Do you want to increase the number of people who open your emails? If your answer is yes, then it’s crucial to focus on your email open rate. Your email open rate measures the percentage of recipients who open the emails you send. It serves as a vital benchmark in email marketing, allowing you to assess the effectiveness of your overall strategy.
Do you want to know what makes a good email open rate? And how can you make it even better? In this blog post, we will answer these questions and more. We will discuss the average open rates for different industries, how to calculate open rates, what an open rate is, and why benchmark open rates are important. By understanding these concepts, you will be able to evaluate your email campaigns and find ways to improve your open rates. So, let’s get started!
Are you ready to uncover the secrets to improving your email open rates? Let’s dive right in!
Understanding the Importance of Email Open Rates
The email open rate shows how much your subscribers like your brand and content. A high open rate means your subject lines are good and make your audience want to open your emails. On the other hand, a low open rate means your emails may be ignored or not interesting for your subscribers, which can make them less likely to click, buy, or earn money for you. Therefore, by making your email open rate better as part of your email marketing plan, you can get more people to open your emails and do better.
The Frustration of Low Email Open Rates
Imagine you spend hours crafting the perfect email campaign for your audience. You write engaging copy, design attractive visuals, and include a clear call to action. You hit send and wait for the results. But then you check your email analytics and see that only a fraction of your subscribers opened your email. The rest ignored it or deleted it without even giving it a chance. How would you feel? Frustrated? Disappointed? Discouraged? You’re not alone. Many email marketers struggle with low email open rates that hurt their conversions and revenue. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Data and Facts About Email Open Rates
Before we start with the tips and best ways to make your email open rate higher, it is very important to know some important numbers and facts about email open rates. Mailchimp says that the average email open rate for all kinds of businesses is 21.33%. But this number is not the same all the time. It can change based on things like what kind of business you have, who your audience is, and what kind of email you send. HubSpot’s research shows that the average email open rate is different for different kinds of businesses. It goes from 19% for the Computer & Electronics business to 26% for Real Estate and Construction.
To check your email open rates with these business examples, you must watch and measure your email marketing using a good platform like Salesforce Marketing Cloud. After you know your email open rate well, you can compare it with the business average to see how you are doing. If you see that your open rate is lower than the business average, there are many good ways you can use to make your results better.
Some helpful ways to make your email open rate higher are putting your subscribers into groups, using subject lines with their names, making your email list new, and sending emails on workdays and after lunch. By following these tips and best ways, you can make your email marketing better and get better results.
Email Open Rate Formula
The email open rate is a way to measure how many people open your emails. To calculate it, you divide the number of emails opened by the total number of emails delivered, minus any bounced emails.
Here’s the formula:
Email Open Rate = (Total Emails Opened / (Total Emails Delivered – Bounced Emails)) * 100
This formula provides a percentage value representing the proportion of recipients who opened your email.
Email Open Rate Definition
The email open rate is a percentage that shows how many people open an email out of the total number of emails sent. It is a measure of how well your subject line, sender reputation, and email content are performing.
A high email open rate means that people are interested in what you have to say. A low email open rate means that people are not interested in what you have to say.
Email Benchmark Open Rate
Benchmark open rates serve as reference points to assess the performance of your email campaigns within specific industries. These benchmarks can vary depending on factors such as industry, audience, and email type. By comparing your open rates to industry benchmarks, you can gauge the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts and identify areas for improvement.
Strategies to Improve Your Email Open Rates
Segment Your List for Targeted Messaging
Segmenting your email list means dividing your subscribers into different groups based on things like their age, interests, and likes. This lets you send different messages that fit with each group. By changing your content to match what each group wants and needs, you make your emails more important and much more likely to be opened and clicked on.
Here are some ways to segment your email list:
- By age: You can send different messages to young people, middle-aged people, and older people. For example, you could send a message about a new video game to young people, a message about a new retirement plan to middle-aged people, and a message about a new senior citizen discount to older people.
- By interests: You can send different messages to people who are interested in different things. For example, you could send a message about a new book to people who are interested in reading, a message about a new movie to people who are interested in movies, and a message about a new video game to people who are interested in video games.
- By likes: You can send different messages to people who like different things. For example, you could send a message about a new sale to people who like shopping, a message about a new contest to people who like contests, and a message about a new giveaway to people who like free stuff.
Make Your Emails Personal
Personalization is important to get your subscribers’ attention. Use changing content and merge tags to make your emails fit each recipient. Saying subscribers’ names and giving them different suggestions or deals can make your email open rates much better.
Here are some ways to personalize your emails:
- Use the recipient’s name: When you address your subscribers by name, it makes your emails feel more personal and increases the chances of them being opened.
- Use merge tags: Merge tags are special codes that you can use to insert personal information into your emails. For example, you could use a merge tag to insert the recipient’s name into the subject line or body of the email.
- Send targeted content: Send content that is relevant to the recipient’s interests. This will make your emails more valuable to the recipient and increase the chances of them being opened.
- Offer incentives: Offer incentives to encourage recipients to open your emails. For example, you could offer a discount, a free gift, or a chance to win a prize.
Write Interesting and Strong Subject Lines
Subject lines are the first thing people see when they get an email. They are important because they decide if someone will open your email or not. Here are some tips for writing interesting and strong subject lines:
- Use curiosity to make people want to open your email. You can do this by asking a question, using a teaser, or giving a hint about what’s in the email.
- Use urgency to make people feel like they need to open your email right away. You can do this by using words like “limited time,” “offer ends soon,” or “act now.”
- Use personalization to make people feel like you are talking to them specifically. You can do this by using their name in the subject line or by referring to something they have done in the past.
Here are some examples of strong subject lines:
- Subject: Curious? Click here to find out!
- Subject: Offer ends soon! Get yours today.
- Subject: Hi [name], I have something special for you.
Test Different Things
Testing different things, such as subject lines, send times, and how often you send emails, can help you figure out what works best for your audience. You can do A/B tests to compare different versions of your emails and improve your open rates.
For example, you can test different subject lines to see which one gets the most opens. You can also test different send times to see when your subscribers are most likely to open your emails. And you can test how often you send emails to see how often is too often or not often enough.
By testing different things, you can learn what works best for your audience and improve your email marketing results.
Follow Good Rules for Deliverability
To make sure your emails get to your subscribers’ inboxes, it’s important to follow good rules for deliverability. Here are a few tips:
- Don’t use words that trigger spam. There are a few words that are commonly used in spam emails, and if you use them in your subject lines or email content, your emails may be marked as spam.
- Make your email content good for mobile devices. More and more people are reading emails on their mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your emails look good and are easy to read on mobile devices.
- Prove your email domain. When you prove your email domain, you’re telling email providers that you’re a legitimate sender. This can help your emails get to your subscribers’ inboxes.
Clean Up Your Email List Often
It is very important to have a clean email list if you want to make your open rates higher. So, you should take out subscribers who never open your emails or have email addresses that don’t work from your list. This way, you can keep a good engagement rate and make sure your emails get to your subscribers’ inboxes better.
Conclusion
Your email open rate is how many people open your emails. A high open rate is good, and a low open rate is not so good. You can improve your open rate by writing good subject lines, personalizing your emails, and sending relevant content.
Here are some key points to remember:
- Your email open rate shows how much interest and engagement your subscribers have.
- The average email open rate changes by industry, audience, and email type.
- The email open rate formula helps you find out the percentage of recipients who opened your email.
- Email benchmark open rates give you examples for checking your performance.
- Some ways to boost email open rates are: group subscribers, use names, make subject lines interesting, test things, follow email rules, and clean list often.
If you improve your email marketing, you’ll improve your open rates, engagement, and overall success. So, it’s worth the time to improve your email marketing.
Use these tips to make the most of your email marketing campaigns.
Resources for email open rate
The resources below provide helpful information for learning more about email open rates across industries.
- Email Marketing Statistics and Benchmarks by Industry. The highest open rates are found in government-related emails, with an open rate of 28.77%.
- Email Open Rates By Industry (& Other Top Email Stats). What is the average email open rate for internet and telecom companies? The average open rate for the internet and telecom category is 39.13%.
- What is open rate? According to Mailchimp benchmark reports, which include both small and Fortune 500 clients, email open rates average between 15% and 30% across most industries.
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