The Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks You Need to Track Now

Measuring your email marketing success starts with tracking the right benchmarks. Whether you’re new or experienced, understanding these metrics helps you improve campaigns, increase engagement, and ultimately grow your business. This guide covers the key email marketing benchmarks to monitor for ongoing optimisation and strong ROI.

Why Email Marketing Benchmarks Matter

Tracking benchmarks tells you whether your subscribers are engaged or if your list needs pruning. It reveals if your subject lines and content resonate and how you compare against industry peers. Benchmarks differ by sector, but monitoring your data helps identify strengths and areas to improve.

Keeping your list engaged reduces spam complaints and increases conversion potential—especially important for South African SMEs operating under POPIA. A clean, active list means your messages reach receptive inboxes, improving deliverability and campaign success.

9 Email Marketing Benchmarks to Watch

You don’t need to track every metric, but these nine are foundational to effective email marketing.

1. Open Rate

Your open rate measures the percentage of people who opened your email out of all the emails you successfully sent (excluding those that bounced).

To calculate it, divide the number of unique opens by the total emails sent minus any bounced emails, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

Average open rates typically range between 18% and 22%, depending on industry and audience.

Low open rates might indicate that your subject lines need improvement, your sending times are off, or that your email list contains disengaged contacts.

Tip: Monitor unique opens vs total opens to understand how often subscribers revisit your content.

2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR tells you the percentage of people who clicked on at least one link within your email, relative to the total emails sent (again excluding bounces).

Calculate this by dividing the number of unique clicks by the total emails delivered and multiplying by 100.

An average CTR sits around 2–3%. If your CTR is low, consider improving your calls to action (CTAs) by making them more visible and compelling, and ensuring they appear where your readers’ eyes naturally fall—often top-left or just below your key content.

3. Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)

CTOR measures the proportion of recipients who clicked a link out of those who actually opened your email. This metric focuses on the relevance and appeal of your content.

To find CTOR, divide unique clicks by unique opens, then multiply by 100.

A good CTOR is usually between 10% and 20%. A low CTOR suggests that while your subject line might be effective, your email content or layout might need tweaking to better engage readers.

4. Unsubscribe Rate

The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of recipients who opt out after receiving your email.

To calculate, divide the number of unsubscribes by the total delivered emails, then multiply by 100.

The typical unsubscribe rate is very low, about 0.1%. Higher rates can signal issues like irrelevant content, too frequent emails, or misleading expectations at signup.

5. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate reflects the percentage of emails that did not reach recipients’ inboxes.

This includes hard bounces (emails rejected permanently, e.g., invalid addresses) and soft bounces (temporary delivery failures).

Calculate bounce rate by dividing the number of bounced emails by total emails sent, multiplied by 100.

Aim to keep your bounce rate below 1% by regularly cleaning your list and avoiding sending to unverified addresses.

6. Complaint Rate

Complaint rate tracks how many recipients mark your email as spam.

Calculate it by dividing spam complaints by emails delivered, then multiplying by 100.

Keep this rate below 0.1% to maintain a good sender reputation and inbox placement.

7. Engagement Rate

Engagement rate describes how long recipients interact with your email.

• If they spend more than 8 seconds reading, it’s considered “read.”
• Between 2 and 8 seconds is “skimmed.”
• Less than 2 seconds is a “glance.”

This data helps you understand if your content holds attention. Most email platforms provide reports on this metric.

8. Reply Rate

Reply rate is the percentage of recipients who respond directly to your email’s call to action or message.

Calculate it by dividing the number of replies by emails delivered, multiplied by 100.

While average reply rates for B2B emails are around 5–6%, a higher reply rate typically indicates stronger personal engagement, opening doors for deeper conversations.

9. Deliverability Rate

Deliverability rate shows the percentage of emails successfully delivered to recipients’ inboxes (not sent to spam or blocked).

Calculate by dividing emails delivered by emails sent (minus bounces), multiplied by 100.

Aim for deliverability above 95%. To maintain this, authenticate your emails (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintain list hygiene, and monitor spam scores.

Further notes...

Tracking these benchmarks helps you pinpoint what’s working and where you can improve. For South African SMEs, combining this data with local market knowledge and POPIA-compliant practices ensures your campaigns are both effective and trustworthy.

Regularly clean and segment your lists, experiment with subject lines and send times, and refine your content based on what the data tells you.

With attention and adjustment, your email marketing will engage better, convert more, and drive meaningful business growth.