New Year, New Metric to Measure Success
Why our New Year’s Resolution is to Focus on Click Rates Vs. Open Rates in Email Marketing
Marketers have long focused on open rates as a key indicator of campaign performance. Seems logical, right? Open rates give us plenty of valuable information, like whether our subject lines are resonating with the audience, if our audience segmentation is working, and the best time and day to send emails.
While we of course want to keep ensuring our campaigns’ open rates are as high as possible, we believe the true marker of success in email marketing lies in click rates, or click through rates (CTR). One of the best known digital marketers working with brands like HP and ESPN, Neil Patel, writes, “your email campaigns won’t mean anything if you don’t harness your click-to-open rate.” We agree. Marketers like Neil know “Click-to-open rates are important because they show you if a customer found the information inside your email relevant, valuable, and engaging.”
Optimizing click rates, not just the number of opens, is where true audience engagement lies.
Email Tracking Terminology
We’re talking about a few different ratios here, so first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page with the terminology. We’re using Campaign Reporter’s Email Marketing Glossary to define the following terms:
Click Rate, or Click Through Rate: the measure of how many people clicked on a hyperlink, call to action, or image within a particular email.
Click to Open Rate: the number of clicks out of the number of opens (instead of the number of delivered emails). This gives you a better gauge of how the design and messaging resonated with your audience, since these clicks are only from people that actually viewed your email.
Open Rate: how many email recipients open an email as compared to the total number of emails delivered.
For example, let’s imagine a scenario where 500 emails were delivered, 300 were opened, and 200 had clicks. The open rate would be 300/500, or 60%. The click rate would be 200/500, or 40%. And the click to open rate would be 200/300, or 66%.
In this scenario, we can see that 200 of the 300 who opened the email moved forward with the content, perhaps engaging with the call to action or clicking on an image within the email body. But 100 people opened the email and didn’t engage. That space between opening and engaging is where good email marketers dig in.
So let’s dig in. Here are a few of the reasons why we think click rates should be considered more important than open rates when measuring success in email marketing.
1. Open Rates are Just Part of the Story
Think of open rates as an early-stage metric that shows the initial success of your subject line and delivery strategy. Click rates, however, take it a step further by showing how well your content, design, and messaging perform once your email is opened. Open rates should be part of the equation, but they shouldn't be the primary focus.
This hubspot blog shares insights on average open rates, click rates, and click to open rates by industry. While they deem 20% or higher a good open rate, they note the average click through rate ranges between 1.5% and 3.01%. While it may feel better to focus on those higher open rate numbers, click rates are a much better measure of ROI.
2. Clicks Drive Conversion, Not Just Interest
In email marketing, the ultimate goal is often conversion—whether that means a purchase, sign-up, or any other call to action that aligns with your business objectives. Click-throughs are the most direct signal that your audience is moving along the conversion funnel. If your email encourages recipients to click through to a landing page, product page, or blog post, that click is much more important than the open itself.
An email that generates a low open rate but high click rate can still be considered a success if those clicks translate into valuable actions. Conversely, a high open rate without corresponding clicks may suggest that while the subject line was enticing, the email content didn’t provide enough value or motivation for recipients to follow through.
3. Click Rates Offer More Actionable Insights
Click-through data provides marketers with a clear understanding of what content, links, or products are most appealing to their audience. By analyzing how often specific links are clicked, we can gain insights into what drives the most interest. Examining click data across different segments of an email list allows us to refine messaging even further to improve future engagement.
Targeted Marketing’s Approach
Our team of experts is excited to build content focused on driving recipient engagement. Our designers and writers adopt your brand voice to ensure you remain authentic to your mission, while ensuring your audience remains curious and engaged. While open rates give us a glimpse of how well our subject lines and delivery times are performing, click rates provide a much deeper and more actionable view of how engaged and motivated your audience is. Clicks are our true measure of interest, intent, and ultimately, the effectiveness of your email in driving the desired outcome.
