Open Rate
Open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened an email or message out of the total number of messages delivered. This metric shows how appealing the subject line and sender are to the audience.
Most email marketing services calculate this metric automatically using the formula: (number of opens ÷ number of messages delivered) × 100%. For example, if 1,000 emails were delivered and 250 were opened, the open rate would be 25%.
What Affects Open Rate
- Email subject line and sender name: these influence whether recipients open the message.
- Relevance to the recipient’s interests and the timing of the send.
- List quality and domain reputation: emails that land in spam are not read.
- Channel: messages are opened more frequently in messaging apps than in email.
How to Improve It
Segment your recipient list and prepare relevant offers for each segment. Test several email subject lines before sending a mass campaign. Remove inactive subscribers from the list. Whenever possible, replace mass mailings with trigger-based messages that arrive at the most suitable time for each recipient.