Email ROI calculator

How to use it

1. 1Type your figures into the calculator. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored. The answer is worked out in your browser.
2. 2Read the result and its caption. The assumptions are shown on the screen beside the number.
3. 3Open the back office to keep your figures. There you see the same answer beside your other numbers.

What it does

• The share who came in after the send is the number your email tool gives you. It is true and it is not the answer.
• The baseline is the share of that same list who walk in over the same number of days in an ordinary week with no email. Measure it once on a quiet week and reuse it.
• Extra visits are the difference. Everything after that is arithmetic: extra visits, times the average sale, times your margin.
• We also show what the flattering reading would have claimed, side by side, because that is the number an owner has usually been handed.
• If the baseline comes out higher than the response, we refuse rather than print a negative. That usually means the sample is too small to read, not that the email drove people away.
• KANJIN itself estimates the baseline per person from their own visit rhythm, which is more accurate than one figure for everybody. The subtraction is the same; doing it at all is what matters.

Common questions

How do I measure email marketing ROI for a small shop?

Count the share of your list who came in within a few days of the send. Then count the share who come in over the same number of days in a week with no email. The difference is what the email did. Multiply by your average sale and your margin.

Why subtract a baseline at all?

Because your regulars were going to come in. An email sent on a Thursday to people who visit every Thursday will report a wonderful response rate and cause nothing.

How do I find my baseline?

Pick a normal week with no email. Count how many of the people on your list came in over three days. Divide by the list size. That is the number, and it changes slowly enough to reuse for months.

What is a good response rate?

The wrong question. A 20% response rate with an 18% baseline is worse than a 9% response rate with a 3% baseline. Only the gap matters.

Should I count revenue or profit?

Profit, if you are deciding whether the email was worth sending. Revenue, only if you are comparing against a cost that is also in revenue terms.

What if the email cost me nothing to send?

It still costs you something: a list gets tired, and an email that earns nothing spends the attention you will want for the one that matters. That cost does not show up in this arithmetic, which is why the frequency limit exists.

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