How to analyze the performance of your newsletter like a professional

A newsletter is only as effective as your ability to learn from it. These are the metrics you should be looking at.

One of the many reasons email marketing is so effective is that it is much easier to measure actual results. If your business creates newsletters, it is a major missed opportunity to simply send them out and hope for the best. You should continuously monitor how readers interact with your newsletter and adapt based on what you learn.

Fortunately, almost all email marketing platforms come with simple tools to measure key parameters. We will therefore focus less on how to measure, and more on what you should measure and what it can tell you about your newsletter's performance.

Open rate

The open rate is exactly what it sounds like – the percentage of recipients who open your newsletter. If you are looking for visibility and engagement, this is one of the most important metrics, for example, when you want readers to notice news or read a blog post.

A good target for open rates is 30–35%. Note that open rates can be slightly unreliable, as they are measured by the reader's device loading a tiny invisible image embedded in the email. If the image does not load, often because the reader has disabled images in their email client, it will not be counted as opened.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate (CTR) is a more reliable metric to measure and represents the percentage of those who opened your email and also clicked at least one of the embedded links. A figure of around 5% (which is 20% of a good open rate) is actually a good target here.

Conversion rate

If you want to achieve a specific action, such as filling out a form or purchasing a product, the conversion rate is your key metric. This is calculated as the number of people who complete the desired action divided by the total number of people who opened your email. Naturally, this will be a lower figure than your click-through rate.

If you sell a product or service, discount codes are often the easiest way to measure conversion rates. You simply need to track how many sales used the code from your newsletter.

Bounce rate

All the previous metrics focus on how many of those who open your email perform a certain action. But what if your email does not reach them at all? This is the bounce rate, which represents the number of sent emails that never arrive, or bounce back.

A soft bounce is usually due to temporary issues, and these can be resent. Typical reasons for soft bounces include the email server being down, the recipient's inbox being full, or an active out-of-office auto-reply.

A hard bounce means the email address is no longer in use and should be removed from your lists. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) flag senders with high hard bounce rates and may mark them as spam senders. This can put a stop to your entire newsletter campaign.

If you experience issues with your bounce rate, using a local newsletter provider can be a smart solution. Providers typically have good communication with ISPs in their own region, meaning any issues can be resolved quickly.

Unsubscribe rate

Another common challenge for newsletter senders is when readers choose to unsubscribe. If you have a high unsubscribe rate (0.2–0.5% or more), it suggests that subscribers do not find your newsletter very relevant, or worse, perceive it as spam.

To prevent this, we recommend adding a few questions about why the subscriber is leaving as an automated part of the unsubscribe process. People are rarely shy in this feedback, making it a good (and potentially honest) way to learn exactly what you can improve.

Read also: Newsletters give you the most value for money

Use insights to create better newsletters

By analyzing these different figures, you can get a clearer overview of where you are succeeding and where you can improve your email marketing. If you struggle with the open rate, it is wise to focus on more compelling subject lines, while the conversion rate is likely related to offers not being perceived as relevant or appealing. A low click-through rate can often be caused by weak CTA buttons.

Some may also want to experiment with A/B testing, which is an excellent way to learn what works and what does not. However, it is important to note that you need a fairly large mailing list for the data from A/B testing to be reliable. A send-out to at least 10,000 recipients should be the minimum. If you have a list of 1,000 people, around 300 will open the email (if you are lucky), and 10–20 of those will follow a link. This does not provide a representative sample.

A/B testing works best for those with large mailing lists. It also requires making very small changes at a time and adjusting for external factors. It is certainly a good way to test the placement of an important link, but our experience shows that fewer businesses actually need to A/B test their newsletters than many online articles suggest.

The most important thing is to look at the numbers and what they tell you – often they speak for themselves.