An email marketing report for stakeholders should cover four sections: deliverability foundation (delivery, complaint, bounce, reputation), engagement (opens, clicks, CTOR, unsubscribes), revenue (revenue per email, attributed revenue, conversions), and list health (growth, decay, active percentage). Lead with revenue, support with engagement, ground in deliverability.
Email Marketing Reports: A Template for Stakeholder Updates
Most email marketing reports tell stakeholders too little (vanity metrics in isolation) or too much (every metric every week). A good report answers three questions: Did email drive value? Is the program healthy? Are there any urgent issues? This template structures reports around those questions.
Audience-first reporting
Different stakeholders need different reports:
| Audience | Frequency | Depth | Lead with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email ops team | Daily | High (every metric) | Deliverability indicators |
| Marketing manager | Weekly | Medium (campaign performance) | Engagement and conversions |
| Marketing director | Monthly | Medium (trend) | Revenue and growth |
| Executive | Quarterly | Low (top-line only) | Revenue impact and risks |
Same underlying data, four different reports. Don't send the executive deck to ops or vice versa.
The four-section template
1. Deliverability foundation
Lead here for the ops team; tuck this near the bottom for executives. The metrics that matter:
| Metric | Healthy | Current | vs Prior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery rate | > 99% | 99.4% | +0.2% |
| Bounce rate | < 2% | 1.3% | -0.3% |
| Complaint rate | < 0.1% | 0.08% | -0.02% |
| Google Postmaster reputation | Medium/High | High | Stable |
| Microsoft SNDS status | Green | Green | Stable |
| Blocklist status | None | Clean | No change |
If anything is in the warning zone, flag it explicitly with severity and action items.
See email marketing metrics guide for benchmarks.
2. Engagement
The middle of the report. Metrics:
| Metric | Current | vs Prior | Industry Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real open rate (excl. MPP) | 22.3% | +1.2% | 18-25% |
| Click rate (clicks/delivered) | 2.8% | +0.3% | 1.5-3% |
| Click-to-open rate | 12.6% | +0.5% | 10-15% |
| Unsubscribe rate | 0.32% | -0.05% | < 0.5% |
| Active subscriber % (90 days) | 47% | +2% | varies |
For Apple MPP impact see email engagement metrics and Apple Mail Privacy Protection.
3. Revenue and conversion
Lead here for executives. Metrics:
| Metric | Current Period | vs Prior |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue per email | $0.42 | +$0.05 |
| Total attributed revenue | $84,200 | +12% |
| Conversion rate | 1.8% | +0.2% |
| Goal completions | 3,640 | +320 |
| Email-attributed revenue as % of total | 22% | +1% |
If you're a SaaS/B2B and don't track revenue directly, replace with:
- Marketing qualified leads from email
- Free trial signups
- Demo bookings
- Pipeline contribution
4. List health
Often forgotten but important for trend identification:
| Metric | Current | vs Prior |
|---|---|---|
| Total subscribers | 142,800 | +1,200 (+0.8%) |
| New subscribers this period | 2,400 | +200 |
| Unsubscribes this period | -800 | -100 |
| Hard bounces / sunsets | -400 | -50 |
| Net growth | +1,200 | +50 |
| 90-day active subscriber count | 67,116 | +1,500 |
| Annualized decay rate | 18% | -2% |
See email list decay.
Recommended formats
Weekly campaign-level report (for marketing manager)
Campaign: [Name] - [Date]
Sent to: [list size]
Delivered: 99.5%
Real opens: X% (vs Y% prior similar)
Clicks: X% (vs Y%)
Revenue: $X (vs $Y)
Unsubscribes: X% (vs Y%)
Notable: [anything unusual or interesting]
5-10 minutes to write per campaign. Standardized format makes comparisons easy.
Monthly trend report (for director)
Email Program Health - [Month]
REVENUE
- Total attributed revenue: $X (+/-Y% vs prior month)
- Revenue per email: $X (+/-Y%)
- % of marketing-attributed revenue: X%
ENGAGEMENT
- Real open rate trend: [chart]
- Click rate trend: [chart]
- Active subscriber count trend: [chart]
DELIVERABILITY
- Sender reputation: [status]
- Complaint rate: X% (well below 0.3% threshold)
- Any issues: [none / list]
LIST HEALTH
- Net growth: +X (+/-Y%)
- Annualized decay: X%
- Sunsets executed: X
UPCOMING
- [Planned campaigns]
- [Tests in flight]
- [Action items]
Quarterly executive review
Email Program - Q[X] [Year]
Top-line: Email drove $XM in attributed revenue, +/-Y% vs prior quarter.
What worked:
- [2-3 wins]
What didn't:
- [1-2 lessons]
Program health:
- Deliverability: [healthy / issue]
- List size: [trend]
- Engagement: [trend]
Next quarter focus:
- [1-2 strategic priorities]
Three slides max. Don't bury executives in metrics.
Practitioner note: I see marketing teams ship 20-slide quarterly reports with every campaign-level metric. Executives skim slide 1 (revenue), skim slide 2 (growth chart), and skip the rest. The detail belongs in an appendix or shared dashboard for those who want it. The report itself should answer "did email drive value?" in under 60 seconds.
What to put on a dashboard vs in a report
| Dashboard (continuous) | Report (periodic) |
|---|---|
| Real-time delivery indicators | Period-over-period trends |
| Active campaign metrics | Synthesized insights |
| Alert thresholds | Strategic recommendations |
| Per-segment engagement | Aggregate program health |
| Drill-down detail | Top-line summary |
Dashboards answer "what's happening right now?" Reports answer "what changed and what should we do?"
For dashboard design see email performance dashboards.
Common reporting mistakes
Reporting in isolation. Single metric without comparison (prior period, benchmark) is meaningless. "Open rate was 22%" — is that good?
Cherry-picking benchmarks. Different sources publish different benchmarks. Pick one and use consistently. Don't switch when convenient.
Hiding bad news. Burying complaint rate spike in slide 8 doesn't help anyone. Lead with it if it's material.
Vanity metrics without business context. Open rate matters less than revenue. Click rate matters less than conversion. Lead with business outcomes.
Inconsistent definitions. Click rate vs CTR vs CTOR vary across platforms. Define what you mean. See click rate vs click-through rate.
Reporting every metric every time. Information overload kills attention. Match depth to audience.
For broader context see email marketing metrics guide, email analytics tools compared, and email performance dashboard.
If you need help building report templates that get read, designing dashboards that drive action, or interpreting metrics for stakeholders, book a consultation. I do reporting design for email programs regularly.
Sources
- Litmus: 2024 State of Email Report
- Mailchimp: Benchmarks by Industry
- Klaviyo: Benchmark Data
- HubSpot: Email Marketing Statistics
- Google Postmaster Tools Help
- M3AAWG Sender Best Common Practices
v1.0 · May 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an email marketing report include?
Four sections: deliverability foundation (delivery rate, complaint rate, bounce rate, sender reputation), engagement metrics (open, click, CTOR, unsubscribe), revenue and conversion (revenue per email, attributed revenue, goal completions), and list health (net growth, active percentage, decay). Compare to prior period and to industry benchmarks.
How often should I send email marketing reports?
Weekly per-campaign reports for tactical decisions, monthly trend reports for strategic decisions, quarterly comprehensive reviews for executive audiences. Daily dashboards for deliverability operations teams. Frequency matches the audience: tactical teams want frequent updates, executives want trends.
What email metrics matter to executives?
Revenue per email, attributed revenue, list growth rate, and any deliverability crisis indicators (sudden complaint or bounce spike). Executives don't typically need open rate or click rate detail unless something is materially wrong. Lead reports with revenue impact.
How do I report email performance to non-marketers?
Translate metrics to business outcomes. Instead of '25% open rate', say 'reached 250,000 customers'. Instead of '2% click rate', say '20,000 customers engaged with content'. Instead of '$0.50 revenue per email', say '$50k revenue attributed to email this month'. Keep technical metrics in an appendix.
What benchmarks should I include in email reports?
Prior period (most useful — apples-to-apples within your program), industry benchmark for context (with caveats), and program goals if defined. Avoid cherry-picking benchmarks that flatter the report — use the same source consistently. Litmus, Mailchimp, and Klaviyo publish annual industry benchmarks.
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