Definition open rate
Open Rate: The percentage of recipients who open an email compared to the total number of emails delivered. They’re important because A high open rate indicates that the email subject line and sender name are compelling enough to prompt recipients to open the email. It is a critical metric for gauging the initial engagement of email campaigns.
Although since 2021 we’ve had to be a little more careful in the way we look at open rates. Ensuring proxy and bot opens are removed from any success metrics.
How to calculate open rate
How can I influence my OR?
There are various factors that affect email open rate, marketers must constantly improve and test their campaigns to obtain the best results. Here are some things you can tweak to increase email performance.
- Subject line: A strong, relevant, and intriguing subject line can significantly boost open rates.
- Sender name: Familiar and trusted sender names encourage recipients to open emails.
- Preheader text: The preview text that appears next to the subject line can influence the decision to open the email.
- Timing: Sending emails at optimal times and days when recipients are most likely to check their inboxes can improve open rates.
- Segmentation and personalisation: Tailoring emails to specific audience segments increases relevance and engagement.
- Email frequency: Maintaining an appropriate frequency helps in keeping the audience engaged without overwhelming them.
- List quality: Clean and updated email lists with engaged subscribers result in better open rates.
Benchmarking email OR
Benchmarking helps marketers compare their email performance against different industry, email type and regions. Want to compare your performance against your competition? Download our Global 2025 email benchmark report, the report will give you access to:
- The most important email ratios per industry including travel, ecommerce & Retail, Financial, Automotive, and more.
- Email KPIs across B2B and B2C in including open rates (OR), Click-through rates (CTR), Bounce Rates (BR) and more!
- Marketing, Newsletter, and transactional email statistics.
- And more!
Get access to the benchmark here
Strategies to improve email open rate
Crafting compelling subject lines: Use attention-grabbing, relevant, and concise subject lines.
Personalisation: Incorporate the recipient's name or personalized content in the subject line.
Optimising send times: Analyse data to determine the best times and days to send emails.
Segmentation: Divide the email list into segments based on demographics, purchase history, or engagement levels.
Using preheader text: Leverage the preview text to complement the subject line and entice recipients to open the email.
Mobile Optimisation: Design emails that are responsive and look good on all devices.
Tools to improve your email marketing campaigns
Several tools and platforms can help measure and enhance email marketing performance. The three most important tools you need are Marketing Automation Platforms, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)
- Customer relationship management platforms (CRM): Manage customer interactions and provide insights that enable personalized communication and lifecycle marketing. By segmenting customers based on various criteria and focusing on high-potential leads, CRM systems help in crafting emails that are relevant and effective, improving overall email performance.
- Email / Marketing Automation Platforms: Streamline email marketing by automating workflows, conducting A/B tests, and utilizing dynamic content and behavioural triggers.
- Customer Data Platforms (CDP): unify customer data from multiple sources, allowing for detailed customer profiles and targeted segmentation. This ensures emails are timely and contextually relevant, leading to higher engagement and click-through rates.
Integrating or getting an all-in-one platform with Marketing Automation, CDP and CRM ensures a holistic view of the customer, coordinated campaigns, and continuous optimization, resulting in better engagement and higher conversion rates.
Pitfalls of the email open rate
Are open rates on the way out?
They’re increasingly considered unreliable due to several factors.
- Apple Mail Privacy Protection and image blocking lead to inflated or underreported open rates, as do pre-fetching by email clients and bot activity from security systems.
- Multiple device opens can further skew data.
Consequently, marketers are shifting focus to more meaningful metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and overall engagement, which provide a more accurate picture of email campaign effectiveness and recipient interaction.
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