Open rate is the first thing most people check after a send — and the most misunderstood. A “good” rate depends on your industry and list, and the way opens are measured changed in recent years. Here’s how to read the number, and what actually moves it.
Averages vary widely by sector and list quality. Use these as a rough yardstick — then beat your own number over time.
Figures are typical industry averages and move year to year. Because privacy features now inflate opens, treat these as a starting line, not gospel — and watch clicks too.
Drop in the numbers from your last send to see your open rate, click rate and click-to-open — and how they stack up against the average.
Benchmarks shown are typical all-industry averages. Your own trend matters more than any single number.
Open rate vs. ~21.5% average
If your opens jumped or look oddly high, you’re not imagining it — the way opens are measured changed.
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection pre-loads images, registering an “open” even when nobody read the email. Reported opens skew high as a result.
A click is a deliberate action no privacy proxy fakes. Pair opens with clicks (and sales or replies) for a real engagement read.
You can’t control privacy proxies — but you fully control these. Improve one at a time and re-measure.
A small list of people who want your email beats a big stale one. Remove dead addresses and re-engage or drop the never-openers. Start with list building done right.
Specific, short, honest — the single biggest controllable factor. Grab ideas from 50 subject line examples.
Send from a recognisable name, stay consistent, and avoid spammy content so inboxes learn to trust you.
The more targeted the email, the more it gets opened. Send the right thing to the right slice of your list.
Show up consistently when your audience opens — not so often you annoy, not so rarely they forget. See the best time to send.
BrandBits reports the open and click rate for every campaign, so you can see which subject lines, segments and send times lift your numbers — and keep a clean, healthy list that inboxes trust.