Open rate
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The percentage of delivered emails that recipients opened. A proxy for subject line effectiveness and sender trust.
Open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that get opened. If you send 1,000 emails and 300 are opened, your open rate is 30%.
Open rate has become less reliable since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (launched in 2021) pre-loads tracking pixels, making it look like every Apple Mail user opened every email. Actual open rates may be lower than reported. Despite this limitation, open rate trends are still useful for comparing subject lines and monitoring engagement over time.
For B2B email, benchmark open rates are 20-30% for marketing emails and 15-25% for cold outreach. Newsletters with engaged audiences often achieve 35-50%. If your open rate is below 15%, your subject lines are weak, your list is disengaged, or you have deliverability problems.
Examples
Subject line testing improves open rate.
Version A: 'Q1 Product Update' (open rate: 18%). Version B: 'The three features your team asked for' (open rate: 34%). The specific, benefit-focused subject line nearly doubled opens.
Open rate declines over time.
Month 1: 40% open rate. Month 6: 28%. Month 12: 19%. The list is aging. Many subscribers signed up a year ago and are no longer interested. The team segments active subscribers (opened in last 90 days) and moves the rest to a re-engagement campaign. Active segment open rate: 38%.
Apple MPP inflates open rates.
Reported open rate: 55%. After filtering out Apple MPP pre-loads, estimated real open rate: 32%. The team stops relying on open rate as a primary metric and shifts to click-through rate and conversion rate.
In practice
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Frequently asked questions
What is a good email open rate?
For B2B marketing emails: 20-30%. For newsletters: 30-45%. For cold outreach: 15-25%. These benchmarks vary by industry and list quality. Trending up is more important than hitting a specific number.
How do you improve open rate?
Write specific, benefit-focused subject lines. Send at consistent times. Clean your list of inactive subscribers. Ensure deliverability is healthy. Personalize the sender name (a human name outperforms a company name). A/B test subject lines regularly.
Related terms
The percentage of sent emails that actually reach the recipient's inbox. The foundation of every email marketing program.
The percentage of people who click your ad or link after seeing it. Clicks divided by impressions. Measures how compelling your message is.
A recurring email to subscribers with curated content, insights, or updates. The most valuable owned audience channel in B2B marketing.
The percentage of email recipients who opt out after receiving a message. A measure of audience satisfaction and content relevance.
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