Open Rate
What is an open rate?
Open rate is a key metric in email marketing.
It shows the percentage of recipients who opened your email.
If you send 1,000 emails and 250 people open them, your open rate is 25%.
Why Open Rate Matters
Open rate tells you how well your subject line and timing worked.
It’s often the first sign of email campaign success.
A high open rate means:
- Your email got noticed
- People were curious enough to open it
- You’re building trust with your audience
Tracking open rate helps improve your overall strategy and boost engagement.
What’s a Good Email Open Rate?
Most industries consider 20%-30% a solid open rate.
Your numbers may vary based on:
- Industry benchmarks
- List size and quality
- How targeted your message is
- How strong your subject line sounds
For ecommerce and print-on-demand, open rates may spike during promos or product drops.
Want to grow your store through email? Read our newsletter strategy guide to learn more.
How to Increase Open Rate
Try these tactics to get more opens:
- Write better subject lines - Clear, short, and curiosity-driven
- Use personalization - Include the recipient’s name or past interest
- Avoid spam triggers - Don’t use all caps, spammy phrases, or broken links
- Send at the right time - Test timing to see when your audience engages
- Segment your list - Send the right message to the right group
- Optimize for mobile - Over 50% of emails are opened on phones
Pro tip: Use A/B testing to try different subject lines and see what performs best.
How to Calculate Open Rate
Here’s the formula:
Open Rate (%) = (Unique Opens ÷ Delivered Emails) × 100
Exclude hard bounces (emails that failed to send) from your total delivered emails.
Example:
- 500 emails delivered
- 125 people opened the email
→ Open Rate = (125 ÷ 500) × 100 = 25%
Email tools like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or Omnisend calculate this for you automatically.
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