Open Rate: How to Determine If It's Good
Open rate is a key metric in email marketing that reflects the percentage of emails opened by recipients out of the total number of delivered messages. It indicates the level of audience engagement with the email and the effectiveness of the subject line.
This metric is usually used in conjunction with others, such as click rate, conversion rate, etc. Open and click rates are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns for different subscriber groups. A high open rate suggests that the email subject lines are engaging. Good click rates indicate that the email content is interesting to those who open it.
Average open and click rates vary depending on the audience, industry, business size, and other factors. Many email marketing platforms provide reports on campaign performance. Be sure to analyze these reports, consider what might have influenced the results, and conduct tests to achieve the best possible metrics.
How to Calculate Open Rate
The formula for calculating the open rate is simple: divide the number of opened emails by the number of delivered emails and multiply the result by 100%.
Example: Let's say you sent an email campaign to a list of 1,000 subscribers, and 200 of them opened the email. The open rate is calculated as follows: (200 opened emails / 1,000 delivered emails) × 100% = 20%.
There are two types of open rate:
Overall open rate: This considers all email opens, regardless of how many times the same subscriber opens the email.
Unique open rate: This shows the number of unique users who opened the email at least once.
Note: The unique open rate is a more accurate indicator of how much your audience is interested in your email campaign.
Is Your Email's Open Rate Good? How to Determine
A high open rate clearly indicates that your email campaign is engaging to your subscribers. Users are more likely to open emails that they find useful and relevant.
There are many studies online about average open rates across different industries. For example, Campaign Monitor reports an average open rate of 21.5%, while HubSpot cites 38.49% (data from 2023) across all industries. However, open rates vary depending on the industry:
Real Estate: 41.6%
Healthcare: 41.2%
Finance: 41.4%
Legal: 39%
Sales: 40%
Construction: 33.9%
IT: 33.5%
You can find a complete list of industries here.
But don't be discouraged if your open rate is below the industry average. Many factors affect it, from the content theme to the quality of your subscriber list.
Here are a few tips for effectively analyzing your open rate:
Monitor trends: A declining open rate often signals waning interest in your emails. Analyzing these fluctuations can help you identify which topics resonate more with your audience.
Track open rates over time: This will help you uncover long-term trends and patterns.
What Influences Email Open Rates
Open rates are affected by numerous factors, and as a marketer, you can control some of them, but not all.
Factors Controlled by the Marketer:
- Subject line. A catchy and intriguing subject line is key to getting your email opened. However, avoid overdoing the intrigue—if the subject is too cryptic, recipients might not understand what the email is about and skip it.
- Preheader. The additional information below the sender's address should be enticing enough to encourage the recipient to open the email.
Send day. Identify when your subscribers are most active and schedule your emails on those days.
Segmentation. Group your subscribers based on their interests to send highly relevant content.
Frequency of emails. Don't overwhelm your subscribers, but also don't let them forget about you. Typically, 1-2 emails per week is optimal, but this can vary depending on your project and financial resources.
Send time. Consider time zones and your audience's daily routine. For example, they may not want to read emails about market research on a Friday evening.
Subscriber expectations. Set clear expectations for what your subscribers will receive in the email to avoid disappointment. Unnecessary unpredictability can turn them off.
Factors Beyond the Marketer's Control:
Seasonality. During certain times of the year, people may be less active with their email.
Industry. In some industries, email open rates are traditionally higher than in others (for example, HubSpot data shows lower open rates in IT compared to real estate).
Traffic quality. If your website attracts non-targeted traffic, it can negatively impact the quality of your subscriber base, and consequently, your email open rates.
How to Increase Open Rate
If you believe your open rate is too low for your industry, there are ways to improve it.
Test Subject Lines
The best way to understand your audience is through experimentation. Note: the optimal subject length is usually between 10 to 20 characters. Longer ones tend to be opened less frequently. . A concise and informative subject line is good, but try different approaches to find the perfect one:
- Add some intrigue: Use A/B testing to select the best option.
- Create a sense of urgency: These subject lines stand out and encourage action.
- Take a more personal approach: Address the subscriber by name or mention their city. Personalization grabs attention and increases the likelihood of the email being opened.
Highlight the benefit: Promise something valuable in the email, like a free guide or even a book.
Intrigue with "mistakes" (cautiously): Sometimes, a typo in the subject line can catch attention, but don't overdo it.
Try emojis: They catch the eye and can increase the open rate if they fit the subject's context.
Segment Your Audience
Who are your subscribers? What are they interested in? If you send the same content to sales reps, store owners, and regular customers, you risk losing them—they likely want different things. Segment your subscribers by interests, location, or activity to send relevant emails. Audience segmentation increases the effectiveness of your campaigns and strengthens subscriber trust.
Adjust Sending Frequency
Are you sending emails every hour or once every three months? The optimal frequency depends on your goals. If your open rate is below average despite tested subject lines and segmentation, try adjusting the frequency. Remember, the more often you send emails, the lower the engagement may become.
Find a balance and assess your capacity. How many quality emails can you realistically prepare each week? Don’t set yourself unachievable goals. Consider the specifics of your business sector. In B2C, daily emails may work, while in B2B, it’s usually best to limit to 1-2 times per week.
Monitor your subscribers' reactions. Analyze how the frequency of your emails affects the number of unsubscribes.
It's also important to look at the bigger picture. Don’t focus solely on the open rates of individual emails. Calculate the total number of openings over a month. Sometimes increasing the number of emails, even with a lower open rate, can lead to a higher overall view count.
Work on the First Impression
When a subscriber receives an email, they immediately see the sender's name, subject line, and preheader. You have just a few seconds to intrigue them and prompt them to open the email. The sender’s name can be as important as the subject line. Use your company name or the name of the newsletter author. The subscriber should immediately recognize who the email is from.
Pay attention to your preheaders. The preheader is a short line of text that follows the subject line. It can play a crucial role in sparking interest and increasing opens. Don’t leave the preheader empty—the email client will fill it in automatically, but probably not with something that interests the subscriber (usually, it’s random text from the email or even a link to social media).
Check Your Mailing List
Regularly cleaning your subscriber list of inactive and invalid addresses is essential for effective email marketing. The fewer inactive recipients, the higher your open rate, click-through rate, and conversion.
Old, deleted, incorrect, full inboxes, as well as users who have unsubscribed or reported your emails as spam — these are all dead weight that negatively impacts your campaigns.
If you send emails to inactive addresses, you risk being marked as spam. Email providers dislike companies sending emails to poor-quality lists and may flag you as an unreliable sender.
To minimize the chance of invalid addresses getting into your list from the start, use double opt-in. This requires users to confirm their subscription by clicking a link in the welcome email, filtering out bots, uninterested users, and incorrect addresses.
Don’t forget about regular list cleaning. Remove inactive subscribers who haven’t opened your emails for a long time (e.g., more than 3 months). Before deleting them, you can try to reactivate them by sending a special email asking them to confirm their interest in your newsletter. If there’s no response, go ahead and remove the contact.
Don't Ignore What's Inside the Email
Yes, the content itself can affect the open rate. A poorly formatted email is a surefire way to end up in the spam folder. The chances of it being opened there are almost zero, rendering your campaign pointless.
Let’s look at the main mistakes to avoid:
The email consists entirely of an image. Always add text to your images. This will reduce the chances of your email ending up in spam.
Using redirects or link shorteners. Spammers often use these to mask the download of malicious software or to lead to dangerous sites. Include full links instead.
Large email size or attachments. Small emails easily pass through spam filters and reach subscribers' inboxes. Aim to keep your email under 100 KB. Avoid large attachments.
Too many fonts or the use of ALL CAPS. Spammers often use bright colors and varied fonts. Stick to two text colors. Don’t overuse capital letters and exclamation marks.
No unsubscribe option. An unsubscribe link is required by all email providers. If users can’t unsubscribe from your emails, they will likely end up in spam.
No alt tags for images. Alt tags are the text displayed if an image doesn't load or is turned off. They are necessary to convey the message even when images are unavailable. Make sure to include alt tags for every image in your email.
CTOR — What is It?
CTOR (Click-to-Open Rate) is a metric that shows the percentage of subscribers who clicked on links, buttons, or banners within an email after opening it. Some marketers consider this the most important metric, as it helps you track how interesting and relevant each email is.
The main difference between CTOR and click rate is that CTOR only accounts for clicks made in emails that were already opened. Click rate, on the other hand, is calculated as the ratio of the total number of clicks to the total number of emails sent. Typically, CTOR is higher than the click rate.
Formula for calculating CTOR:
Conclusion
The open rate is a key metric in email marketing that shows the percentage of emails opened by recipients. The higher this rate, the more subscribers are showing interest in your emails, indicating that your campaigns are more effective. This metric reflects the success of your email subject lines, the relevance of the content to your target audience, and the overall quality of your email marketing strategy.
By analyzing the open rate, you can understand how compelling your subject lines are, whether your offer is interesting to subscribers, and if you are segmenting your list correctly.