Most marketers track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. But these metrics miss what actually drives pipeline: whether your buyers engage and move forward.

Focus on getting your audience to engage with your content and move further down the sales funnel. A good email open rate is around 20-25%, and these figures can go up to 70% for highly personalized emails. High open rates indicate initial interest, and you want your subscribers to take action, whether buying a product or scheduling a call.

Engagement drives real outcomes. Subscribers who interact with your content provide feedback, make repeat purchases, and advocate for your brand. Subscribers interacting with your content are more likely to provide feedback, make repeat purchases, and support your brand. As an entrepreneur, you can capitalize on their interest in your business to build lasting relationships.

Why open rates are no longer reliable

Open rate is one of the most widely used email marketing metrics, but it reveals just one aspect of campaign performance. As its name suggests, it indicates the percentage of subscribers who open a given email.

Let's say you email 100 people, and 20 of them open it. In that case, your open rate would be 20%.

For years, marketers treated high open rates as the ultimate success metric. This number provides some value, but prioritize engagement metrics for better insights. First, it measures only whether an email was opened, not how users engaged with the content. A potential customer may open and read your email, then move on to other tasks. In fact, the majority of them will.

Second, many email clients block images by default to protect users' privacy and security.

Open rates are often tracked using a transparent pixel image embedded in the email. If someone reads your message but doesn't enable image display, your email will be marked as "unopened."

Similarly, text-only emails often evade accurate tracking when subscribers or targets open them.

Some email clients allow users to preview the emails they receive without opening them. Others turn off tracking pixels by default, or block email tracking, which can further affect open rate accuracy.

A good example is Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, a relatively new feature that prevents marketers from using invisible pixels to track email data, including open rates. Similarly, DuckDuckGo Email Protection enables consumers to block tracking technologies.

Email open rates can be misleading

The above measures intend to give customers more control over their data. Beyond privacy considerations, focus on engagement metrics rather than email open rates. High open rates indicate initial interest but may not reflect deeper engagement with your content.

A potential customer may read your email out of curiosity, delete it, and ghost you.

Even if they’re interested in your message, they may wait to reply due to other commitments.

Additionally, some recipients may open your email after seeing the subject line but fail to read the full content.

Therefore, they miss the full context of the email. You’ve done a good enough job with the “hook” of the subject line to convince them to open the email, yet they may stop reading after the first few lines.

Also, note that many email service providers (ESPs) automatically mark emails as open, inflating the numbers. Under these circumstances, the best thing you can do is track other, more meaningful metrics, such as subscriber engagement and click-through rates.

Understanding data governance is just as important. Not only does this practice allow you to stay legally compliant, but it can also improve your marketing efforts and increase customer trust.

All in all, focus on engagement metrics to measure the success of your campaigns. A better option is to look into how subscribers engage with your emails and the value they get from them.

Start tracking email engagement to measure campaign success

An engaged subscriber will click on the links in your emails, ask questions, or give feedback. Simply put, they'll interact with your brand and take some sort of action. Many brands focus on metrics like subscriber acquisition costs, open rates, conversions, etc., which are important. These companies often focus solely on numbers, missing opportunities to connect on a human level.

When you focus on engagement, you build relationships that drive repeat purchases and referrals. This approach turns one-time buyers into repeat customers who provide feedback and refer others.

Engagement metrics also provide valuable insights into customer needs and preferences. For example, you can collect data on which types of content generate the most interest or which subject lines work best. When you have that data, it’s much easier to build more engaging content in the future. Your content is based on data-driven insights in these instances, grounded in actual subscriber behavior.

These insights can lead to more meaningful interactions and maximize your marketing efforts. When you know which signals indicate buying intent, you can prioritize the right accounts and personalize outreach based on what triggered their interest.

How to engage email subscribers and turn them into paying customers

Most businesses target multiple customer groups with similar needs but different characteristics.

For example, a sports apparel store may sell products for hiking enthusiasts, gym-goers, and professional athletes. You can break down these customer groups into multiple segments based on age, income, location, and other pertinent criteria.

Given these aspects, it's crucial to personalize your email campaigns for each target audience to drive engagement. At the same time, you'll want to re-engage lost leads and bring them back into the sales funnel.

Here's how to increase engagement and drive conversions:

Make it personal

Most consumers receive 100 to 120 emails daily, of which 85% are spam. With that much noise, even interested buyers may miss your message entirely.

Personalize based on buyer signals and context. When you reference a job change, funding round, or specific pain point, your email becomes relevant instead of generic. According to McKinsey, companies that get personalization right generate 40% more revenue than the average business.

For starters, personalize your subject lines for each customer group. Address your subscribers by name, then look into their browsing history and other data to create personalized content.

Use dynamic images that change based on the recipient's behavior or segment. This approach will change the image's content based on the target audience. For example, you may use dynamic hero banners illustrating the product categories a customer has purchased.

Similarly, you can use demographic and geographic data to deliver dynamic content, discount codes, or special offers.

Harness the power of storytelling

Use storytelling to make your value proposition concrete. Show how similar companies solved the same problem your prospect faces.

Build narratives around specific outcomes. Show how a customer went from problem X to result Y, then connect that journey to your prospect's current situation.

First, think about how it all started. What's the story behind your brand? What sets it apart, and why should your readers care about it?

Next, tie your story to your customers' needs and interests—and personalize it for each audience segment. Include specific examples with real numbers. If a customer increased pipeline by 40%, say that. Concrete outcomes matter more than clever copy.

Optimize the preview text

Most ESPs display the email subject line and one or two lines of text. This section should act as a hook and tell readers what to expect from your email. Ideally, keep the preview text between 30 and 55 characters to ensure it is fully displayed. Don't just repeat the subject line; build on it by adding more information.

Let's say your subject says, "A special discount just for you." In this case, the preview text could be something like, "Take a 10-minute survey for 10% off your next order."

Marketers also use this section to spark curiosity or tease readers. For example, you can state a surprising fact to grab their attention and entice them to open your email. Remember to personalize your preview text for each audience group. Test a few different versions, measure their impact, and optimize your copy accordingly.

Encourage a two-way conversation

Your prospects and customers want to feel heard, and you need their feedback to improve your offerings. With that in mind, ask your subscribers what they think about a topic and tell them you value their insights. Encourage them to tell you more about their needs and wants so you can better meet their expectations.

If you plan to launch a product or service, ask them how they feel about it. Are there any features they would like to see? And how much would they be willing to pay for that particular product?

You can also use this approach to re-engage inactive subscribers. Simply ask for their feedback or address a topic they're interested in and wait to hear back.

Note, though: if your emails go unanswered more often than not, your domain name may have been blacklisted. This guide explains everything you should know about domain blacklisting, so you might want to check it out.

Incentivize your subscribers

Last but not least, incentivize customers who actively engage with your emails.

For example, you could offer exclusive deals, branded merch, product samples, or free access to webinars. In exchange, ask your subscribers to take action, such as filling out a survey or mentioning your brand on social media.

Another option is to create a referral program. Encourage subscribers to recommend your products and reward their efforts with a special discount, cashback, or freebies.

Such incentives make people feel valued and create a sense of loyalty.

Over time, they can boost email engagement and set your brand apart.

Take your email marketing up a notch

Email marketing success means more than high open rates. This metric matters to some degree, yet it requires context from other engagement metrics. You also need to consider how customers interact with your brand, their actions, and where your efforts make a real difference.

Engaged buyers convert faster and provide better feedback. They're also more likely to expand their relationship with you and refer other decision-makers.

Email marketing requires continuous testing and optimization. Test different subject lines and content formats. Track which signals and messages drive the most engagement, then double down on what works. Most importantly, engage your subscribers with personalized messages that match their ever-changing needs.