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Email engagement metrics checklist for 2026

Short answer

A complete email engagement metrics checklist has 4 setup items and 2 things to audit against. Work through setup in order, then schedule a quarterly review.

Setup checklist#

  • ☐ Track clicks and replies as primary metrics; opens are unreliable after Mail Privacy Protection.
  • ☐ Set benchmarks per segment and channel rather than industry averages.
  • ☐ Watch unsubscribe rate (aim under 0.5%) and complaint rate (under 0.1%).
  • ☐ Feed engagement back into segmentation and sunset policies.

Audit checklist#

  • ☐ Confirm you are not: reporting opens as success when Apple inflates them by prefetching.
  • ☐ Confirm you are not: ignoring the complaint rate until Postmaster Tools flags it.

Ongoing monitoring#

  • ☐ Weekly: review provider dashboards (Postmaster Tools, SNDS) and bounce logs
  • ☐ Monthly: re-run the setup verification after any vendor or DNS change
  • ☐ Quarterly: full audit against this checklist

Frequently asked questions#

What is a good click-through rate?

2 to 5% for marketing email is common; transactional mail often exceeds 10%.

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