Email Marketing Term
What is Open Rate?
The percentage of email recipients who open a specific email campaign.
Open rate is calculated by dividing the number of unique opens by the number of emails delivered (not sent), then multiplying by 100. For example, if you send 1,000 emails, 950 are delivered, and 190 are opened, your open rate is 20%.
Open rates are a key metric for measuring email subject line effectiveness. However, they've become less reliable since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (2021) pre-fetches emails, artificially inflating open rates for Apple Mail users.
Industry average open rates typically range from 15-25%, though this varies significantly by industry, list quality, and email type. Welcome emails often see 50%+ open rates, while promotional emails average lower.
Examples
- A 25% open rate means 1 in 4 recipients opened your email
- Welcome emails typically achieve 50-60% open rates
- Re-engagement campaigns may see 10-15% open rates
Tips for Open Rate
- ✓Focus on subject line optimization to improve open rates
- ✓Send at optimal times for your audience
- ✓Segment your list for more relevant messaging
- ✓Consider Apple MPP impact when analyzing metrics
Related Terms
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of email recipients who click on one or more links in an email.
Email Deliverability
The ability to successfully deliver emails to recipients' inboxes rather than spam folders.
Subject Line
The text that appears in the recipient's inbox describing the email's content or purpose.
Preheader Text
The preview text that appears after the subject line in email clients, providing additional context.
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