Email open rates 101

You started with email marketing, or have been active for some time. But how to go about measuring your success? In this article, you can read all about the open rates of your email marketing. How are they measured, calculated and is your open rate what it should be?

Open rate – what is it?

The open rate is a measurement of how many people open your email or view it in the preview pane. This figure is represented in the Webpower platform in the form of numbers and percentages.

Open rate in % = emails opened / (emails sent – bounces)

Measuring the open rate, how does it work?

The Webpower platform automatically includes a bit of code in every email, called a tracking pixel. You can compare a tracking pixel to a tiny, invisible image. When the email is opened, the image will be downloaded and our servers register this downloading of said image as an open.

If the images are blocked and the recipient clicks on any link, including the unsubscribe link, this action is also registered as an open.

Your list will also include recipients who use a preview pane in their email client. This preview pane automatically shows your email and also downloads the images. These opens are also registered by our platform.

Is my open rate good?

There are a lot of studies that research average open rates. The best way to check whether your open rates (and other statistics) are positive is by referring to a benchmark conducted in your country.

How can I improve my open rates?

There are several ways of boosting your open rates.

Experiment with the subject line

Try to give people a glimpse of the content, rather than just using a standard ‘June Newsletter’ subject line. You can also perform an A/B test on your subject line.

Don’t forget the preheader

Some email clients (Gmail, Outlook) display the preheader next to the subject line. Use this precious space to persuade the recipient to open your email! If you do not enter any text here, the clients will automatically display the first few sentences in your email instead.

The most important content should be at the top

Your recipients see a preview of your email before they decide to open or ignore it. So make sure your email is recognizable, and that the most important subjects are at the top.

Experiment with days and times

Maybe your recipients are too busy to read your emails on Wednesday morning. Experiment with your send times. Perhaps they have plenty of time on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm.