Chapter 4

Measuring the revenue impact of email

Email marketing often feels like a tug-of-war between meeting internal revenue targets and delivering genuine value to subscribers.

This tension only intensifies during times of economic uncertainty and inflationary pressure.

For many marketers, the pressure to drive revenue (often to satisfy leadership) takes priority, as reflected by nearly half (49 percent) of our respondents describing their programs as revenue-centric.

How would you describe your email program?

Only 16 percent of respondents currently prioritize a customer-centric approach, illustrating the uphill battle marketers face in meeting business goals while fostering genuine engagement. While hitting revenue targets is critical, marketers must implement some level of customer-centricity into their programs to retain subscribers. Senders who hesitate to shift their focus from revenue should remember: When customer-centricity is a core part of a sending strategy, revenue will usually follow.

To implement a more customer-centric approach, marketers should:

Sign up for all available feedback loops, and promptly suppress those who complained from receiving any further email activity.
Recognize the key factors that cause subscribers to complain:
- They receive too many emails
- These emails show a lack of relevance
- They don’t remember subscribing in the first place
Ask for subscriber preferences around frequency and content via email preference center—then honor them!

For more examples of a successful email program that balances customer centricity and profitability, watch our on-demand webinar with major supermarket chain Asda.

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This is problematic for several reasons: Without clear revenue insights, it’s difficult for marketers to justify budget allocations, optimize campaign strategies, or identify high-performing content.

Additionally, concrete ROI metrics are essential for demonstrating email marketing’s value to stakeholders. Now that most major email service providers (ESPs) have the ability to report on this metric, "average revenue per email" is one of the core key performance indicators that every sender should monitor.

For those with revenue-generating programs, results vary. Only a small group (13 percent) reported an average revenue per email exceeding six cents. These insights highlight an opportunity for marketers to refine analytics, ensuring better visibility into email performance to guide strategy and demonstrate value more effectively.

Average revenue per email

What is the average revenue per email your program generates?

When drilling deeper into respondents’ specific ROI from email, the data showed that a significant portion of email marketers are uncertain about the revenue impact of their campaigns. Over half (51 percent) indicated they “don’t know” the average revenue per email they generate.