Every year, marketing teams revise their strategy for the next year. Researching new trends and reading up on crucial email benchmarks are also part of the process.

To create a plan that will outperform the previous year, you must gather benchmark data from the previous 12 months and compare it to industry averages.

As we approach 2022, marketing teams will place a strong focus on user involvement across numerous channels, not just email. There are seven crucial email benchmarks to keep in mind when measuring email subscriber engagement.

Knowing these email standards is insufficient. You must grasp what each is, how to calculate your rates, and how to compare them to industry norms.

1. Open rates for emails

The total number of times your message is opened by individuals you’ve sent it to is your email open rate. It’s also one of the most discussed email benchmarks among marketing teams.

To get your open rate for a single campaign, divide the number of email openings by the total number of emails sent, minus those that bounced back. The formula seems to be as follows:

(emails opened / [emails sent – bounced]) = email open rate x 100

2. Email open-to-click rates (CTOR)

Your email CTOR is another key email metric. While it may seem to be the same as your email open rate, it is not.

Every open is included in your open rate. Your CTOR is the unique number of clicks received by your email.

If someone opens an email three times, each of them counts against your email open rate. However, with your CTOR, those three openings count as simply one unique click.

To calculate your CTOR, add the total number of unique email clicks to the total number of emails sent, minus any bounced emails. Divide the number of unique email clicks by the total number of emails sent, minus bounced emails. Your formula will look something like this:

CTOR = (number of unique email clicks / total number of emails sent minus bounced emails) x 100

3. Email open and click-through rates (CTR)

The number of times someone clicks on a link in your email is referred to as your CTR.

This email benchmark assists marketing teams in determining the value of their content. The greater the CTR, the more likely their subscribers were to click a link or call-to-action button (CTA).

Your CTR formula is straightforward. All you need are the total number of email openings and total number of links clicked. The formula is as follows:

CTR = (total number of clicks/total number of openings) x 100

4. Rates of email unsubscribe

Not every email will be flawless. Some will almost certainly cause a subscriber to click the dreaded unsubscribe button. Knowing your unsubscribe rate can assist you evaluate what is and isn’t working.

When someone believes they have had enough of your material, they will most likely click the unsubscribe button (that marketers are required to include).

To calculate your unsubscribe rate, multiply the total number of email unsubscribes by the total number of emails sent, minus those that bounced back. Multiply by 100 to obtain the entire percentage. The formula is as follows:

(number of unsubscribes / [total number of messages – bounced messages]) x 100 = unsubscribe rate

5. Rates of email bounce

We’ve already highlighted bounced emails, so it’s no surprise that they’d make the list of most essential email benchmarks.

Bounced emails may be of two types:

• Soft bounces are emails that are returned because of a problem, such as an overly large file size, that prevents your message from being delivered.
• Hard bounces are communications that failed to deliver due to a major issue, such as an incorrect email address. These might result in a low sender score, reducing your overall deliverability. Any email that is returned as a consequence of a hard bounce should be deleted from your list.

Finding your email bounce rate is simple, particularly if you use the following formula:

(undelivered emails / total emails sent) x 100 Equals bounce rate

6. Rates of complaint

The amount of emails reported as spam by recipients is your complaint rate. This doesn’t happen as regularly as other benchmarks, but it’s still crucial to know. You should be aware that the more complaints you get, the more likely you may be designated as spam by major email service providers (like Gmail or AOL). It’s almost tough to get your material out to subscribers after you’ve been tagged as spam. So keep an eye on your complaint rates and change your material as needed.

To calculate your complaint rate, multiply the number of complaints by the number of emails sent, minus those that bounced back. Here’s how it works:

(number of total complaints / [number of emails sent – bounced emails]) x 100 = complaint rate

7. Rates of email engagement

Your email engagement rates are one of the most important email metrics to monitor in 2020. This indicator measures how long someone stays on your email and interacts with it.

There are three types of engagement rates:

• Read – If someone spends more than eight seconds on your email, it indicates that they read it and engaged with it.
• Skimmed – When someone skims a message, it indicates they opened it quickly and looked at it for two to eight seconds.
• Glanced – The message was opened in less than two seconds by the subscriber.

Because you can’t always forecast how long someone will remain on your message, you’re better off using email marketing software that keeps track of this figure to determine your total engagement rate.

If you’re wondering how you compare to others in your field, here is the average engagement rate per industry as of 2021.

Using your stats to assess the effectiveness of an email campaign

Once you’ve determined your email open rate, compare it to the industry average to see where you fall.

If your email open rate is 15% and the average is almost 18%, you may need to make some changes. However, if you’re in professional services and have an open rate of 18.5% – while the sector average is a flat 18% – your campaign is a success.

Wrap up

Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is useful knowledge. Keep an eye on the most critical email metrics.

Here are seven email marketing standards to help you track and improve your efforts:

• Unsubscribe rates
• CTRs
• CTORs
• Open Rates
• Engagement rates
• Complaint rates
• Bounce rates