What Makes a Great Email Marketing Analytics Report

Building a profitable email list for your clients (and your agency) is one of the best ways to build relationships with potential customers. It’s intimate: you're right in a recipient's inbox, ideally at the right time with the right message.

But after you’ve sent your client’s email campaign, the only way to understand its effectiveness is through comprehensive reports.

Great emails are a conversation. The only way to assess audience perception is by studying the reactions to your email. Clicks, shares, and replies are the "facial expressions" and "words" that a person uses to communicate. And that will tell you how well your conversation is going.

Seth Giammanco, Principal, Strategy and Technology at Minds On Design Lab

What Makes an Email Marketing Report Stand Out?

A great email marketing report is straight to the point, highlighting the key performance indicators for the analysis timeframe, and providing actionable insights.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

An excellent analytics report isn’t numerical mumbo jumbo. To really stand out, you’ll need to do a bit of analysis while presenting their report in a palatable way.

In a nutshell, an effective email report visualizes data and provides beyond-the-surface insights.

Visualizing Performance Metrics 

It isn’t just about mass sending a newsletter to potential customers and hoping for the best. 

To give the most value to your clients, you’ll need a comprehensive email marketing report backed by data-driven marketing insights. It should clearly outline what went well, goal progress, and any areas for improvement (e.g., reducing the number of emails sent, adding more CTAs to improve conversion rate).

What is measured is improved, and it simply creates a better quality dialogue between clients and us when they can see performance and trends at a glance.

James Middleditch, Director at Digital Group Media

Use this exact report template to share your clients' important insights. Streamline data into highly visual reports on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

From changes in unsubscribe rate to a significant number of email opens in a specific geographic region, your client’s analytics report will help your agency hone in on those insights.

Providing Valuable Insights (Beyond Surface-Level Metrics)

An outstanding email report shares all necessary insights, such as:

• The number of emails opened (contextualizing it with other metrics like unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, and spam complaint rate)

• Click through rate on embedded links, videos, graphics, and other material

• Subscriber demographics (e.g., geographic location, age group)

• Conversion rate (e.g., number of downloads, online transactions)

Email marketing metrics such as delivery, open, and unsubscribe rates are certainly important but can't be looked at in isolation. These valuable metrics have to be considered against the desired outcome.

James Middleditch, Director at Digital Group Media

It goes beyond vanity metrics that only reflect happening at the surface level (e.g., a high open rate doesn’t mean any further actions were taken). While these common marketing metrics are undoubtedly necessary to identify any potential issues or areas for tweaking, they aren’t a tell-all for performance.

To avoid falling into a spiral of marginally meaningful data, be sure to contextualize your client’s email metrics as much as possible. 

Groundwork to Cover Before Creating an Email Marketing Analytics Report

Creating an email report is just one piece of the puzzle. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you’ve created a visually-pleasing report only to realize that you completely missed meeting your client’s goals.

Here are some actionable steps to put in motion before creating a report. 

1. Create Buyer Personas and Segment Your Client’s Audience

First things first–understand your client’s audience and who they’re targeting. Take the time to create buyer personas and map the customer journey beforehand. 

In the lead capture process, collect as much useful demographic information as possible and preferences based on your client’s product offering. 

By setting up your client’s email list this way, you’ll be able to segment data, target specific groups, create relevant subject lines, and market more effectively. Take it from other marketers–subscriber segmentation is the most effective strategy you can put in place. 

The ability to segment audience and create buyer personas can help an email marketer determine what kind of content to create for each step. Segmenting these customers into appropriate email marketing lists helps businesses target these groups more effectively.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

Segmentation also helps your client to engage subscribers who are in between stages of the sales funnel or just on the precipice of conversion. 

As Lozano explains, “Customers need information to move them to the next buying cycle stage, and pushing relevant content can do just that. It's about moving these prospects down your sales funnel–not as quickly as possible, but as efficiently as possible.” 

2. Decide on Your Client’s Goals and KPIs beforehand

Not all data is created equally (and by now, you probably know the importance of distinguishing metrics vs. KPIs). To create an email marketing metrics report that your clients will value, have a 1:1 meeting and understand their long-term strategic goals. That way, you'll decide which email metrics are most applicable from the get-go.

For example, a client interested in driving website traffic may pay close attention to clicks and number of emails opened. On the flip side, another client that wants to boost online sales would likely focus on click through rate and conversion rate. Take each client’s goals on a case-by-case basis, narrow down which email marketing metrics are worth reporting on, and contextualize insights as much as possible. 

Wondering where to begin? Here are a few important email marketing metric examples and a few reasons why they’re important to include in reports.

Click through Rate

This important metric gives you a percentage of how many subscribers have clicked on at least one link in your client’s email marketing campaign. Favorable click through rates are especially important for your clients that want to drive action and boost their conversion rate.

A good click-through rate is an indicator that your client’s email content is engaging (or at least compelling enough to warrant follow-through actions beyond clicking subject lines). 

Click through rate is an essential metric for email marketers. It shows you how many people are interested in your content and want to learn more about what you're offering, which is especially important to drive your conversion rate.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

Engagement Rate

To measure how much subscribers are interacting with your client’s email content, keep an eye on engagement rate. After all, no one wants to send an email and have it sit in a recipient's inbox or passively scrolled through by unengaged subscribers.

This email marketing metric factors in all user-related actions such as clicking on a link, forwarding the newsletter, and changing preferences. It's a step above just monitoring the number of emails sent and gives more insight into user action. Plus, engaging email content increases the chances of conversion later on and provides some safeguard against spam complaints or unsubscribes.

I believe in focusing on conversion rate and those engagements like clicking, donating, registering, purchasing, and sharing that suggest the perception of value of your recipient.

Seth Giammanco, Principal, Strategy and Technology at Minds On Design Lab

Bounce Rate

After you’ve clicked ‘Send’ on your client’s email marketing campaign, you’ll need to evaluate whether there are any issues with delivered emails. Monitoring email bounce rate comes into play here. This email marketing metric helps you to determine:

• Any potential improvements that could be addressed on your end. For example:

  • Verifying your client’s domain to decrease spam complain rate

  • Adjusting the number of emails sent per month

  • Adding more CTAs earlier on to drive conversion rates

  • Improving website loading times

• Whether your client’s email list needs cleaning up if you observe an unusually high bounce rate or spam complaints after sending an email campaign (e.g., removing invalid email addresses)

• The type of bounce (i.e., hard bounce or soft bounce) and any plans to address it

A marginal bounce rate is expected, but remember to investigate a higher rate as this could cause issues down the line (such as account suspension).

Bounce rate is important to keep an eye on as it can lead to issues with delivered emails down the line. You always want to sanitize your email lists, remove fake email addresses, and make sure you aren't getting a high bounce rate or spam complain rate.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

Email List Growth

As you’re building your client’s brand reputation, it’s essential to keep an eye on important metrics like email list growth and the number of new subscribers.

Think about it. Having new subscribers is a golden opportunity. They're most likely marketing leads that are already engaged and brand aware (which is one step further down the buyer's journey). Take the time to send them a welcome email and memorable content that inspires action down the road.

Open Rate

This metric is useful to monitor the number of emails opened (which is usually expressed as a percentage of the total number of emails sent). Open rate is also good indicator of whether you create a compelling subject line or snippet, which is important to note for future email campaigns.

Remember that subscribers being intrigued by subject lines and opening emails does not automatically imply engagement or their commitment to follow through on a call to action.

Contextualize open rate by also monitoring any other related email marketing metric (such as delivered emails, engagement rate, and click through rate). 

Unsubscribe Rate

Similar to bounce rate, an unsubscribe rate are not something you’d necessarily like to see after you've sent an email campaign, but it’s also expected to some degree.

Whatever the reason, keep an eye out for a rising unsubscribe rate and any upticks in spam complaints. It may point to a bigger issue, such as correcting any errors in email list segmentation, using different subject lines, and creating content that aligns more with your client’s target audience.

3. Create Relevant and Applicable Email Marketing Content

Increase the likelihood of favorable email marketing metrics by creating exceptional, high-value content with an accurate subject line. Use targeted, personalized messaging where possible and speak directly to your client’s experience. That way, your client’s emails will resonate more and hopefully result in subscriber action. 

And don’t forget to factor in other elements of email marketing success, such as adopting an easily scrollable format, using a relevant subject line, optimizing visual appeal, and having appropriate calls to action. 

The key is consistently delivering content that matters to your audience. This often means your email campaign content needs to be valuable to the individual. So also consider personalizing their email marketing experience.

Seth Giammanco, Principal, Strategy and Technology at Minds On Design Lab

8 Strategies to Manage Email Marketing Analytics Reporting With Minimal Effort

Whether it’s your first time creating an email marketing report or your agency is looking to refine an existing process, here’s what you should know.

1. Use Pre-Built Email Marketing Report Integrations

First things first–set your reporting structure up for success. If you’re using a robust email marketing report tool like AgencyAnalytics, it’s easy to link your chosen email marketing platform to your account. 

The last thing you want to do is decide on an automated reporting tool only to realize there’s still considerable manual work when importing email metrics. 

The AgencyAnalytics platform currently has multiple email marketing integrations to choose from, including Mailchimp, Active Campaign, Drip, Klaviyo, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), and more.

Easily report on metrics across a range of email service providers at the click of a button. Try it on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

2. Create a Customizable Dashboard that Captures all Key Insights

No two clients are the same, and neither are their goals (or even their chosen email service provider). Whether you’re running a conversion oriented Mailchimp campaign or a brand awareness Drip campaign, create an email marketing dashboard that most reflects your client’s unique goals.

Plus, using a common reporting platform means no more logging in and out of various platforms, so you don't have to have Klaviyo open in one tab and Brevo open in another, just to gather client data.

If you’ve got significant email marketing report overlaps between clients, it’s also much easier to use dashboards or reporting templates than starting from scratch. 

Create an email dashboard as unique as your client's goals. Report on key metrics like click to open rate, spam complain rate, and more. Access a full range of features on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

3. Add Custom Metrics

Let’s say you’ve got a retail client with various email marketing campaigns simultaneously. In addition to sending out a newsletter for an online “50% Off All Designer Shoes” coupon, they’ve also sent an e-blast on a seasonal online sale for jewelry and accessories. 

A custom metric will neatly do the trick of consolidating overall campaign performance to understand the total impact of your email marketing efforts. It’ll also give you the autonomy to create unique formulas based on your client's unique email marketing strategy.

Client dashboards and custom metrics are extremely valuable. We save a lot of time each month by sharing a dashboard where our clients can regularly check in and see status updates from our team. The ability to add custom email marketing metrics also makes things easier for us to aggregate KPIs across different channels.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

Create your own custom email marketing metric formulas on AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days. 

4. Create Goals and Annotations to Highlight Important Insights

While a summary is a great add-on to include on your client’s email marketing metrics report, sometimes it’s more impactful to have notes directly on graphs and data points. That’s where goals and annotations come in. 

For example, say a significant number of email opens happened in a geographic region that wasn’t on your client’s radar. Adding an annotation to important metrics is handy (e.g., recommending that your email client explore a new, targeted advertising campaign or create an additional ideal customer profile). 

Similarly, perhaps you’ve exceeded your client’s goal of 1,000 downloadable guides in their last email marketing campaign. As their trusted marketing agency, you’ll want to highlight this goal visually while recommending a higher target for the upcoming quarter. 

Impress your email clients by using visual goal tracking. Easily demonstrate their return on investment and deliver valuable insights through AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

5. Determine Whether To Grant Client Login Access

Knowledge is power, especially regarding email performance and decisions for future strategies. After you’ve sent out email marketing campaigns, it’s understandable that your client may want to keep tabs on how they're being received and progress over time. 

Granting client login access frees up your agency’s valuable time and saves you billable hours. It also gives clients more control over their data by choosing when they want to view it and how often. Keep in mind that some clarity may be needed from time to time.

For example, you may need to give more context about a rising unsubscribe rate and your plan to address it.

We normally create a dashboard that features the primary KPIs for each channel we manage on behalf of our clients and share "client access" with them. They love that they can dive deep into the analytics independently without needing our input each time. Agency Analytics makes it easy for us to share the performance of email campaigns with our clients on a weekly and monthly cadence.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

6. Tell a Story of What’s Happening and Tie It Into The Bigger Picture

Your client likely has multiple campaigns (such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads) running in conjunction with their email efforts. As a result, you’ll find a relationship between all moving parts, and it’s essential to factor these factors into their overall results.

Email marketing metrics are very important in relation to a client’s total business performance. It's a symbiotic relationship in almost all instances I can think of, where email is the continuation of prior efforts from other channels.

James Middleditch, Director at Digital Group Media

For example, a press campaign highlighting your client’s recent award-winning product may significantly boost web traffic. In turn, it may have resulted in increased newsletter signups and overall conversion rate. 

By adopting a practice of data storytelling and tying in key happenings from other related campaigns, you’ll create an effective report that provides holistic value. 

7. Set Up Internal Tasks to Keep Tabs on Progress and Ensure Accountability

To ensure your client’s reporting process runs smoothly, you’ll need a way to keep your agency staff accountable and ensure things stay on track. What better way to do that than creating an internal to-do list housed in the same place as your client’s digital marketing analytics?

Don’t get lost in a flurry of Post-Its– creating tasks is a systematic way to keep the ball rolling and steer your clients closer to success. 

8. Schedule and Automate Email Marketing Reports

Automation is every email marketer and agency’s best friend, especially when it comes to reporting. 

Leverage automation wherever possible to ensure you always have a way to engage with your audience and nurture them back to your site.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations at Ad-Apt

Not only will it save you time in the long haul, but it will also provide a sustainable way to scale marketing efforts. Setting a schedule will also remove the worry of wondering, ‘Did I send that report on time?’

Create an Impactful Email Marketing Analytics Report Each Time

And there you have it! Like all other marketing reports, email marketing reports require careful analysis, pre-determined goals, and expert commentary where necessary.

By clearly understanding what your client is trying to achieve through their email campaigns, you’ll know how to put together an effective, insightful report.

And if you’re a marketing agency serious about growth, onboarding new clients, and staying on top of your game, AgencyAnalytics is the perfect complement for your needs. 

From keeping tabs on conversion rates to nipping an increasing spam complain rate in the bud, AgencyAnalytics will help you to drive clients to marketing success.

Don’t start from scratch–use our pre-built marketing report templates to deliver insightful, white-labeled reports every single time. Try it on AgencyAnalytics–free for 14 days.