Good morning, Chase and Jimmy here!

When it comes to successful email marketing, it's not just about how many people get your emails.

It’s about how many actually care.

This morning's guide breaks down the metrics that actually matter when it comes to email engagement and how to boost them.

From opens and clicks to conversions and unsubscribes, you’ll learn how to diagnose weak spots, segment smarter, and send emails your list wants to open. We'll cover five key engagement metrics, the four subscriber mindsets, and real tactics to drive more clicks.

Also inside:

💡 From 0 to 500k without a dollar on ads
🧳 How storytelling helped one brand achieve 121x ROI
🔥 DTC Wins: A rare Founder-fully owned beauty brand
🤝 Sneak Peek: From List to Loyalty: How Top Brands Build Community

Let’s send it.👇

🧳 Storytelling That Converts: 121x ROI for Vagari Bags

When Jake Hughes launched Vagari Bags, he had the product nailed: premium accessories built for modern travel.

But emails focused on features and discounts weren’t landing. Open rates were low. ROI wasn’t clear. And Klaviyo’s high costs and lack of support didn’t help.

The solution?

Jake switched to Omnisend, rewrote his approach, and made storytelling the core of his strategy.

He shared real customer journeys, signed emails personally, and launched The Vagari Journal, a storytelling hub for his brand.

📈 The results:

• 50% open rates on story-driven emails

• 6–7% click rates on targeted SMS

• £1 spent = £121.38 returned using Omnisend

💡 Knowledge Drop:

From 0 to 500k without a dollar on ads. Chase breaks down how he scaled an email list to half a million subscribers in 10 months using organic channels only.

💪 How to Measure and Improve Your Email Engagement Rate (+ Examples)

You can have the biggest list in the world.

But if no one’s opening, clicking, or converting… it doesn’t mean much.

Engagement tells you how much people interacted with your email (instead of just receiving it).

Below, we’re going to unpack:

• The metrics that matter

• What different engagement levels tell you

• How to measure engagement (the right way)

• Practical tips to boost engagement

Ready? Let’s go!

5 Email Engagement Metrics to Know

Your email analytics show dozens of metrics, but not all of them reflect how engaged your audience really is. Focus on these five to truly understand your engagement:

• Open rate: The % of recipients who opened your email. It’s your first indicator of whether your subject line did its job.

• Click-through rate (CTR): The % of people who clicked on something inside your email. This tells you how well your content and CTAs are performing.

• Conversion rate: The % of people who took action after clicking, like making a purchase or filling a form. Whatever you wanted them to do.

• Bounce rate: The % of emails that didn’t even make it into inboxes. High bounce? Time to clean your list.

• Unsubscribe rate: A few unsubscribes are normal. But if lots of people are peacing out, your emails may be irrelevant, too frequent, or just plain annoying.

The Four Levels of Email Engagement

Not everyone on your list is equally excited about your brand. Knowing where people stand helps you tailor your approach – so you can meet them where they are.

Let’s break down the four typical levels of engagement:

🔥 Highly engaged: They open almost everything, click often, and regularly convert. Focus on rewarding loyalty (e.g. VIP access, exclusive offers, early sneak peeks).

😌 Moderately engaged: They engage now and then but aren’t your biggest fans (yet). Test content formats, cadence, and timing to win them over.

😴 Low engagement: They rarely interact. Use personalization and strong subject lines to recapture their attention – or move them to a re-engagement flow.

💤 Inactive: Haven’t opened or clicked in 6+ months. Time to send a “Still want to hear from us?” email or consider a list clean-up.

How to Measure Engagement (Without Drowning in Data)

Listen: you don’t need fancy dashboards to understand your engagement.

Start with these simple steps:

1. Use the right platform

Start with a platform that automatically tracks data like opens, clicks, conversions, and unsubscribes, and displays them visually in simple dashboards.

Bonus points if your platform lets you:

• Segment your list based on activity

• Trigger automated re-engagement emails

• Run quick A/B tests

• Track engagement over time

This not only helps you track engagement, but also improve it.

2. Set goals for every campaign

Before you hit send, ask: What do I want this email to achieve?

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to bookmark:

Having a clear goal helps you know which metrics to prioritize (and what “success” looks like).

3. Segment and compare

Averages only tell part of the story. If you really want to understand engagement, break down your audience into segments, like:

• New subscribers

• First-time buyers

• Loyal customers

• Inactive users

This helps you see which groups are clicking, converting, or ghosting your emails. Use that to tailor content or timing to each segment.

4. Watch trends, not just one-offs

Always measure engagement metrics over time, not just per email.

One low-performing email doesn’t mean your strategy’s broken. But if engagement is dipping consistently, that’s a sign something needs adjusting.

How to Improve Your Engagement Rate (With Examples)

Once you’ve got a handle on your metrics, it’s time to make them better.

Here’s how to do that:

1. Personalize beyond subscriber names

Adding someone’s first name is a nice start, but real personalization goes deeper.

Use customer data to tailor:

• Product recommendations

• Subject lines and send times

• Content based on browsing or purchase history

• Location-specific offers or events

The more relevant the email feels, the more likely it is to get opened and clicked. Here’s an example from Uniqlo: product recs tailored to your local weather.

Pro Tip: Create dynamic content blocks in your emails based on behavior or tags.

2. Segment your list

Not every subscriber wants the same thing. Segment your audience by behavior, purchase history, engagement level, or customer lifecycle stage.

Some ideas:

• New subscribers → Send an intro series

• Frequent buyers → Highlight loyalty perks or VIP drops

• Inactive users → Trigger a re-engagement flow

When emails feel tailor-made, people respond.

3. Run A/B tests on your emails

Experiment with your content and design to find out what works for your subscribers.

Testing works best when it’s focused. Instead of changing five things at once, test one variable at a time, like:

• Subject line

• CTA button

• Image placement

• Email length

Remember to check the relevant metrics to understand engagement properly. Testing subject lines? Check the open rate. Testing CTAs? Pay attention to the clicks.

4. Make your emails mobile-first

Over 60% of emails are opened on a phone. If yours aren’t mobile-friendly, engagement tanks.

Keep things easy to read and tap:

• Use a single-column layout

• Make buttons large and clickable

• Keep paragraphs short and scannable

• Use alt text for all images

Pro Tip: Preview your emails on mobile and fix any layout or readability issues before sending.

5. Simplify your design and messaging

People don’t have a lot of time, so your email should do its job in under 10 seconds. That means:

• A clear, eye-catching headline

• One main CTA (not five)

• Supporting visuals that don’t overwhelm

• White space to break up text

Clutter can confuse the reader, but simplicity converts.

6. Optimize your send times

Obviously, don’t send emails when your customers are snoozing. But even during the day, there’s no “perfect” time to send.

Use past campaigns to identify when your audience tends to open and click. Then test small time shifts to find the sweet spot.

Some tools also offer AI send time optimization to automatically send your emails at the best time based on behavior, patterns, and other factors.

7. Re-engage the sleepy subscribers

Some subscribers will always drift. But before you give up, try winning them back.

Send a “We miss you” email, offer a small incentive, or ask them what kind of content they want to receive. You might be surprised who comes back.

Graza takes a different approach by asking past customers if they want a “refill”:

Final Thoughts

Here’s what really matters when it comes to email engagement:

✅ Track the right stuff, like opens, clicks, conversions, bounces, and unsubscribes.

✅ Personalize + segment. Talk to the right people with the right message.

✅ Test often. Small tweaks (like subject lines or send times) can make a big impact.

✅ Design for humans. Keep it simple, clear, and easy to read on any screen.

Stick to these, and you’ll be well on your way to emails that actually get noticed (and acted on).

🤝 Sneak Peek: From List to Loyalty: How Top Brands Build Community

A big list doesn’t equal a strong brand.

In next week's episode of Send It, we’re breaking down how to go from passive subscribers to an active, engaged community that fuels retention and growth.

If you’ve ever wondered how to move from one-way marketing to multi-directional, passion-fueled connection, this episode’s for you.

You’ll learn:

• The real difference between a subscriber list and a brand community

• How to use email and SMS as your community foundation

• Frameworks for intentional community design (not just random Discord groups)

• Ways to integrate community-building into your existing retention strategy

🛎️ Subscribe to the channel and tap the bell to catch every new drop.

🔥 DTC Wins

Huda Kattan is officially back in full control. After buying out the minority stake in Huda Beauty, she’s reclaimed 100% ownership of the brand she started in 2013. This move makes Huda Beauty one of the rare, founder-fully-owned brands in the beauty space.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

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