Small But Mighty
Email marketing has long been a powerhouse of digital marketing—and for good reason. It’s personal, direct, cost-effective, and delivers one of the highest ROIs of any channel. But if you’re still measuring success purely by open rates, it’s time to dig a little deeper. Whether you’re a small business owner or a startup, understanding what’s actually happening behind the scenes of your campaigns is key to smarter decision-making. Today’s email platforms offer far more than vanity metrics—they give us actionable data and real insight into audience behaviour, conversion potential, and the effectiveness of your targeted marketing. Let’s take a look with the help of the top digital marketing agency in Melbourne and this helpful FREE email marketing benchmarking tool.
Why Open Rates Aren’t Enough
Let’s start here. Open rates used to be the go-to metric for email success, but changes to privacy policies—especially Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)—have made them far less reliable. Many platforms now inflate open rates, making it hard to know who really engaged with your content.
So while it’s still useful as a directional signal, it shouldn’t be your primary measure of success. Here are the metrics that really matter.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Now we’re getting into more meaningful territory. CTR tells you the percentage of recipients who clicked on at least one link in your email. It helps you understand how compelling your message was and whether your call to action worked.
What it tells you:
- If your content or offer was interesting enough to prompt action
- How effective your design and CTA placement are
- Which links or content types drive the most interest
Hot tip: Make your CTA buttons easy to spot and use action-oriented language. “Download the guide” performs better than “Click here.”
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)
This one’s gold. CTOR measures how many people clicked after opening your email. Unlike CTR, which is calculated against total recipients, CTOR only counts people who opened it—giving you a better view of your content’s performance.
What it tells you:
- How engaging your content is to people who actually read it
- Whether your subject line and content align (i.e. you delivered what you promised)
A high CTOR with a low open rate means your content is strong, but your subject line might need work.
Conversion Rate
Clicks are great—but conversions are what pay the bills. Whether you’re selling a product, collecting sign-ups, or booking appointments, your conversion rate shows how many people followed through on your desired action after clicking through.
What it tells you:
- How well your landing page complements your email
- If your overall message and offer are aligned
- Whether your audience is ready to act—or just browsing
This is the ultimate performance metric for any email campaign focused on ROI.
Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate shows how many emails couldn’t be delivered. There are two types:
- Soft bounce: Temporary issues (like a full inbox)
- Hard bounce: Permanent problems (like an invalid email address)
What it tells you:
- The health of your email list
- Whether you need to clean up old or inactive contacts
- If your sending practices are putting your domain at risk
High bounce rates can damage your sender reputation, so it’s worth monitoring regularly.
Unsubscribe Rate
It might sting a little, but unsubscribes are a reality—and they can be valuable. If a particular email triggers more unsubscribes than usual, it’s worth looking into why.
What it tells you:
- If your content missed the mark or felt irrelevant
- Whether your send frequency is too high
- If your list isn’t segmented properly
If your unsubscribe rate stays under 0.5%, you’re generally in safe territory. Any spikes? Time to review your approach.
Engagement Over Time
Many email platforms allow you to track how your audience engages over time—whether they’re reading on mobile, when they’re most active, and how long they spend on your content.
What it tells you:
- The best times and days to send emails
- How to design for mobile-first readers
- Whether you’re attracting long-term, loyal subscribers or one-time clickers
For the top digital marketing agency in Melbourne, this data helps refine timing, design, and messaging for maximum impact – delivering the most effective targeted marketing campaigns.
Shift the Focus to Real Results
In the world of email marketing, surface-level stats only tell part of the story. Real success comes from understanding how your audience thinks, behaves, and converts. For small businesses, tracking these metrics allows for smarter, more targeted marketing decisions—and better ROI. So ditch the guesswork. Go beyond open rates, use your data wisely, and build email marketing campaigns that actually connect with your audience. Because when you measure what matters, email marketing becomes one of the most powerful tools in your digital toolkit! Need help? Get a FREE strategy call with the best digital marketing agency in Melbourne!