Email and subscriber engagement metrics are directly tied to email deliverability - the likelihood of your email campaigns actually reaching your subscribers’ inboxes.
How is engagement measured?
The metrics below are an indication of your overall email marketing program and measure your ability to get the right message to the right recipient at the right time. Improving these metrics is a critical effort that is important to being a successful email marketer.
Email Metrics | Best Practices |
Spam Rates | 0.1% or less |
Bounce Rates | 1% or less |
Open Rates (unique) | 15% or higher |
Unsubscribe | 0.7% or less |
In addition to monitoring email metrics, email providers often use the following factors to evaluate email engagement:
How many times messages are forwarded
How often messages are ignored/unopened
How often messages are deleted without being read
How often a sender is added to a contact book
How often a message is moved from one folder to another
Email Best Practices Checklist
Consider the following checklist when considering how to improve open rates, unsubscribe rates, and other engagement metrics:
Do I have engaging subject lines that encourage recipients to open email without using common spam indicators (excessive exclamations, hidden text, spam trigger words/phrases, etc.)?
Does my email contain 1-3 clear, concise calls to action (CTAS)? Check out these Top Email Marketing Examples for tips and inspiration.
Have I identified which campaigns are generating the highest open rates and the lowest unsubscribe rates? How can I incorporate some of those qualities into my underperforming campaigns?
Does my send cadence align with what subscribers want? Reducing frequency to those that aren’t engaging while keeping a normal cadence for those that are boosts positive reputation signals for Inbox Providers.
Is the unsubscribe link easy to find? (more here)
Have I stopped sending to recipients who haven’t opened an email in the last 6 months?
Have I unsubscribed recipients who haven’t opened an email in the last 12 months?