Email marketing is one of the most effective ways for real estate agents to connect with clients, nurture leads, and stay top-of-mind. But how do you know if your emails are actually working?
Tracking key email marketing metrics reveals what’s working and what isn’t, helping you refine your strategy. Are your subject lines grabbing attention? Are recipients engaging with your property listings? Are unsubscribes increasing? By analyzing the right data, you can fine-tune your approach, improve engagement, and turn more emails into real business opportunities.
To simplify the process, we’ve created a free downloadable tracker that helps you monitor essential email marketing metrics. Whether you want to measure performance over time or need a quick reference for benchmarks, this resource will keep you on track.
Let’s explore the most important email metrics every real estate agent should track—and how to use them to optimize your email marketing strategy.
Email marketing metrics that matter and benchmarks to measure success
Monitoring the right email marketing metrics is key to optimizing your strategy and increasing engagement. By analyzing these essential performance indicators, you can fine-tune your approach, boost response rates, and achieve better results. Below, we’ll explore the most critical email metrics, their importance, and the benchmarks that define success.
1. Open rate
Measures: The percentage of recipients who open your email.
Your open rate is the first sign of whether your email marketing is working. If people aren’t opening your emails, they’re never going to engage with your listings, market updates, or calls to action. A strong open rate means:
- Your subject lines are compelling. If your subject lines don’t grab attention, your email is likely to be ignored or even deleted.
- Recipients recognize and trust you. A familiar and trusted sender name increases the likelihood of your email being opened.
What’s a good open rate?
For real estate emails, a 35-40% open rate is a solid benchmark.
- 20%+ → A decent open rate, but there’s room for improvement.
- 35-40% → Strong open rate, indicating good subject line engagement.
- Below 15% → Likely a problem with subject lines, sender reputation, or email list quality.
Pro tip: A/B test different subject lines that way you can see what resonates best with your audience. Personalization (e.g., “Angela, See What’s Happening in Your Neighborhood”) and curiosity-driven phrasing can boost open rates.
2. Click-through rate (CTR)
Measures: The percentage of recipients who click on a link inside your email.
Opening an email is just the first step—the real goal is driving action. Your CTR measures how effective your email is at generating engagement, whether that means clicking on a new property listing, signing up for a consultation, or downloading a market report.
A high CTR indicates that:
- Your content is relevant and engaging to your audience.
- Your call-to-action (CTA) is compelling enough to make recipients click.
- Your email layout and design are easy to navigate, leading people naturally toward action.
A low CTR suggests that recipients aren’t finding your emails useful enough to take the next step.
What’s a good CTR?
- 2%-5%+ → Industry standard for real estate emails.
- Above 5% → Excellent engagement.
- Below 1% → Indicates a need for stronger calls-to-action (CTAs) or more relevant content.
Pro tip: Use clear and compelling CTAs like “View the latest listings” or “Schedule a consultation” to encourage clicks. Personalized property recommendations or market insights can also increase engagement.
3. Unsubscribe rate
Measures: The percentage of recipients who opt out of your email list after receiving a campaign.
A few unsubscribes here and there are normal, but if too many people are leaving your list, it suggests that:
- Emails are too frequent.
- Content isn’t relevant.
- Subject lines are misleading.
- The audience wasn’t targeted.
A well-maintained email list should be full of engaged subscribers, people who want to receive your updates, read your content, and take action on your emails.
What’s a good unsubscribe rate?
- Below 0.5% → Healthy list, your emails are relevant.
- 0.5% – 1% → Average, but adjustments may be needed.
- Above 1% → A red flag, time to refine your strategy.
Pro tip: Segment your list to ensure emails are tailored to recipient needs. For example, first-time homebuyers may want educational content, while sellers might prefer market updates.
4. Bounce Rate
Measures: The percentage of emails that fail to reach recipients’ inboxes.
Even the best email marketing strategy won’t work if your emails never arrive. A high bounce rate is a warning sign that your emails aren’t getting delivered, and if left unchecked, it can damage your sender reputation, making it even harder for future emails to reach inboxes.
A high bounce rate can lead to:
- Emails being flagged as spam, reducing visibility in inboxes.
- Lower email deliverability, meaning fewer people actually see your content.
- A poor sender reputation, which can cause email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail and Outlook to block your messages.
Keeping your bounce rate low ensures that your emails consistently land in front of your target audience—whether they’re potential buyers, sellers, or past clients.
Two types of email bounces:
- Soft bounces (temporary issues) – These occur when an email can’t be delivered due to temporary problems like a full inbox, server issues, or spam filters.
- Solution: Monitor addresses that repeatedly soft bounce—if it happens multiple times, consider removing them. Some email platforms will attempt to resend before marking them as undeliverable.
- Hard bounces (permanent failures) – These happen when an email is permanently undeliverable due to an invalid email address, a closed account, or a non-existent domain.
- Solution: Immediately remove hard bounce addresses from your list to protect your sender reputation. Using an email verification tool before sending campaigns can help prevent hard bounces.
What’s a good bounce rate?
- Below 2% → Ideal for maintaining email deliverability.
Pro tip: Regularly clean your email list by removing invalid addresses and inactive subscribers. Using a double opt-in process can also ensure that your list remains accurate.
5. Email deliverability rate
Measures: The percentage of emails that successfully land in recipients’ inboxes (rather than getting blocked, filtered into spam, or ending up in the promotions folders).
Even the best-crafted email campaigns are useless if they never reach the inbox. If your email deliverability rate is low, you’re losing valuable opportunities to connect with buyers, sellers, and potential clients.
A poor deliverability rate can lead to:
- Lower engagement – Your audience never sees your emails.
- Poor sender reputation – Email providers may label your emails as spam.
- Missed business opportunities – Listings, market updates, and offers go unseen.
By improving email deliverability, you ensure your emails are actually read and acted upon, increasing your chances of converting leads.
What’s a good email deliverability rate?
- 95%+ → Excellent! Your emails are landing in inboxes.
- Below 90% → A concern. May indicate spam issues.
Pro tips:
- Use a reputable email service provider (ESP)