create and test new lead magnets

Forms are only as effective as the offer they contain. Create and experiment with lead magnets and offers to discover the ones most likely to lead to signups. Our study found that the best-performing lead magnets based on conversions are giveaways, learning resources, interactive tools, and reports. 

Promote your email list on social channels

Create a landing page with an email signup form and then add the URL to your social media posts. It’s an effective way to encourage people who already follow you to join your email list. 

Collect subscribers offline

Use the MailerLite iPad app to collect subscribers at trade shows, retail locations, conferences, or any other in-person event. The app works offline and syncs with your list when you get an internet connection. 

Revenue is the total value of purchases attributed to your email campaigns and automations. 

You can see total revenue in your MailerLite dashboard, broken down by campaign and automation. Use custom reports to track revenue over time, compare it across subscriber groups, or see which campaign types drive the most income.

You can track orders if you sell your products with MailerLite's built-in digital product or booking selling features, or if you have a connected e-commerce integration.

Tips to increase email revenue

Promote your highest-value products

Identify the products with the highest price point or margin in your store and make sure they feature prominently in your campaigns. A single sale of a high-value product can generate more revenue than multiple lower-ticket ones.

Identify valuable customers

MailerLite's custom reports let you filter campaign performance data by subscriber group, making it straightforward to see which segments generate the most orders and revenue. 

Orders is the total number of purchases attributed to your email campaigns and automations. While revenue shows the amount of money you generated, orders shows the number of individual purchases that were made from an email or in a particular time period. 

You can track orders by looking in the campaign dashboard. Or you can build a custom report to see how orders trend over time and which campaigns or subscriber groups drive the most purchases.

Tips to increase email orders

Send regular promotional campaigns 

Since campaigns generate the majority of email-attributed orders, building a consistent sending schedule is the best way to generate more sales. 

For example, every time Festival at Sandpoint sends a campaign, ticket sales visibly spike. The brand’s marketer, Cienna Roget, notes that "If sales are slow, we know we can draft a campaign." You can read more about their story here. 

Use e-commerce automations

Set up automations for key points in the customer journey, such as abandoned carts, welcome emails, and post-sale upsells. These workflows are proven to generate sales and once set up they work without you needing to lift a finger. 

Use product blocks

Product blocks import product information from your e-commerce store and add it to your emails. They then link to the product page so people can easily buy the items you promote. 

Add targeted offers

Create customer segments based on interests or buying habits and then send offers or products that meet each group’s needs with targeted campaigns or dynamic content blocks. You’ll make more sales than if you send generic offers to your entire list. 

Average order value is the mean value of orders attributed to your email campaigns. It tells you not just how many people bought, but how much they spent. Tracking AOV alongside total orders and revenue gives you a complete picture of your email marketing's commercial impact.

You can track average order value with MailerLite's custom reports or by checking the report for each individual campaign.

Tips to improve average order value

Bundle offers 

Use email campaigns to promote product bundles or multi-item deals. Bundles give subscribers a reason to spend more in a single transaction.

Use segmentation to reach higher-value customers 

Identify your highest-spending customers and send them targeted campaigns promoting your premium products or exclusive offers. These subscribers are already proven buyers so they are the most likely to respond to higher-value offers.

The answer to this question is unique to your business and is based on a number of factors, including what industry you’re in, the goal you're trying to accomplish (sell products, drive traffic to your website, create brand awareness) and whether or not email is your main form of communication with your customers.

Tracking the most important metrics for your business provides the insight you need to optimize your email marketing efforts.

The best approach to experience real improvement is to break the process down into 3 steps:

1. Establish a benchmark

It's helpful to develop a baseline before making any adjustments. For example, if your goal is to get more people to read your newsletters, find out how many subscribers are already opening your email campaigns.

Once you have an idea of how your campaigns are performing, you can begin to set incremental targets for yourself.

2. Determine who your target audience is

A well-defined target audience is the foundation of your email marketing strategy. If you cast your net too wide, you risk missing out on creating deeper, meaningful relationships with the people who are most interested in your products or services.

3. Test, tweak and test again

Email performance optimization is a journey, not a destination. Making small adjustments and testing them over time is the best route to take when working to improve your metrics. There’s no need to flip your digital marketing strategy on its head all at once. If you make too many changes in the beginning, it’ll be harder to track whether or not your changes are helping. 

Test small changes at a time, and enjoy the ride. 🚗

What do you find is the most useful metric to track? Let us know in the comments below! We read and reply to every comment.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in 2021. We've updated it with more metrics and benchmarks.