Newsletters: Which Statistics or KPIs Are the Most Important?

The 5 Statistics to Track in Your Newsletters

Your newsletter platform gives you access to a wide range of statistics and key performance indicators (KPIs). Open rate, click-through rate, conversions, unsubscribes... it is easy to get lost. The good news is that you do not need to track everything. The open rate, for example, is now unreliable because Apple’s privacy settings automatically mark all emails as opened, which completely distorts this data. It is better to focus your attention on the indicators that truly reflect subscriber engagement and the performance of your campaigns. Here are five to add to your report right away.

1. Click-Through Rate

The click-through rate can be calculated in two different ways:

• (Number of people who clicked on a link ÷ number of emails sent) x 100

• (Number of people who clicked on a link ÷ number of people who opened the email) x 100

The second calculation is the most representative of the quality of your newsletter content, because it only takes into account the people who actually saw what you sent and did not stop at the email subject line. It is the indicator that gives you the best overall view of your newsletter performance. By tracking its evolution over time, you will be able to draw useful conclusions and adapt your strategy. For example, a stable or increasing rate indicates that your content is relevant to your audience. If it continues to decline, it may mean that your content is becoming repetitive or that your calls to action (CTAs) are not convincing enough.

Many newsletter platforms offer a click map tool that shows you exactly where your subscribers clicked in the email. This information is especially useful when the same link appears several times: it reveals what captures your audience’s attention most. If you notice that no clicks occur near the bottom of your newsletter, it may be a sign that it is too long and that your subscribers are not reading it all the way through.

How to Improve Your Click-Through Rate

• Segment your audience: dividing your subscribers based on their interests or demographic data will allow you to personalize your message and be more relevant to each person.

• Pay attention to your calls to action: make sure your CTAs are clearly visible and that their wording accurately represents the expected action. For example, if you are announcing a promotion, your call to action could be “Take advantage of the discounts.”

• Vary your content: offering different formats from one campaign to the next, such as blog article excerpts, client testimonials, videos, or promotions, helps maintain your subscribers’ interest and reduces the risk of disengagement through repetition.

2. Conversions

A conversion corresponds to the expected action after reading the newsletter: making a purchase, registering for a program, booking a meeting, reading an article, filling out a form, and so on. Your number of conversions and your conversion rate are two key indicators of the success of your newsletter strategy, because they concretely measure whether your campaigns are reaching their goal and whether the time you invest in them translates into real results.

It is also possible to analyze the value of conversions to understand the return on investment of each campaign. Since this figure will almost always be higher for promotions than for informational emails, it can be useful to separate these two types of emails in your analysis.

How to Improve Your Number of Conversions

• Think carefully about your links: two to five different links are enough in a single newsletter. If you feel the need to include more, your message should probably be divided into two separate emails.

• Create automated campaigns: an automated email sequence allows you to reach each subscriber at the right moment in their journey, without manual intervention. For example, when someone new subscribes to your newsletter, you can automatically send them a series of emails to welcome them and introduce your business.

• Send personalized offers: by adapting your promotions to the purchasing habits or preferences of each segment of your list, you increase the chances that the content will resonate with the right person at the right time, and therefore that they will take action.

3. Subscriber List Growth

This data is interesting to track over time because it allows you to measure whether your acquisition efforts are paying off. In addition, the number of subscribers directly influences your potential for clicks and conversions. The more people who see your content, the more people are likely to interact with it.

However, your list should not grow at any cost. Avoid buying email lists at all costs. It may give you a large audience, but one that never asked to receive your communications. The quality of your community is far more important than its size if you want to achieve results.

Your goal should be steady growth, driven by people who are genuinely interested in your business.

How to Stimulate Subscriber List Growth

• Add a pop-up to your site: to gain subscribers, your community needs to know that your newsletter exists and be able to sign up for it. Your website is an excellent place to promote it, because visitors already have an interest in your business. A promotional code is often a good incentive to convince people to subscribe.

• Promote your newsletter on social media: your pages are also good places to talk about your newsletter. Mention it from time to time and clearly indicate how people can subscribe.

• Create a lead magnet: offering a free product in exchange for an email address is an excellent marketing technique for acquiring new subscribers. This helps you attract people who are interested in your products or services, which contributes to building a quality list.

• Encourage your subscribers to share the newsletter: within the email itself, add a sentence encouraging readers to forward it to friends, family, or colleagues who may be interested in the content. This method is especially effective for businesses that focus on educating their audience.

4. Unsubscribe Rate

It is completely normal to have unsubscribes with every campaign. According to Mailchimp, the average unsubscribe rate varies by industry, but it is generally around 1% to 2%. It is actually desirable for some people to unsubscribe in order to maintain a healthy list, because interests evolve over time. For example, if you sell baby products, it is normal that your content may no longer be relevant to subscribers once their children grow up.

When analyzing this statistic, look at whether your rate is consistent from one newsletter to the next or whether it shows a spike. A spike is a warning sign that you should investigate further. Was it caused by a single newsletter or several consecutive campaigns? If the spike is isolated, a topic may have upset your audience or failed to match their expectations. If it continues across several campaigns, it may indicate that your content no longer matches your subscribers’ interests or that your sending frequency is too high.

How to Reduce Your Unsubscribe Rate

• Find the right sending frequency: for some businesses, sending one email per week will work wonderfully. For others, it will be too much. The key is to find a rhythm that allows you to stay present in your community’s mind without overloading their inbox.

• Segment your audience: this will allow you to personalize your message and send content that truly interests each person.

• Optimize your unsubscribe page: adding a form with different reasons explaining why the person wants to unsubscribe will help you better understand how to improve your content.

5. Delivery Rate

The delivery rate corresponds to the percentage of your subscribers, or of the segment targeted by a newsletter, who successfully received the email. Several reasons may explain why it did not reach the recipient:

• the subscriber’s inbox is full;

• the email address is inactive;

• the newsletter includes a file that is too large;

• the message is considered spam by the email application.

If your delivery rate falls below 95%, it is time to clean up your list. To know which subscribers to remove, identify those who have not opened your emails for several months and have never clicked on a link. Some email platforms allow you to automatically filter these inactive contacts, which makes the process much easier.

It is important to pay attention to this statistic because a low delivery rate does not only hurt your reach: it also damages your sender reputation. The more undelivered emails you accumulate, the more email providers like Gmail or Outlook may classify your future campaigns directly as spam, even for your active subscribers.

How to Improve Your Delivery Rate

• Enable double opt-in: when someone subscribes to your newsletter, automatically send them a confirmation email that they must validate before being added to your list. This ensures that every address is active and that its owner truly wants to receive your communications.

• Do not buy subscriber lists: as mentioned earlier, purchased lists are made up of people who never consented to receive your emails, which greatly increases the risk that your campaigns will be marked as spam or simply fail to reach their destination.

• Avoid using a free domain: sending your newsletters from an @gmail.com or @hotmail.com address hurts your credibility with email providers. Choose an address linked to your domain name, such as info@yourbusiness.com, which inspires more trust and improves your delivery rate.

Your newsletter statistics are much more than simple numbers: they give you a direct reading of what works, what can be improved, and what adjustments should be made to your strategy. By regularly tracking the right indicators, you will be able to create campaigns that are more targeted, more engaging, and more profitable. And if you want to go further in analyzing your online performance, take a look at our article on the important statistics to track for your website.

The Statistics to Prioritize Based on Your Main Goal

• If you want to sell... track your conversion rate, number of conversions, and revenue generated by each newsletter.

• If you want to build audience loyalty... track your click-through rate and unsubscribe rate.

• If you want to increase brand awareness... track your subscriber list growth and delivery rate.