Know Your Numbers
TL;DR:
Three numbers show you how your newsletter is doing: who’s opening it, what they’re clicking, and how long they stick around once they’re in. Here’s how to read all three in 2026, plus what they’re telling you about your students.
Open rate used to be the whole conversation. In 2026, it’s just the movie trailer 🎬
Open rate picked up some new fans
Your open rate has company these days. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, district security scanners, and spam filters all peek at your newsletter automatically, sometimes before a family ever does. That’s not a bad thing, just a good thing to know. A 45% open rate today is measuring a slightly different crowd than it was three years ago. Watch your own trend over time and celebrate the climbs. Just know a sudden jump might be your security software getting curious, not more families tuning in.
Click-through rate is where the cheering happens
Opening a newsletter takes zero effort. Clicking something inside it means a family made a choice. That’s what makes click-through rate so satisfying to watch: it shows you exactly which parts of your message earned attention. A big click rate on the field trip form and a quiet one on the literacy update tells you precisely where to put your energy next time.
Read time tells you if they settled in
An email opened for two seconds is barely an email opened at all. Read time shows you whether families are working through what you sent or breezing past on their way to the next thing. If read time is short and your newsletter is long, that’s useful information: a shorter newsletter next time might get more of a family’s attention.
The number underneath all the numbers
A family who reads your early dismissal reminder picks their kid up on time. A family who clicks through to the reading tips might try one at home that night. The dashboard numbers are just a way to see whether that happened.
P.S. Sending staff communication through Smore for Teams? These same three numbers work just as well on that side. A staff update nobody reads still needs a Plan B before the meeting where everyone pretends they read it. 😅
Want all three tracked for you automatically? Smore’s analytics do the watching so you don’t have to.
