Calculate and Track Conversion Rate to Measure Email Marketing Success

Email marketing campaigns — a series of emails sent to current and potential customers that encourage action — are one of the most valuable tools you can use to grow your business.

Every email marketing campaign needs to have a conversion goal. This is the action you want people to take. Each email recipient that completes the desired action results in a conversion.

Your email conversion rate measures the percentage of customers who complete the desired action in your email marketing campaign, such as making a purchase or registering for a webinar.

Email conversion rate is the primary measurement of success for any email marketing campaign.

How to Calculate Email Conversion Rate

You can calculate email marketing conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions (total actions completed) by the number of delivered emails (all emails that didn’t bounce).

Multiply the quotient by 100. The resulting percentage is your email conversion rate.

Email conversion rate = number of conversions / number of delivered emails x 100

What Is a Good Email Conversion Rate?

Email marketing benchmarks, such as open rate and click rate, tend to vary based on industry. This is especially true when considering email marketing conversion rate. Your email conversion rate is going to vary based on the action you’re trying to get your customers to take.

Most conversion goals extend beyond your newsletter or email onto a landing page. Imagine a scenario where you’re trying to convince your email recipients to register for a webinar.

Your email conversion rate would reflect the percentage of people who interacted with your email, clicked through to the landing page, and completed the webinar registration process.

If you were aiming for a certain webinar registration count, and you’re coming up short, then a good conversion rate in this scenario would be one that gets you closer to your end goal.

How Can I Improve My Email Conversion Rate?

You can improve your email conversion rate by making adjustments to your email marketing or landing page content depending on where people deviated from your conversion funnel.

Here are some areas you should consider adjusting to improve email conversion rate.

Email Adjustments

View your email marketing content through the eyes of the consumer. Assess each step in the conversion funnel. There are likely one or more areas to improve on.

• Subject Line: If your open rate is low then you’re likely missing out on conversion opportunities. Reassess your subject line. Are you giving people incentive to click?
• Email Design: Maybe your open rate seems fine, but no one is interacting with your email. One culprit could be an ineffective or slow-to-load design. Simple is often better.
• Email Copy: Your email copy should be relatively concise and informative. Are you clearly stating the benefit of clicking on links within the email? What’s in it for your subscribers?
• Calls to Action: A great call to action inspires customers to take the next step. Make it easy for them. If every button says “Learn More” then consider mixing things up.

An email marketing campaign will fail if you’re not providing value to your customers. You should also consider using email segmentation to deliver more relevant email marketing to subscribers.

Landing Page Adjustments

Maybe your email analytics are in good shape, but you’re still not getting many conversions. It’s time to examine your landing page. Why aren’t your website visitors taking action?

• Broken Elements on Page: A broken form wastes everyone’s time. Make sure to test all interactive elements on the landing page before hitting send on your email.
• You’re Asking for Too Much: Asking for someone’s email address is one thing. Asking for their physical address, telephone number, and other personal information is a taller order. Determine what information is most valuable to your business and only ask for that.
• Lack of Direction: Sometimes a landing page gets cluttered during the approval process. Make sure the elements on your page guide users directly to the point of conversion.
• Calls to Action: What goes for email also goes for your landing pages. You need a compelling call to action to steer customers toward completing the conversion.

If your landing page has a high bounce rate then it might not be meeting the expectations you set up for it within your email marketing campaign. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.

Dig Deeper With Conversion Rate Optimization

If you’re seeing limited success in your email marketing campaigns, even after making some adjustments, then you should look into conversion rate optimization (CRO). CRO uses website analytics and customer behavior insights to identify what to adjust to increase conversions.

It may also be time to rethink your email marketing strategy or clean up your email list.