What is Open Rate?

Open Rate

Open rate refers to the metric that measures a total percentage of users, who opened an email out of the total number. In email marketing, the open rate percentage allows seeing the success of an email marketing campaign and the efficiency of subject lines. However, a high open rate doesn’t always mean a high conversion rate because subscribers can be interested in the subject line but still decide not to proceed forward through the sales funnel.

Good and bad open rates

In terms of email marketing, open rates can be divided into two groups, which have “good” and “bad” open rate percentage. A good open rate is considered to be from 15% to 20%, depending on the industry and the type of business. In general, many companies don’t see the value in increasing the number of their open rate percentage above this rate because most businesses won’t see the return of investment. Still, a lower open rate is a signal for business owners to improve their email marketing strategies and the content of their emails, in particular.

Ways to improve open rates

There are several ways for companies to increase their open rates. They include:

Focus lists. Focus lists are essential parts of any marketing strategy, including email marketing. When you know what type of audience is interested in your products and services, you will increase the number of opened emails.

Personalized emails. Another technique in email marketing to increase the number of opened emails is to use some personal interest topics to drag subscriber’s attention. For example, studies show that when you mention hobbies or information regarding the prospect’s company (recent awards or change of the office) they are more likely to open and reply to your letter.

User-friendly format. When you start another email campaign you need to be sure that the content of your email is well-formatted and will be perceived well both on desktop and mobile.

Avoid hard bounces. Open rate percentage is also influenced by invalid emails or emails, which no longer exist. If one wants to receive relevant data regarding their open rates, it is recommended to exclude invalid email addresses from the mailing list.

A/B testing. It is recommended to provide an A/B testing of your subject lines to see the potential efficiency of your upcoming email marketing campaigns.

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