Open rates, while a common metric, can be misleading. A high open rate doesn’t necessarily mean your content is resonating; it could just mean you've mastered the art of clickbait subject lines. In the email game, it's easy to get hung up on getting your emails opened, but this can sometimes lead to a focus on gimmicks over substance. The real challenge is not just getting eyes on your email, but ensuring the content is genuinely engaging and valuable to your audience.

Open rate may not only be a best metric to measure as now apple is not sharing the reports in apple devices. Open rate can be one of the indicators to understand how the email is performing. A compelling subject line can help increase the open rate. Make sure that it is relevant to the content in the email body, otherwise y ou may just make people unsubscribe and report spam. To increase the open rate you may consider personalizing it to the audience.

Click-through rates give us some insight, but they’re not the holy grail of engagement. High CTRs are great, but what if they’re leading subscribers down a path that doesn’t align with their expectations or needs? It’s like having a captivating trailer for a movie that ends up being a letdown. The key is not just getting clicks but ensuring that those clicks are meaningful and lead to a satisfying user experience.

Conversion rates are often seen as the ultimate goal of email marketing. However, focusing too narrowly on conversions can lead to overlooking the importance of building long-term relationships. Not every email needs to be about making a sale. Sometimes, the most effective emails are those that educate, inform, or entertain, helping to build a foundation of trust and loyalty that goes beyond immediate conversions.

While a high bounce rate is generally seen negatively, obsessing over this metric can lead to overzealous list cleaning. Yes, it’s important to have a healthy, engaged list, but sometimes, a bounce can be a missed opportunity for re-engagement or understanding why a subscriber has drifted away. It’s not just about keeping your list clean; it’s about understanding the reasons behind the bounces.

I look at this one more so than anything else. Why? Because I want to develop long term relationships with people on my list. Why? Because I am a B2B marketer and it takes 6-18 months for a contact to become a client so building up a long term relationship is key to success. If I see a high unsubscribe then I re-evaluate the content in the newsletter and refine it for the next time!

Unsubscribe rate is the best way to ensure you’re reaching the right people with the right content at the right time. Other metrics can be easy to game, but the unsubscribe rate doesn’t lie. It doesn’t matter how much your list is growing or how many people open your emails if the content isn’t relevant and they remove themselves from the list. Unsubscribe rates can measure high-level program health and speak to the relevance and success of individual sends. It’s an important metric to track closely, especially as your list grows and your email marketing program scales.