Stop 07 · Email & Marketing AutomationTopics · 9/9

Email Metrics (Open Rate, CTR, Unsubscribe)

In short

Every email report shows a pile of percentages. Know what each means and which to trust, and you'll spot a broken campaign in thirty seconds.

Open rate signals subject line strength, click-through rate signals content/offer relevance, and unsubscribe rate signals whether you're sending too often or the wrong content — each metric diagnoses a different problem.

The blob holds a fan of colourful greeting card envelopes next to a lit diya.

Think of it like this

Diwali cards to relatives

You post 100 Diwali cards. 97 reach. Maybe 60 get opened. 12 relatives actually call you back. Two say 'please stop sending these'. Sent, delivered, opened, clicked and unsubscribed, in festive form.

Watch it happen

One newsletter's numbers

Sent 10,000

Delivered 9,800

Opened 3,500

Clicked 300

Unsubscribed 25

1/5Delivery rate = 9,800 / 10,000 = 98%. The other 200 bounced.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Bounces

Hard bounces are dead addresses; remove them. Soft bounces are temporary, like a full inbox.

Clicks over opens

Clicks are harder to fake and closer to money. Judge content by clicks.

Unsubscribes are feedback

A few are healthy. A spike means the email, frequency or audience was off.

Conversions win

Track what happened after the click, like sign-ups or sales, using UTM links.

See it in code

Walk through the code

excel

1B1 Sent          100002B2 Delivered      98003B3 Opened         35004B4 Clicked        3005B5 Unsubscribed   256B6 Open rate      =B3/B2      → 35.7%7B7 Click rate     =B4/B2      → 3.1%8B8 Click-to-open  =B4/B3      → 8.6%

1/3Raw counts straight from the email report.

Rates are usually calculated on delivered emails, not sent. Check how your tool defines each one.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Celebrating a 60% open rate and stopping there.

Do this instead

Opens can be inflated. Check clicks and sales before calling it a success.

Oops

Ignoring a sudden jump in unsubscribes.

Do this instead

Look at what changed: frequency, topic or audience, and fix it before the next send.

Your mission

Calculate a campaign report

~15 min

Quick check

Open rate stayed the same but click rate halved. What's the most likely problem?

Go deeper

1Find industry benchmark ranges for open rate and CTR in a niche you're interested in.
2Practice diagnosing a hypothetical low-CTR-but-high-open-rate email (subject line worked, content didn't).
3Learn why a rising unsubscribe rate is a signal to investigate, not just tolerate.