Successful email campaigns go beyond just hitting ‘send’—they require a solid understanding of the numbers and strategic adjustments to drive data-informed decisions.
Campaign reporting should deliver in-depth insights and analysis for marketers, creatives, developers, and stakeholders to enable them to improve on identified successes and learn from past performance.
This comprehensive journey report provides insights to help you interpret the results from all four welcome emails you’ve received from tryandreply.email.
Questions, suggestions or takeaways to share? Email sender@tryandreply.email
TEST TOPIC
Do emojis in an email boost engagement?
HYPOTHESIS
Incorporating relatable emojis in an email will boost emotional engagement, enhance the message’s perceived persuasiveness, and increase engagement rates.
OUTCOME
Yes, including emojis in all four welcome emails enhanced engagement, however using an emoji in the subject line does not directly impact open rates based on subscriber replies.
This journey is live, so results will update as new subscribers join. Please return to this link to see the latest progress. Reporting is updated every Monday.
Campaign Details
TRYANDREPLY.EMAIL WELCOME JOURNEY GOALS
- Educate: Introduce subscribers to various email marketing tactics over four welcome emails.
- Engage: Test if emoji usage in subject lines, body copy, images and CTAs improves open rates, clicks, and replies.
- Set Expectations: Provide clarity on the experiment framework, approach, and subscriber role in shaping insights.
- Collect data: Gather real-time engagement metrics to populate a results dashboard with audience interaction insights and build tryandreply.email benchmarks.
METHODS & METRICS
Journey-specific:
- Emojis in Subject Lines: Add a relevant emoji at the start of each subject line. Measure: Opens
- Short Subject Lines: Limit subject lines to 4-5 words with punctuation for clarity. Measure: Opens
- Encourage Replies: Prompt subscribers to respond to encourage two-way interaction. Measure: Replies
- Single Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Include one focused call-to-action per email. Measure: Clicks or Replies
- Personalized Sender: Establish a consistent “From” name to build familiarity and trust. Measure: Opens
- Personalized Default First Name: Display an emoji in place of a first name for subscribers who don’t provide one during signup. Measure: # of subscribers who complete the Optional First Name field on the signup form.
- Update: In January 2025, the opt-in landing page was updated to make the First Name field required, as 100% of signups included a first name even when it was optional.
Email-specific:
- Email #1 Call-to-Action (CTA) Button: Include an emoji alongside concise, action-oriented text. Measure: Clicks
- Email #2 Hero Image & Bullets: Include the emoji used in the subject line in the main image and use an emoji to denote bulleted content. Measure: n/a
- Email #3 Sentiment Tracker: Add an in-email poll to gather direct feedback on content and engagement. Measure: Clicks
- Email #4 Footer Links: Add relevant emojis to emphasize key links. Measure: n/a
Journey Engagement KPIs
Last updated: Monday, May 5, 2025 (Report timeframe Oct 23, 2024 – May 5, 2025)
On Thursday, November 7th at 5:54 AM MT, I identified a discrepancy in overall performance metrics during the weekly update to the journey reporting. This edge case currently lacks a fix and is under investigation by Mailchimp. Until it’s resolved or until a new version of the journey is updated, the combined KPIs will be manually calculated.
Combined Metrics across four emails included in the Welcome Journey
Days active
194
# of days the journey has been active. The journey was started on October 23, 2024
In progress
3
# of subscribers actively going through the journey
Completed
118
# of subscribers who completed the journey
TOTAL # OF SUBSCRIBERS
120
# of subscribers in the journey who are In progress + # Completed – Unsubscribes
Total Sends
477
# of emails sent in the journey
Delivered
477
# of recipients who didn’t hard or soft bounce on this campaign
Delivery Rate
100%
# of Sends / # Delivered x 100
Open Rate
68%
Percentage of successfully delivered emails that were opened. About Open Rate
# Unique Opens / # Delivered x 100
Total Opens
989
Total # of times the email was opened by recipients. This count includes multiple opens from individual recipients and email clients. About Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)
Unique Opens
325
# of recipients who opened the email campaign
Abuse Reports
0
# of Recipients who reported this email as spam. Recipients who report an email as spam are automatically unsubscribed. Industry-standard is 1 complaint for every 1,000 emails sent.
Abuse Report Rate
0%
The percentage of emails that recipients mark as spam. Industry-standard is less than 0.1%.
# of abuse complaints / # of successfully delivered emails
Total Clicks
170
Total # of times tracked links were clicked. This count includes multiple clicks from individual recipients. About Clicks
Unique Clicks
80
The number of recipients who clicked any tracked link.
Click Rate
17%
The percentage of delivered emails that registered at least one click. About Click Rate
# Unique Clicks / # Delivered x 100
Clicks per Unique Opens
25%
The percentage of recipients who opened the email campaign and then clicked a link.
# Unique Clicks / # Unique Opens x 100
Bounce Rate
0%
# Bounced / # Delivered x 100
Unsubscribed
1
# of recipients who unsubscribed from the campaign
Unsubscribe Rate
0.2%
# Unsubscribed / # Delivered x 100
Total Replies
32
Combined # of Direct Replies from all four emails, excluding autoresponders
Reply Rate
6.7%
# of Replies / # Delivered x 100
Forward to a Friend
0
# of times the email was forwarded via the link in the footer. This does not account for the recipient using the forward function in their email program.
Forwarded Opens
0
# of times the email was opened by someone who was forwarded the email using the forward to a friend link in the email footer.
Click Performance by Email
Welcome Email #1
Delivered: 1 hour after signup
Subject Line: ➡️ Open this email to start!
Preview Text: Directly impact the results of the email experiment
Sends
120
Open rate
81%
Click rate
37%
Replies
13
| Email #1 URLs | Total clicks | Unique clicks |
|---|---|---|
| Launch Your Newsletter in 4 Steps (button) | 17 | 12 |
| Experiment (text link) | 19 | 14 |
| Linkedin (text + signature link) | 21 | 12 |
| 4-step framework (text link) | 21 | 17 |
| Stealth Link (to identify potential false-positive clicks) | 3 | 3 |
| Logo | 6 | 5 |
| Privacy Policy | 4 | 4 |
Welcome Email #2
Delivered: 2 days after receiving Email #1
Subject Line: 😎 Here is what to expect!
Preview Text: Your clicks + replies = real-time results
Sends
120
Open rate
63%
Click rate
1.3%
Replies
15
Welcome Email #3
Delivered: 2 days after receiving Email #2
Subject Line: 🤔 What if we try this?
Preview Text: Your input matters!
Sends
119
Open rate
65%
Click rate
29%
Replies
1
| Email #3 URLs | Total clicks | Unique clicks |
|---|---|---|
| Love it (button) | 16 | 13 |
| Over it (button) | 12 | 6 |
| Emoji Gif (signature profile) | 2 | 1 |
| Linkedin (signature link) | 0 | 0 |
| Do’s and Don’ts of Using Emojis in Email Marketing (text link) | 5 | 4 |
| Sentiment Analysis for Better Decision-Making (text link) | 2 | 1 |
| Emojipedia (text link) | 1 | 1 |
| Emoji List (text link) | 1 | 1 |
| Logo | 2 | 1 |
Email #3 Sentiment Tracker
❤️ Red Heart Clicks
13
# of Unique Clicks in Email 3
🙄 Eye roll Clicks
6
# of Unique Clicks in Email 3
Sentiment Clicks per Unique Open
25%
The percentage of combined unique clicks = # of Unique Clicks / Email 3 # of Unique Opens x 100
Welcome Email #4
Delivered: 2 days after receiving Email #3
Subject Line: 👀 Look at these results!
Preview Text: How does your engagement compare to other participants?
Sends
118
Open rate
64%
Click rate
28%
Replies
1
| Email #4 URLs | Total clicks | Unique clicks |
|---|---|---|
| View Journey Report (button) | 30 | 20 |
| Linkedin (signature + footer link) | 3 | 3 |
| Stealth Link (to identify potential false-positive clicks) | 1 | 1 |
Mailchimp. powers this experiment. Information about Mailchimp’s Metrics can be viewed here.
Relevant Insights
CAMPAIGN INSIGHTS
- Subscriber feedback indicates that the dark background color in all four emails impacts readability, particularly in replies. (This will be updated in the next iteration of the Welcome Journey and has been accounted for in the newsletter edition template.)
- Subscriber feedback noted including messaging that lets the reader know another email will follow can increase open rates by setting the expectation of what’s next.
- In Email #3, the sentiment tracker’s strategic placement near the email’s end encourages readers to engage with the full message before taking action, and early results show it’s driving 100% of click engagement.
- Subscriber feedback noted a “yellow warning message with Email #1, which disappeared with Email #2.” After investigating, this is likely due to the “Newly Registered Domain” tag—an expected occurrence as tryandreply.email launched in mid-October 2024 and is still building its sender reputation in inboxes.
- Embedding a hidden link in the email header allowed for detection and validation of false-positive clicks, ensuring more accurate engagement reporting and insights into contact behavior.
- Subscriber feedback suggests that some reporting KPIs and terminology may leave questions unanswered, highlighting areas for clearer communication and education.
- Subscriber feedback from Email #2 validates the sender name, subject line and the interest in the content is what gets the open over the use of an emoji.
- Based on the direct call to action to reply to Email #1 and #2 with a direct question that could be a very short or extended reply, it is adding to engagement.
EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER (ESP) INSIGHTS
Skimmability Recommendation: Trim copy down for 3 of the 4 emails to fewer than 200 words, ensuring average reading time is under 45 seconds.
- Email #1 (218 Total Words, 0 min 54 sec Est. Read Time)
- Email #2 (203 Total Words, 0 min 48 sec Est. Read Time)
- Email #3 (361 Total Words, 0 min 84 sec Est. Read Time)
- Email #4 (255 Total Words, 0 min 60 sec Est. Read Time)
Reporting Discrepancy: While this appears to be an edge case without a current fix, it’s a reminder that simply exporting a report isn’t always enough. Careful review and pattern analysis can reveal inconsistencies that might otherwise go unnoticed in standard exports.
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
- 37.2% of email campaigns place emojis at the beginning of subject lines.
- 19.5% use them at the end, and 10.6% place them in the middle.
- 32.4% of campaigns use more than two emojis, while Mailchimp recommends using just one per subject line.
- Companies include emojis in 40.1% of their email campaigns. (Selzy)
- Welcome emails enjoy a high open rate, with more than 8 out of 10 people opening them, resulting in 4x as many open and 10x more clicks than other email types. (GetResponse).
- Welcome emails achieve an impressive click-through rate of 26.9% (GetResponse).
- On average, a good response rate to aim for is 10%. This number could be higher or lower by 5-10%, depending on how experienced you are and how much work you’ve put into your campaign. (Campaign Monitor)
- Include a “what if” section in your copy. It’s a great way to create urgency + scarcity. (Daily Copywriting)
Qualitative Feedback (Subscriber Replies)
Email #1: Re: ➡️ Open this email to start!
So excited! Love the layout and colors. Can’t wait to see the results
Hey Danielle, looking forward to this. I hope you are well.
#Winning
This is slick!
LOVE the changes you made. Only odd thing I’ve come across is this reply. I don’t use dark mode and it shows as a black background and the text was also black until I just turned it white.
Hope me being apart of your experiment is helpful!
great email!
Didn’t even look at the subject line tbh – I was just keeping an eye out for the next email. I’m a terrible test subject 😂
Thanks for your welcome! I am curious about the experiment 🙂 I look forward to seeing the first steps/results.
Let’s go! Really excited to be a part of this and curious to learn what you’re learning.
I’m excited to see what we learn!
Looking forward to learning with you.
Received first email in my primary inbox. Congratulations!
Initial thoughts: This is super fun and I’m fascinated to see what comes next!
Very belatedly going through the experiment emails. Someone shared this on LinkedIn last week, and I was super intrigued, especially since I support business owners with email marketing.
Email #2: Re: 😎 Here is what to expect!
The emoji did stand out in my inbox!
I replied to be supportive of a former co-worker. Just trying to help you with your business initiative.
Looking forward to the experiment
Because I was expecting an email from you. I like emojis, use them all the time. They don’t bother me in an email subject, but I don’t care for them there either. Looking forward to the experiment!
Responding!! The yellow thingy went away for this one 🙂 – Reference “Relevant Insights” section
Didn’t even look at the subject line tbh – I was just keeping an eye out for the next email.
I opened the email because I was expecting one or better because I signed up recently so the interest in your comms is still high. In all honesty I am not sure how this will evolve.
I did not even read the subject line, just the sender name.
If it is of any value, i am reading from my phone.
“here is what to expect” got me… I didn’t even notice the emoji haha Hope this helps!
—–
So full disclosure, I just got a free hour to read my newsletters and fun stuff from this week and read them out of order… BUT I don’t think it would’ve made a difference seeing the tease in the first one. it was just a mysterious, cool subject line
We’ve A/B tested emojis on ours a couple of times (we’re on beehiiv), and every single one of our tests have ended up with no emoji in the subject line as the winner…
Anyway, this seems very cool and fun and I’m looking forward to where this all ends up! I found you in the “best newsletter” awards thing, by the way… if that helps!
Normally emojis catch my eye, but in this case my eyes glazed right past it and I was curious about “Here is what to expect!,” especially combined with “Your clicks + your replies = real time results.” I couldn’t immediately recall what I had signed up for and thought maybe it was some kind of marketing email about audience development…which in a way it is hahaha, just not a product being sold to me.
I’m looking forward to future emails from you!
i opened this email because of the subject line.
i just subscribed so i was like “who is danielle?” when i saw it?
looking forward to these newsletters
I opened because I am expecting emails from you, not because of the emoji!
I’m excited to see what we learn!
Looking forward to learning with you.
I think I opened it because you were going to send another. Is that a thing? If so, very cool! 🙂 I like the concept of these so far. Very interesting stuff!
Email #3: Re: 🤔 What if we try this?
incoming envelope emoji: 📨
smiling face with sunglasses emoji: 😎
Out of 221+ emails in my inbox, yours is the only one with an emoji in the subject.
Email #4: Re: 👀 Look at these results!
Howdy!!! Rec’d my latest installment this morning- yea!! My random (and totally unsolicited) musings…what is a CTA??? (buzz word people are not likely to be familiar with) and is there a need to define what an open rate is/isn’t and its relevance in the hierarchy of kpis?? …also how it might be impacted by quality of the list/relevance of email? …and avoid automatically assigning terms like “good” and “bad” to results (…relative to what?)
Questions, suggestions or takeaways to share? Email sender@tryandreply.email