What is email conversion rate?
The email conversion rate is the percentage of your email recipients who took the action you were aiming for.
For example, you may want your subscribers to download a free e-book or sign up for a paid masterclass through your email campaign.
How to calculate conversion rate?
To calculate the email conversion rate, divide the ‘number of recipients who took the desired action’ by the ‘number of emails delivered’ and multiply by 100.
Be cautious to only include the number of emails successfully delivered, i.e., emails sent - bounces.
Formula for calculating conversion rate
Real-life example of conversion rate
Understand email conversion rate by an example:
You are running an email campaign to get people to sign up for your paid masterclass on no-code development. Say, you sent 210 emails and 10 of them bounced, which means 200 emails got successfully delivered. Out of those 200 recipients, 20 people signed up for your masterclass.
By plugging this data into the formula, your email conversion rate will be: 20/200 x 100 = 10%
What’s considered a good conversion rate? (benchmark)
A good email conversion rate is 5% or more but it largely depends on the industry. There isn’t a singular answer to it so it’s better to aim higher than your current conversion rate.
The email conversion rate depends on several factors such as the type of email being sent, the industry and product involved, your offer, and many more.
Email conversion rates have decreased over time. The average conversion rate peaked in 2018 at 18.49%. In 2021, we saw a decrease in overall conversion rates to 15.22%.
The finance industry has the highest email conversion rate of 5.01% and eCommerce has the lowest.
Achieving a good email conversion rate plays a crucial role in the success of email marketing campaigns and ROI. Basically, your conversion rate is the ultimate answer to your email campaign.
Ways to increase your conversion rate
- Keep just one but strong CTA: CTA directly affects your conversion rates. Including several CTAs isn’t a good idea as it confuses the reader and harms their attention. Using just 1 or utmost 2 CTAs is the wisest decision. Make sure to use clear and attention-grabbing CTA. Read some best practices to craft CTA.
- Segmentation is the key: Segmenting your email list helps in targeting the right audience and personalizing your email campaigns which will ultimately increase your email conversion rate. Read: Email Marketing Segmentation Strategies to Try Today
- Optimize your mobile experience: Most of the audience checks their emails on mobile. So if you don't optimize your email for mobile, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity, leading to a decrease in conversion rate. Suggested read: The Essential Guide to Optimizing Your Emails for Mobile