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What is your current Email open rate?

by JoshuaWriter
22 replies
Im trying to gather a rough estimate of everyones email open rates.

If you send out broadcasts on a regular basis and wouldn't mind sharing, please let me know your email open rates.

I would like to compare mine with others. It seems my lastest broadcasts have been getting 10-15% open rate.
#current #email #open #rate
  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
    Read this report from MailerMailer: Email Marketing Metrics Report (free, no signup required)
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Cool report - thanks for the link.

    They report an average open rate of 13.2%.

    The latest stat that AWeber publish for their open rate is 13.6% for April 2008.

    Email Newsletter Open Rates: April 2008 - Inbox Ideas: Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

    ...so there seems to be a concensus there which also fits with the OP's own observations.

    In answer to the OP, I just checked mine for my 7 part email course as reported within AutoResponse Plus:

    Message #1: 31.3%
    Message #2: 29.6%
    Message #3: 24.7%
    Message #4: 27.9%
    Message #5: 24.9%
    Message #6: 23.1%
    Message #7: 22.8%

    Not too shabby.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author dddougal
    iv found it to be between 15 and 20%
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    It really depends on your list.

    My membership email list opens at about 75% because they paid for it.

    My general list which is quite big only opens about 10% but I have changed a lot of them to RSS so this maybe why.

    Generally emails are dying as people are getting very good at filtering and programs and ISP's filter a lot out. Used to be my emails would get a lot higher open rate but obviously the above stats prove it that the open rate is dropping.

    Personally if there is no content and just promotion after promotion and I cannot opt out they go into gmail spam heaven.

    If I do that I imagine a lot of others are doing it also.

    On the other hand my RSS seems to hold a great retention and there is always a tracking url to check if people read and they seem to a lot more.

    Quentin
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  • Profile picture of the author Tyrus Antas
    Don't forget that most email clients disable downloading of the "tracking pixel" which means your real open rate is much higher than that.

    Tyrus
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    From that report (see link above) an interesting stat from the Direct Marketing Association (October 2008) is that the ROI for email was $45.06 per $1.00 spent compared to $19.94 per $1.00 spent for non-email Internet marketing.

    In other words, the return from email marketing is 226% higher than non-email internet marketing.

    There's still life in the old dog yet. Lots of life.

    The report goes on to say that marketers with tight budgets should focus on using lower cost providers without cutting their activity - in a nutshell, giving more bang for your buck.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Hey Loren

    I often track open rate because I'm sending a lot of HTML emails these days. However the clickthrough rate is really what matters.
    I totally agree - I'm a numbers man myself.

    That said, clickthrough rate is a function of open-rate. Meaning if you've set things up to squeeze as many clicks as you can, increasing open rate will produce more clicks and hence conversions, sales, etc.

    In other words - a high open rate is always better than a low open rate.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author howudoin
    We are forgetting an important factor here---The day and timing of your message is very important when it comes to getting a higher Open rate.

    I once got an open rate of 35% on an email sent at 9AM EST and consistently getting similar results around this time (More so on Tuesdys)

    Bhupinder
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    The day and timing of your message is very important when it comes to getting a higher Open rate.
    The report (link above) has some interesting stats on that issue.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinSkeen
    Best open rate for a broadcast was 87%. I was astounded. That's out of over 1,000 on one list. Average open rate is about 34.43%. Average click rate is 27%.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
    I consistently get 'reported' open rates between 35% to 45%. It's even higher when you consider the subscribers who disable downloading of the "tracking pixel"as Tyrus mentioned.

    The secret is - you have to have something in your emails that subscribers are looking forward to receiving.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Hey Ron

    I agree with you about the content - so true - you need to get people looking forward to receiving your nuggets of information.

    The derisory average open rates (circa 13%) mentioned at the start of this thread suggest that there is a market in teaching people how to do that effectively.

    So there's a product that someone could create before they hit the sack tonight

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay White
    Open rates can be deceiving. Some say it's always more than your stats show, some say always less. But even a big-time email marketing provider like Infusion can't say for sure who actually opened and who didn't. They can only give you a fair estimate.

    Of course, if you've developed a relationship with the prospect and they know/like/trust you, the chances of getting opened go up dramatically. And that's the key.

    Wish we had a better way, but there really isn't other than testing different subject lines and seeing what types your lists respond to best. But when it's all said and done, no matter how hot your subject line is, there will still be those who ignore it completely.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    They can only give you a fair estimate.
    But that's OK because it's the trend that's important - whatever your rate is, work to increase it.

    Even if there was a cast iron 100% reliable way of monitoring open-rate, you still would have no way of knowing if your subscriber actually read the thing.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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    • Profile picture of the author Jay White
      Originally Posted by Neil Morgan View Post

      But that's OK because it's the trend that's important - whatever your rate is, work to increase it.

      Even if there was a cast iron 100% reliable way of monitoring open-rate, you still would have no way of knowing if your subscriber actually read the thing.

      Cheers,

      Neil
      True that--good point Neil.
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      • Profile picture of the author Johnadab
        Banned
        WOW onily 10 or 13 % even 25 % seems VERY poor to me ?

        So most of us are just looking at the title and deciding not to open the email.

        Mind you its not surprising when most "gurus" are just sending out emails about other peoples offers so they can get a commissioın on it.

        I get VERY little useful content from ANY "guru" it just sales pitch after sales pitch.
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    This is why RSS is a far better option.

    You not only get the message out but you also get the benefit of new content on your site and surprisingly a lot more book marking.

    I do both but RSS has benefited me a lot more than any email marketing I have done.

    Q
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  • Profile picture of the author kckaz
    Subject headings seem to impact by 5-10pts, but I notice that over time, the rate seems to trend down to 12-15%. It seems that you need to establish yourself upfront as someone with great content (Duh) - but seriously, I'd wait 5-7 emails before sending offers and even after then, alternate between good content and offers instead of just offers like so many lists I'm on do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mr McDonald
    Not as good as i would like, trying to come up with new ideas, especially subscription confirmation subject lines that will get passed spam checks.
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  • Profile picture of the author CanadianChickXO
    Varies but I have had some at over 40%. Used a Frank Kern headline and had over 60% open rate.
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    • Profile picture of the author webpromotions
      I keep seeing threads like this here and I just don't get it...

      Unless I'm missing something, open rates can't be tracked unless the tracking pixel is downloaded?

      I have my email client configured to never, ever download any images without my approval and I can't understand why the majority wouldn't also do this.

      I also see threads here saying that most people prefer to send text emails vs HTML emails...and I know for a fact that Aweber simply 'estimates' open rates on text emails based on how many users click their tracking links in the text emails, which means they can't even guess unless you decide to use their tracking links -and even if you do, its still just a shot in the dark and not even close to a real open rate.
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