In 1978, marketing manager Gary Thuerk launched the first commercial email marketing campaign, announcing a new computer product line to 400 email recipients. Since then, email has grown to become one of the most important channels for marketers, small business owners, and e-commerce entrepreneurs. In fact, one study predicts that the number of email users worldwide will exceed 4.7 billion by 2026.
But what's the best way to evaluate your email marketing efforts? A survey found that over a quarter of email marketers say their preferred metric for the success of their email marketing campaigns is conversion rate. Learning how to calculate your email marketing conversion rate can help you take a key step toward improving it.
What is your conversion rate in email marketing?
Email conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of email recipients who take a desired action after opening an email — often a specific conversion goal, such as purchasing a product, signing up for a service, downloading a resource, being redirected to a website, or claiming a promotion.
Email marketing conversion rate is an important metric when running an email campaign as it gives you insight into how effective your campaign is and how you can improve it. Calculating the conversion rate of your email marketing campaigns can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your campaign and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly to drive more conversions.
How to Calculate Email Marketing Conversion Rates
To calculate your email marketing conversion rate, divide the number of email recipients who completed a desired action by the number of emails delivered, then multiply that result by 100 to get a percentage.
The formula for calculating email conversion rate is:
(Conversions / number Delivered email) x 100 = Email Conversion Rate
For example, if you sent 1,000 emails with the goal of driving traffic to your website, start by finding out how many of them were sent successfully without bouncing back or being flagged as spam (most email marketing platforms provide these analytics).
Next, you want to see how many of your email recipients opened the email and clicked through to your website. If your 960 emails were successfully delivered and 48 of the recipients clicked through to your website and completed the desired action, the calculation would be:
(48 conversions / 960 emails sent) x 100 = 5% email conversion rate
What is a good conversion rate for email marketing?
The right conversion rate will vary depending on your industry, company, and email campaign. However, the average email conversion rate is usually between 2% and 5%. For example, one study reported that the average email conversion rate for automated welcome emails sent by ecommerce merchants in 2022 was 3%.
Tips to improve your email marketing conversion rates
Factors that negatively impact your average conversion rate include poor email list hygiene (e.g., typos in addresses), spam-inducing words in subject lines, irregular sending frequency (too many or too few emails sent at random times), etc. Here are some ways to improve the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.
Maintain good email list hygiene
Email list hygiene is the process of maintaining a clean, accurate, and engaged list of email subscribers. Having invalid email addresses in your email list can reduce your email deliverability, resulting in fewer emails reaching recipients' inboxes and lowering your overall email conversion rates.
Regularly remove invalid email addresses. Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe from your email list by adding a clear unsubscribe button to your emails. Making it easy to unsubscribe from your email list may seem counterintuitive, but it ultimately helps you maintain a quality list of engaged recipients.
Write a compelling subject line
Create a compelling email subject line that grabs attention and clearly communicates the benefits. Keep your subject line to 50 characters or less and avoid spammy phrases (such as “Sign up now” or “cash bonus”) and too many special characters like exclamation points, which may trigger filters and send your email to the spam folder. Be sure to provide any relevant content you promise in your subject line.
Include a clear call to action
When developing your email marketing strategy, set clear conversion goals and create an eye-catching call-to-action (CTA) button that motivates readers to click and, above all, take action. Design your email to draw attention to your CTA button. Visuals and wording can have a big impact on your email conversion rates.
For example, if you're launching an email campaign with a sales conversion goal for a new product line, include a bold CTA button with active wording like “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart.” Consider setting up a dedicated landing page for your CTA button to drive that specific conversion.
A CTA button for your new product line can link to a landing page that highlights the benefits of that product and provides an easy checkout option.
Personalize your email
Instead of sending the same email to everyone on your email list, send personalized emails that address the recipient's specific interests and needs. Personalized emails include the recipient's name, as well as information related to their previous purchase history and behavior in your online store.
Start with email segmentation. Split your email list into smaller groups based on factors like demographic data, purchase history, and customer behavior. Segmenting your email subscribers into target groups allows you to send more relevant email campaigns tailored to each segment. For example, you can create a welcome email for new customers and a follow-up email for customers who abandoned their shopping cart.
Optimize your emails for mobile
To increase conversions, optimize your campaigns for mobile devices. Research suggests that mobile ecommerce sales will exceed $2.2 trillion in 2023, accounting for roughly 60% of global ecommerce sales.
Mobile optimization techniques include compressing images to improve load times, using a single-column layout with simple horizontal navigation, and creating responsive templates that allow mobile users to easily interact with your email on their phones.
When you run your e-commerce business on Shopify, you get access to a built-in email marketing tool called Shopify Email, which makes it easy to create email campaigns with mobile-responsive templates that help boost conversions.
Use an email sequence automation tool
To further improve the performance of your conversion-driving email campaigns, leverage automation tools. Tools like Shopify Email, ActiveCampaign, and Omnisend have automation features that allow you to set up email sequences (a series of automated emails that differ based on user behavior).
For example, you can set up a welcome email sequence to maximize engagement with new subscribers and encourage them to take a specific action, such as sharing feedback on your products or services. You can drive conversions through automated email sequences, saving you time and money while providing relevant information to customers at any stage of the sales pipeline.
Test and tweak your email campaigns
Implement A/B testing (also known as split testing) to send two different versions of a marketing email to two different groups on your email list and compare the results. Pursue the version that gives you the best results and adjust your email campaigns based on the feedback.
Comparing campaign performance gives you insights on how to optimize your email engagement and create emails that drive more conversions. You can also monitor email marketing metrics like click-through rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate to evaluate the success of your campaigns.
Email Conversion Rate FAQs
How can you increase your email conversion rates?
Some of the conversion rate optimization strategies you can implement include clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons, personalized messaging, email automation tools, and emails optimized for mobile users.
How does conversion rate in email marketing relate to ROI?
Your conversion rate directly impacts your return on investment (ROI): the higher your conversion rate, the lower it costs to encourage a particular action, resulting in a higher ROI for your email marketing.
What are some common conversion rate challenges with email marketing?
Some of the most common challenges with email marketing conversion rates include finding the right email sending frequency, sending the same email to everyone on your email list without personalization, and using phrases or design elements that trigger spam filters.
