If you want to improve the results of your email marketing campaigns, you first need to understand how they’re performing. Open rate and click rate are two important metrics that help you understand how well your emails are working and how engaged your audience is.
Your email open rate tells you the percentage of recipients who opened your email, while your email click rate reveals the percentage who clicked on a link.
In this post, we’ll explain more about open rate and click rate metrics, what they mean, and why they matter.
But more importantly, we’ll provide you with practical strategies and techniques to boost both of these metrics and improve the performance of your email campaigns.
How do you calculate email open rate?
Your email open rate measures the number of recipients who opened your email, out of the total number of emails delivered.
Calculating your email open rate is relatively straightforward – all you need to do is divide the number of unique opens by the total number of emails sent and present the figure in a percentage format.
As an example, let’s assume you sent an email to your list of 10,000 subscribers, and 2,100 of them opened the email. Your email open rate would be 2100 divided by 10,000, represented as a percentage, so in this case, 21%.
Monitoring your open rate is important because it gives you valuable insights into how effective your subject lines and email previews are at capturing attention and encouraging subscribers to open your emails.
However, while open rates can provide a helpful indication of email engagement, it’s worth noting that they’re not always 100% reliable. For example, some email clients may not load images initially, which can prevent your tracking pixel from triggering – preventing opens from being reported accurately.
Despite the issues with accuracy, monitoring your email open rate is still valuable, as it provides a benchmark for measuring the effectiveness of your subject lines and email previews, and enables you to make data-driven decisions to improve your email performance.
What is a good open rate for email?
Now that we’ve established how to calculate your email open rate, you might be wondering what would be considered a good benchmark to aim for.
According to research by Mailchimp, the average email open rate across all sectors and industries sits at 34.2%
However, it’s important to recognize that this benchmark figure is likely to vary significantly based on the nature of your business and the type of audience you’re targeting.
For example, B2B companies often see different average open rates to B2C businesses, and there can also be significant variations in email open rate across different industries.
If your business is in the computer and electronics industry, the average open rate for emails is 26.89%, whereas businesses in the restaurant sector might expect to see open rates closer to 40%.
If you’re looking to get an idea of benchmark open rate by industry, Mailchimp has a handy list that might help.
What are the factors that influence your open rate?
Once you’ve been able to establish how your email open rate compares to your industry average, you’re able to take steps to optimise and improve it.
Pay attention to the quality of your email list
The quality and relevance of your email list have a huge impact on your open rate.
If your list contains a high number of inactive or unengaged subscribers, your open rates are likely to suffer. Regularly cleaning your list to remove any invalid addresses and people who haven’t engaged with your emails for a period of time can help improve your open rates.
Work on the strength of your subject line
Your subject line is the first thing recipients see in their inbox, so it needs to be compelling and engaging.
A strong subject line that makes subscribers curious or creates a sense of urgency can encourage more people to open your emails.
Monitor and optimise the timing of your email
The day of the week and the time of day you send your emails can also impact your email open rates.
This is likely to be different for every business and can even vary across different segments of your audience, so it’s important to experiment with different sending times.
Craft a compelling email content preview
Most email clients display a preview of your email content alongside the subject line.
Having a preview that complements your subject line and entices readers to open your email can help improve your email open rates.
Optimise your sender reputation and deliverability
Your sender reputation and email deliverability can also influence your email open rate.
If your emails regularly bounce or get marked as spam, your sender reputation may suffer, making it harder for your emails to reach subscriber inboxes – directly impacting your open rate.
What is email click rate and click-through rate?
You might have heard the terms “click rate” and “email click-through rate” used interchangeably.
However, it’s important to understand that these are actually two distinct metrics in email marketing which provide insights into different areas of your email performance.
Your email click rate refers to the percentage of subscribers who clicked on any link or content within your email out of the total number of emails delivered. It’s best used to provide an overview of how engaging your email is as a whole, taking into account factors like your subject line, preview text, and email content.
On the other hand, email click-through rate (CTR), also known as click-to-open rate (CTOR), measures the percentage of subscribers who clicked on a link or content within your email out of those who actually opened the email.
This metric provides better insights into how engaging, relevant, and persuasive your email content is, as it only considers the actions of those who opened it.
So, in summary, your click rate helps you measure the overall effectiveness of your email, while your click-through rate enables you to measure the performance of your email content specifically.
What is a good email click rate and email click-through rate?
It’s difficult to provide an accurate benchmark for email click rate and email click-through rate, as both metrics are influenced by a wide number of factors, including the purpose of your email, the way it’s designed, the industry you operate in, the cost of your products or service, and the relevance of your email for the people that receive it.
For example, a promotional email with a strong call-to-action would be expected to deliver a higher click-through rate than a general email newsletter.
But the same promotional email would have differing click-through rates if you sent it to your entire email list, compared to a specific segment of your list that would find your offer most relevant
You might also expect a stronger click-through rate for lower-value ‘impulse’ products or services, with higher value purchases that require more consideration having a lower click-through rate.
However, if you’re looking for an indication of what a general click rate might be, a study by Constant Contact found that the average click rate across all industries is 8.74%.
Factors that influence your email click rate and click-through rate
There are a number of key areas you can work on if you’re looking for how to increase click rate in email marketing.
There’s a bit of an overlap between the factors that influence your open rate and the factors that influence your click rate – such as the quality of your list, your subject line, your preview content and your sender reputation.
So, let’s examine the aspects of your email content that can influence your subscribers’ clickthrough.
Relevance of content
The more relevant and targeted your email content is to your subscribers, the higher the likelihood they will click on the links within your email – which makes email customization important.
Clear CTAs
Including clear, compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) in your emails is important for encouraging subscribers to click through.
Email design and mobile optimization
A clean, visually appealing email design that is easy for subscribers to read and engage with can help improve your click-through rate.
It’s also important to make sure your customized emails are optimised for mobile devices, as more than half of emails are estimated to be opened on mobiles.
Link placement
Links placed ‘above the fold’ – such as in the hero section of your email, are more likely to be seen by everyone that opens your email.
If you only have your CTA buttons at the end of your email, only subscribers who scroll through all your content will see them.
6 tips to improve your email open rate and click rate
Now you understand the importance of email open rates and click rates and the factors that influence them, let’s take a look at how you can improve these metrics.
By implementing the following tips and techniques can improve your email marketing performance, resulting in higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
1. Craft compelling subject lines
To help improve your email open rates, it’s important to craft subject lines that are relevant, engaging, and compelling.
You should ideally aim for subject lines that are around 50 characters or fewer. This helps ensure that your entire subject line is shown across different devices and email clients, and it also makes it easier for your subscribers to quickly scan and understand the topic of your email.
It’s always worth testing different approaches and techniques to help improve engagement and improve your email open rates.
For example, asking a relevant, thought-provoking question in your email subject line can help create a sense of curiosity and encourage subscribers to open your email to find the answer.
Another popular technique is creating a sense of urgency or scarcity, which taps into your subscribers’ fear of missing out (FOMO)—although this approach should be used sparingly.
But perhaps the most important technique to trial is personalisation, such as dynamically inserting each subscriber’s name into your email subject line. People are naturally drawn to mentions of their own name, and personalisation can also make your emails feel more tailored and relevant.
If you’re looking for a more in-depth guide, take a look at our article on choosing a subject line.
2. Segment your email lists
Segmenting your email list involves dividing your subscribers into smaller, more targeted segments based on their shared characteristics, interests or preferences.
By sending tailored content to each segment, you’re able to deliver more relevant emails to your subscribers – which is likely to result in higher email open rates and click-through rates
You can segment your email lists in various ways, including age, gender, location, purchase history, behaviour on your website, or engagement with previous emails.
Your approach to segmentation will depend heavily on your business’s needs and the customer details you have available.
But to fully appreciate the benefits of email list segmentation, you need to be working with a platform that enables you to easily create, manage and edit different subscriber lists.
Simplelists makes email segmentation easy, with a wide range of features designed to help you efficiently manage your email lists.
3. A/B test your emails
It’s important not to make assumptions about which subject line will likely have the best open rate for your audience, or which layout for your customized emails is likely to deliver the best click-through rate.
A/B testing allows you to create two slightly different versions of your email and send each of them to a portion of your list. You can then make data-driven decisions about what works best for your audience.
Some elements you might consider testing include your subject line, preview text, email layout, call-to-action, link placement, or even the time that you send your emails.
However – be careful not to test too much all at once. It’s best practice to change only one variable at a time if you’re going to have accurate comparison data to make decisions from.
4. Optimize your email content
The quality of your email content is perhaps the most important factor in driving subscriber engagement and encouraging click-throughs.
Some best practices for email content optimization include:
- Using clear, concise language
- Designing your email for easy readability
- Using visually appealing designs to capture attention
- Featuring prominent, compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) that encourage clicks
- Tailoring content to specific audience segments
Another important consideration is whether to use plain text or HTML email templates. Each approach has its pros and cons, and the best choice depends on your specific goals and audience preferences.
5. Monitor, review, and adjust
Improving your email open rates and click rates isn’t a one-time thing – it should be an ongoing process.
It’s important to regularly monitor your email performance metrics like open rate and click rate, review what’s working and what’s not, and continually optimise your campaigns.
It’s worthwhile setting up a scheduled time each week to review your email analytics and identify trends, areas for improvement, and ideas for future A/B testing.
6. Choose the right email delivery platform
The email delivery platform you choose can also have a significant impact on your deliverability rates, email open rates, and click-through rates.
A reliable platform like Simplelists can help ensure your emails reach your subscribers, and can contribute to stronger email marketing performance.
Simplelists supports all major email authentication protocols, helping your emails land in your subscriber’s inboxes rather than their spam folders.
And with the ability to create unlimited lists, Simplelists allows you to achieve granular segmentation and deliver highly targeted customized email content that boosts engagement.
Curious about how Simplelists can help you improve your email marketing?
Sign up for a free 1-month trial of Simplelists today and find out for yourself.