Open rate...

by 11 replies
15
What is a "typical" open rate? I know the answer is that it varies, but I am just curious what kind of open rate others have with their emails. Just started building my list about a month ago, already have 70 subscribers , but my open rate for most emails is around 60 %. A little lower with a couple emails. Any great tips for improving open rate? Thanks!
#main internet marketing discussion forum #open #rate
  • I think 30 percent is the industry standard assuming you are doing everything properly.

    In other words...Holy crap you're getting 60 percent open rates!

    Sadly this will likely drop as your list gets bigger since you will have to become more aggressive to grow your list and that will mean having a less intimate relationship with each person on it. Such is the game of list building!
    • [1] reply
    • Open rates vary by industry and a host of other factors.

      Here's a link to some open rate benchmark figures from
      MailChimp:

      Research | MailChimp (no affil.)

      Rather than comparing your open rate with other providers
      in un-related industries, focus on tracking your own open
      rate over time and constantly tweaking your approach to
      increase your own average figure.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
  • Banned
    A "typical open rate" is unreliable and unmeasurable, Brit.

    The way these things are measured depends on a pixel in HTML versions of emails sent out. Anyone opening the plain-text version can't be tracked unless they also click on a link inside the email (which can be measured).

    It can easily be higher than that, too, without your knowing.

    Continuity is the big one.

    The more you ensure continuity between what's attracted people to your site, the way you've set their expectations on your site before they opt in, what you tell them about the forthcoming emails in the "free report" you give them in exchange for their email address, and the way you make sure that each subsequent email is expected, awaited and opened, the better. It's all a process. On the one hand, you have to fufil their expectations with what you provide, so that they look forward to hearing from you. On the other hand, you're the person who gets to set their expectations in the first place. If you pay attention to the process, the results will come out how you want.

    Once they know roughly when they'll be hearing from you and why, and are used to clicking on a link in your emails to find something of value, the biggest hurdle is over.

    It sounds like you've got off to a good start, anyway.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • Getting 60% open rate seems incredibly high...if it's accurately measured anyway.
    With 70 subs it also doesn't mean much. When you have 700 subs, I'll bet it's far, far less. And in certain niches where most get lots of emails, open rates can be very low.
    _____
    Bruce
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks, the people in my niche probably do not get lots of emails, not from people's list anyway. I was / am a part of the niche myself and a little over a year ago I did not even know what a "list" was . I agree that the stats will likely change with a bigger sample size. I was actually dissapointed with the 60% (most emails are about 59 and 58%), I didn't realize that was good!! Glad to hear it.

      What do you mean by accurately measured? I looked at the report that says "follow-up totals" (aweber) and below the chart there was percentages for each email. Are these accurate?
      • [2] replies
  • Although that's a pretty decent open rate it's waaay too early
    to have stats that make any sense. You need hundreds of
    subscribers ebfore you start making any decision based on
    you open rate.

    On a small list I had on aWeber one person complained which
    gave a complain rating of 14% I think it was. That was marked
    as a warning. I would think that they realize that was one
    person but it appears they are more interested in percentages.
    Don't make the same mistake.

    -Ray Edwards
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • That is very good advice. I use AWeber and so far haven't had anyone complain, thank goodness, because my list is only about 150, although I've had it up for almost a year. Because the list is so small, I haven't really concerned myself much yet with open rates.

      The bigger concern for me, I think, would be how to effectively tweak to improve it. How do you identify THIS element or THAT wording that was ineffective? That's been really hard for me to discern.
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    Open rate...

    What is a "typical" open rate? I know the answer is that it varies, but I am just curious what kind of open rate others have with their emails. Just started building my list about a month ago, already have 70 subscribers , but my open rate for most emails is around 60 %. A little lower with a couple emails. Any great tips for improving open rate? Thanks!