What is one subscriber on my email list worth?
Last updated
Take the revenue your email platform or analytics credits to campaigns and flows together.
Display only. Your figures are read in the currency you pick — nothing is converted and no exchange rate is applied.
Campaigns and automated flows, in one currency.
The stretch of time that revenue covers.
The size at the end is enough. Add the size at the start too and the page can show a yearly range.
People you can email: not unsubscribed, not bounced.
Leave blank if you do not have it.
Enter how many subscribers your list has, the revenue your email brought in, and the period that revenue covers. Add the list size at the start of the period for a range.
- Revenue your email brought inNeeded
- The period that revenue coversNeeded
- Subscribers at the end of the periodNeeded
- Subscribers at the start, for a yearly rangeOptional
This values the list you already have. To estimate what a popup could add to it from your traffic, use the popup ROI calculator, and to check how your signup rate compares, use the email capture benchmark.
No benchmark and no typical value is used: every figure comes from the numbers you enter. The currency is a label only and nothing is converted. The worked examples stay in US dollars.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. There is no account, no install and no email platform connection.
Subscribers, email revenue and the period they share
Email list value is the revenue your emails bring in, shared out across the people on your list, so a candle shop whose list averaged 8,000 subscribers over a quarter and whose email brought in 14,400 dollars in that quarter earned 1.80 dollars per subscriber, or 60 cents a month.
No benchmark and no typical subscriber value is used: every figure is your own revenue shared out across your own list. To estimate what a popup could add to that list, see the popup ROI calculator.
Your own list and your own results, nothing borrowed. The figure is only as good as the revenue your reports credit to email, so check what they count before trusting it.
- Subscribers on the list
- The people you can actually email: active, not unsubscribed, not bounced. If your platform lists suppressed profiles separately, leave them out. The size at the end of the period is enough on its own; the size at the start as well lets the page show a range.
- Revenue from email
- Sales your email platform or store analytics credits to campaigns and automated flows over the period, in the same currency throughout. Flows usually carry much of it, so leaving them out undervalues the list.
- The period
- How many months that revenue covers. A single month is quick to pull but swings with one big send; a quarter or a full year gives a steadier figure.
- Value per subscriber
- The period revenue shared out across the list, then shown per month as well. It is a measured result from your own numbers, not an estimate, which is why it appears as one figure.
- Yearly value
- For a full year of data, what a subscriber earned. For a shorter period it can only be a projection, so it appears as a range whose width comes from how much your list size moved, and only when you give the size at both ends.
Nudgesmart is available on the Shopify App Store. Browse the template library or see what it costs.
What a subscriber earned at six stores
Fictional merchants in US dollars; treat none of these as a norm. The table is produced by the code behind the calculator above. Where a yearly figure is a projection it appears as a range, and where there is nothing to base a range on it is left blank.
| Scenario | Subscribers | Email revenue | Per subscriber | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candle shop, one quarter, list growing | 7,200 to 8,800 | $14,400.00Three months | $1.80 | $0.60 | $6.55 to $8.00projected range |
| Supplement brand, a full year | 18,000 to 25,000 | $172,000.00Twelve months | $8.00 | $0.67 | $8.00 |
| Fashion boutique, one month, list size today only | 12,500 | $9,800.00One month | $0.78 | $0.78 | Not shown |
| Pet food store, six months, list shrinking after a clean-up | 30,000 to 22,000 | $61,000.00Six months | $2.35 | $0.39 | $4.07 to $5.55projected range |
| Print shop, one quarter, a large list rarely mailed | 40,000 to 41,000 | $3,100.00Three months | $0.08 | $0.03 | $0.30 to $0.31projected range |
| Tea merchant, one month, nothing sent | 2,100 to 2,150 | $0.00One month | $0.00 | $0.00 | Not shown |
Where a per-subscriber figure goes wrong
Attribution decides the revenue
Email platforms credit an order to an email if it was opened or clicked within a window they choose. A wide window credits sales that would have happened anyway, a narrow one misses slow buyers, and the per-subscriber figure moves with it.
Most of the value sits with a few people
An average per subscriber hides that a small share of the list places most of the orders. A new subscriber is not automatically worth the average; they are worth it once they behave like the list does.
Cleaning the list raises the figure
Removing people who never open lifts the value per subscriber without adding a sale. Compare periods on the same cleaning policy, or the improvement is only arithmetic.
Seasonal periods do not scale
A quarter that includes a big sale weekend projects a year that will not happen. Use a quarter without a major event, or a full twelve months, when the yearly range matters.
Revenue is not profit
The figure is sales, before the cost of goods, discounts and the email platform itself. To decide what you can afford to spend capturing a subscriber, apply your gross margin to it first.
Email list value questions
How do I work out what an email subscriber is worth?
Enter your list size, the revenue email brought in, and the period that revenue covers. The calculator shares the revenue out across the list and returns the value per subscriber for the period and per month. 14,400 dollars across a list that averaged 8,000 over a quarter is 1.80 dollars per subscriber.
Why is the yearly figure a range?
Because turning three or six months into a year is a forecast, and the page does not print a single forecast figure. The two ends come from your own list size at the start and at the end of the period. With a full twelve months of revenue, there is nothing to forecast and the yearly figure is exact.
Why is there no yearly figure at all?
You entered a period shorter than a year and either no starting list size or a list that did not change. Without two different list sizes there is no honest spread, and a single projected number would look more certain than it is.
Which revenue should I count, campaigns or flows?
Both. Welcome, browse and abandoned-cart flows often earn more than one-off campaigns, and they only reach people because they are on the list. Leaving flows out makes each subscriber look worth less than they are.
What does it mean if email earned nothing?
Usually that the list is not being sent to, or that orders from email are not being credited to it. In the last worked example the tea merchant sent nothing that month. Fix the sending or the tracking before deciding the list has no value.
Is this the same as the popup ROI calculator?
No. That tool estimates what a popup could add from your traffic. This one values the list you already have, from the results your email has already produced.
The list earns per head. The heads have to come from somewhere.
Nudgesmart captures emails on the storefront with a popup and reports revenue per signup, so new subscribers can be weighed against what the list already earns.
