Why is the conversion rate so low?

Email click → conversion is harder than ad click → conversion. Email subscribers click on curiosity-driven content; only a fraction are in active buying mode. 2-5% conversion is healthy. Promotional emails to engaged segments hit 8-15%.

Is open rate still meaningful post-MPP (Mail Privacy Protection)?

Less reliable. Apple's iOS 15 MPP auto-loads emails for many users, inflating open rates. Click rate is the more honest engagement signal. Most modern email platforms now report 'engaged opens' separately. Don't compare your post-2021 open rate to pre-2021 benchmarks directly.

What's the cost side?

Email is one of the cheapest channels. ESP cost: $0.001-0.02 per send. Content production: $50-300 per email (in-house copywriter time). Most agencies charge $1,000-5,000/mo for full email management. Subtract these from gross revenue for net.

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Email list monetization value

Compute the realistic dollar value of an email list per subscriber per year — open rate, click rate, conversion, AOV, and frequency.

List size

Avg open rate %

Industry avg: 18-25%. Highly engaged: 35%+.CTR (of opens) %

Of opens. CTR-of-sends = open × CTR-of-opens.Conversion (of clicks) %

Click → revenue. Lower than checkout pages.Avg revenue per conversion

Promotional emails / month

Annual revenue per subscriber

Show the work

Total annual revenue$42,240
Revenue per send$880
Monthly revenue$3,520

Per-subscriber dollar value — the email metric Mitch tracks

Email lists are valued per subscriber per year. Industry rule of thumb: $1-5/subscriber/year for B2C, $10-50/subscriber/year for B2B with paid newsletter or e-commerce focus.

The math

revenue per send = list × open % × CTR % × conversion % × AOV
annual revenue per subscriber = revenue per send × emails per month × 12 ÷ list

Default scenario: 25k list, 22% open, 5% CTR-of-opens, 4% conversion, $80 AOV, 4 emails/month → $0.88 per send revenue per subscriber × 4 × 12 = ~$42 annual per subscriber. (Multiply by 25,000 = $88k/yr)

Industry benchmarks (annual revenue per subscriber)

B2B SaaS (lead gen): $10-50
B2C e-commerce: $25-150
Course / coaching: $20-100
Affiliate-only newsletter: $1-5
Free media (no monetization): $0.50-2

How to multiply

Increase send frequency — most lists are under-mailed. 4-8 emails/month is the sweet spot for retention vs revenue.
Improve segmentation — segmented sends typically 2-3x conversion of broadcasts.
Recover lapsed subscribers — re-engagement campaigns recover 5-10% of dormants.
Sell-the-list / cross-promote — selling a sponsorship slot to a non-competing brand earns $1-5 CPM × list size monthly.

What this calc doesn't capture

Brand value of the relationship (lifetime trust)
Cross-sell opportunities triggered by emails
Acquisition cost amortization (CAC paid once; revenue compounds)

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