Hit 10,000 email subscribers and my open rate tanked overnight

I finally reached 10,000 subscribers on my mailing list last Tuesday. Thought I was doing great until my open rate dropped from 42% to 28% in one day. Turns out I had a ton of inactive people from old giveaways dragging the numbers down. I had to run a re-engagement campaign to clean things out. Anyone else hit a milestone that made their stats look worse instead of better?

3 comments

3 Comments

max2231mo ago

Hitting 10K but having your open rate drop is pretty normal lol. You're actually in a better spot now because you know who's really engaged versus who just grabbed a freebie from a giveaway two years ago. A 28% open rate on 10K actually means more active eyes than 42% on a 2K list if those extra people were just dead weight. Think of it this way - you could've kept that inflated 42% forever by never cleaning house, but then you'd be pumping content into a black hole of fake numbers. This is a good problem to have, promise.

fiona_kim1mo ago

10K list with 28% open would be 2800 people actually reading.

hannah3201mo ago

Geez, I gotta say I think people overblow this whole open rate thing. I get that cleaning your list matters but a drop from 42 to 28 percent in one day sounds like maybe your subject lines or send time got changed too. I'd look closer at what you sent that day before blaming all those giveaway people. How long did you wait before calling it a re-engagement campaign?