Email subscribers

Email subscribers, or those who have subscribed to a newsletter or email updates, are the lifeblood of the digital world. These are the people you can rely on to become repeat customers and continually buy from you repeatedly. That's why marketers look at their email subscriptions as one of the top key performance indicators. If you deal with email marketing, you've probably heard of the "Email Subscribers KPI."

Here we break down the critical aspects of email subscribers — what they are and why marketers should use them to evaluate their campaign's success.

TRACK YOUR EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

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Templates using this KPI
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Integrations using this KPI

What are emails subscribers?

An email subscriber is someone who has given your company permission to send them emails. This is different from a contact or lead—contacts and leads are people who have given you their email address, whereas new subscribers have to opt-in to receive emails from you. As you might expect, the subscribers metric is the easiest to get an accurate picture of by looking at your email lists. There are various marketing strategies to gain subscribers. Still, typically opt-in forms located on a landing page, homepage, social media, or during an e-commerce transaction are ways companies acquire people to their subscriber list.

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How to calculate your number of email subscribers

Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and many other email services calculate subscribers. Generally, you can see the number of subscribers when you send an email campaign to your subscribers. Depending on your service, this may be referred to as your audience, list, or subscribers. When calculating subscribers, you'll want to take the total number of people who have completed an email signup form and subtract them from the total number of people unsubscribed from your list.

Emails subscribers formula

Number of subscribers = total number of opt-ins – total number of unsubscribes

What is a good Email subscribers number?

When you ask yourself, "How many email subscribers is a good amount to have?" try reframing that question: "What kind of results do I want to see from my email marketing program?" A "good" number of email subscribers—or any other metrics you track—is the amount or percentage that allows you to deliver your desired results.

The performance metrics most businesses care about are conversion rate and revenue, though other factors may also be necessary for your business. There are many ways to acquire subscribers. For example, bloggers on sites like WordPress may use popups to promote their email newsletter or plugins that optimize a page for first-time website visitors and increase lead generation. Social media platforms allow advertisers to create lead magnets and content, including subscription forms. However, the most influential ingredient for your marketing campaign is quality subscribers.

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What is a bad Email subscribers number?

A bad email subscriber number is any number of subscribers that does not show a percentage of engagement, growth, or conversions. Email subscribers are more likely to be repeat customers; they're already invested in what you offer. They're more likely to continue reading emails from you than to visit your website or social media pages. Again, it is all about quality over quantity. For example, if Company A has 1000 subscribers and Company B has 10,000 subscribers, you might think 10,000 subscribers are better. However, Company A has optimized subject lines and templates, automates its welcome emails, and has found its niche audience. As a result, the open rate is always above 80%, meaning they successfully reach 800+ people. Company B buys their subscriber lists, doesn't care about deliverability, content marketing, SEO, or a/b testing, and their conversion rate is about 1%. We see that Company A has a good subscriber number because its conversion rate is high with every new email they send.

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Email subscribers KPI examples & templates

Your emails subscribers can be added to our email report template :

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Email report template

Our email marketing report template has everything you need to get started quickly: it’s pre-built with the standard KPIs you need, and it’s fully customizable so that you can visualize the data you want, the way you want. Track metrics like open rates, unsubscribe rates, click-through rate, and deliverability rate.

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Email subscribers best practices

Emails subscribers are an important metric and therefore, should be optimized. Here are 3 useful tips.

Offer something enticing in return for their email address.

People are naturally reluctant to hand over their email addresses, but you'll see more contact form submissions if you offer them something interesting. Whether it's a free e-book, exclusive access to a video series or a preview of an upcoming product line, they may be more willing to share their information with you.

Keep it short

When someone subscribes, the information you ask for should be limited only to what you need for identification purposes. Only ask for your name, email address, and phone number when possible. The functionality of the forms is essential, including a checkbox asking whether they want to receive future notifications. Use the information provided for split testing, giveaways, and other content you know will be helpful to engage your subscribers.

Personalize your emails

When someone signs up for your emails, you have the opportunity to engage them immediately with a personalized welcome message that makes them feel like a valued customer. An excellent welcome email can increase customer engagement significantly. But instead of sending out generic messages, personalize your welcome emails by including the subscriber's name or other information they've provided you with.

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