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Open rate...

by brit16
11 replies
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!
#open #rate
  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    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!
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      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
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

    What is a "typical" open rate?
    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).

    Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

    my open rate for most emails is around 60 %. A little lower with a couple emails.
    It can easily be higher than that, too, without your knowing.

    Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

    Any great tips for improving open rate?
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    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.
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    • Profile picture of the author brit16
      Originally Posted by Bruce NewMedia View Post

      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
      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?
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

        I was actually dissapointed with the 60% (most emails are about 59 and 58%)
        Yes, in your niche, I would also be disappointed with 60%.

        My views on this issue are always out of step with the consensus. To me, to go to all the trouble of syndicating my content in front of targeted audiences, attract them to my site, opt them in, send them a free report, and then send them emails which some people don't even bother to open, when that the was original purpose of the whole exercise, feels like a real failure. I don't relate at all to people saying that "30% is normal". To me, 30% would be an unmitigated disaster and raise big questions about my entire business model.

        Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

        Are these accurate?
        No. They're usually not accurate. They're usually lower than the true rates.

        No autoresponder has a way of measuring open-rates for plain text emails. Only the proportion of plain text emails in which recipients have subsequently clicked an internal link.

        Unless you're sending HTML-versions only (which I imagine you're not?) the figure you're seeing will, therefore, be on the low side compared with the reality. But to what extent you can't tell. But for the moment, only 70 on your list (too few to judge!), it shouldn't be too far out?
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        • Profile picture of the author brit16
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          Yes, in your niche, I would also be disappointed with 60%.

          My views on this issue are always out of step with the consensus. To me, to go to all the trouble of syndicating my content in front of targeted audiences, attract them to my site, opt them in, send them a free report, and then send them emails which some people don't even bother to open, when that the was original purpose of the whole exercise, feels like a real failure. I don't relate at all to people saying that "30% is normal". To me, 30% would be an unmitigated disaster and raise big questions about my entire business model.
          I totally agree. To get 30% seem like nothing to me. In my niche, I feel like I have a personal relationship with these people, almost like emailing a friend . If only 30% of your friends opened your email, that would be pretty insulting. I'm sure this is not the way most look at it, but I feel like "most" emails should be getting opened, unless they just get overlooked or something. Thanks for letting me know my expectations are not crazy!
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      • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
        Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

        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?
        With AWeber, the open rate headilne figure that's quoted
        is based total opens - not unique opens. So, if a subscriber
        opens the same e-mail more than once, it increases your
        open rate figure further.

        You can dig deeper into your AWeber stats to get an
        open rate based on unique opens - which will be lower
        than the headline figure.

        Open rates are inherently inaccurate because not all
        actual e-mail opens are tracked by the autoresponder
        system.

        The open rates are tracked by having an image within
        each e-mail - but not all e-mail clients allow that tracking
        image to be displayed or tracked.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
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        • Profile picture of the author brit16
          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          With AWeber, the open rate headilne figure that's quoted
          is based total opens - not unique opens. So, if a subscriber
          opens the same e-mail more than once, it increases your
          open rate figure further.

          Shaun
          Here is a copy of part of the chart I am looking at. I only included the first two emails because they have the most sent. The percent listed is off of unique opens, not total opens, if it was total opens the percent would be over 100 for message 1.

          Message /Sent /Total Opens /Unique Opens /Opened Percentage
          1 70 89 52 74%
          2 63 45 34 54%

          Sorry, the chart did not copy and paste the way it should have.

          What I am getting from y'all is that it may actually be a little higher (I hope that is the case). Thanks so much!
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    Originally Posted by brit16 View Post

    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!
    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
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    • Profile picture of the author sarahparks
      Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

      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
      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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