Email Open Rates by Industries | Benchmarks and Best Practices to Improve it [2023]

The first metric that determines the success of an email campaign is the email open rates by industries. A reasonable opening rate is between 17-28%. But that’s not all. Marketers should consider several factors affecting available rates before embarking on email campaigns. 

With the competition to reach the inboxes of 4.25 billion email users, email marketers are looking for new ways to make their email campaigns successful.

This blog provides all the statistics on email open rates by industries and best practices that have successfully increased available rates for those struggling with low open rates.

What is Email Open Rate?

Email open rate is a crucial metric in email marketing as it indicates how effective your email campaign is in capturing the attention of your target audience. A high email open rate means that a significant percentage of your subscribers are interested in your content and are willing to engage with your brand.

Email open rates can vary depending on various factors such as the industry, type of email, email list quality, the timing of the email, the sender’s reputation, and the subject line. The industry standard email open rate is around 20%, although this can vary based on the industry and the quality of the email list. 

Some industries, such as education and nonprofits, have higher open rates, while others, such as marketing and advertising, have lower available rates.

Your email type can also influence email open rates.

For example, promotional emails, such as sales or discount offers, may have lower available rates than transactional emails, such as purchase confirmations or password resets. This is because transactional emails usually have higher relevance and urgency, which motivates recipients to open them.

It’s essential to track and analyze open email rates regularly as it provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your email campaigns. By testing and optimizing various factors such as subject lines, sending frequency, and email content, you can improve your email open rates and ultimately drive better results for your business.

Why is It Important to Have a Good Email Open Rate?

A good email open rate is essential for the success of your email marketing campaigns because it indicates that your subscribers are engaged with your content and interested in your brand. 

When subscribers open and engage with your emails, they are more likely to take the desired action, such as purchasing or filling out a form. Increased engagement can lead to higher conversions and sales, ultimately driving revenue for your business.

In addition to driving revenue, a good email open rate can improve your sender’s reputation. Email service providers (ESPs) use various metrics, including email available rates, to determine the sender’s reputation. 

A good reputation can result in better email deliverability and higher inbox placement rates, ensuring that your emails reach the subscribers’ inboxes and not the spam folder.

Tracking email open rates can also provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your email campaigns. By analyzing available rates, you can identify what works and doesn’t and adjust your email marketing strategy accordingly. 

For example, you can test different subject lines, sending times, and email content to improve your open rates and overall email marketing performance.

A good email open rate can also save money on email marketing campaigns. With higher available rates, you can reduce your email list churn and improve your overall email marketing ROI. This means you can achieve better results with fewer resources, resulting in cost savings for your business.

Overall, having a good email open rate is crucial for the success of your email marketing campaigns. Optimizing your email marketing strategy to improve your available rates can drive engagement, revenue, and ROI for your business.

Best Practices to Improve Email Open Rates

1. Write a compelling subject line

The subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see in their inbox, and it can make or break whether they open your email. It should be attention-grabbing, concise, and accurately reflect the content of the email.

2. Personalize your emails

Personalizing your emails with the subscriber’s name, or other relevant information can make them feel more engaged and interested in the content of the email.

3. Optimize your email preheader text

The preheader text is the first line of text that appears in most email clients, and it can be a powerful tool to entice subscribers to open your email. Ensure it complements your subject line and provides additional context for the content of the email.

4. Segment your email list

By segmenting your email list based on subscriber behavior or other relevant factors, you can tailor your emails to their interests and needs, improving engagement and open rates.

5. Use a recognizable sender name

Using a sender name that subscribers recognize and trust can improve open rates and help build trust and credibility with your audience.

6. Keep your email list clean

Regularly removing inactive or invalid email addresses from your list can improve your deliverability rates and ensure your emails reach the right people.

7. Send emails at the right time

Timing is critical for email marketing. Experiment with different sending times to determine when your subscribers will likely engage with your emails.

8. Use a responsive design

With more and more people checking their emails on mobile devices, a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes can ensure that your emails are readable and engaging on any device.

9. Please include a clear call-to-action (CTA)

Every email should have a clear and compelling call-to-action that encourages subscribers to take the next step, whether it’s visiting your website, making a purchase, or sharing your content.

10. Use engaging email content

Your emails should be interesting and informative and provide value to your subscribers. Use visual elements like images or videos to break up the text and make your content more engaging.

11. Use a clean and simple design

A cluttered or confusing design can turn subscribers off and lead to lower open rates. Use a clean and straightforward procedure focusing on your message’s key elements.

12. A/B test your emails

Testing different elements of your emails, such as subject lines or CTAs, can help you determine what resonates best with your subscribers and improve your open rates over time.

13. Use social proof

Including customer reviews or testimonials in your emails can build trust and credibility with your audience, increasing the likelihood that they will open up and engage with your content.

14. Offer incentives

discounts or exclusive content can encourage subscribers to open your emails and take the desired action.

15. Monitor and analyze your email metrics

Regularly tracking your email open rates and other metrics can help you understand what’s working and what’s not in your email marketing campaigns, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to improve your results over time.

Email Open Rates by Industries Benchmarks

Email open rates refer to the percentage of recipients who opened an email out of the total number of recipients who received it. It is an important metric for email marketers as it gives insight into the effectiveness of their email campaigns and helps them make improvements.

Benchmarking Email Open Rates by Industries allows marketers to compare their available rates to their peers and competitors in the same industry. This can help them set realistic email campaign goals and identify improvement areas.

However, it’s important to note that email open rates can vary widely depending on various factors beyond the industry. For example, the size and quality of your email list, the time and day you send your emails, the subject lines you use, the content of your emails, and the level of engagement of your subscribers can all impact your open rates.

Therefore, while industry benchmarks can provide some guidance, tracking your email performance over time and adjusting as needed to optimize your open rates and achieve your email marketing goals is important.

Email open rate benchmarks can vary depending on various factors, such as the industry, the type of email, the target audience, and the sender’s reputation. Here is some general email open rate benchmarks across various industries based on data from different sources:

1. Marketing and Advertising: 16.22%
2. Nonprofits: 25.17%
3. Government: 28.77%
4. Healthcare: 22.41%
5. Education: 17.35%
6. Real Estate: 19.87%
7. Retail: 18.24%
8. Technology: 20.92%
9. Travel and Hospitality: 20.08%
10. Financial Services: 21.06%

It’s important to note that these benchmarks are only intended as a general guide. Your actual open rates may vary depending on various factors, such as the quality of your email list, the content and design of your emails, the subject lines you use, the time and day you send your emails, and the level of engagement of your subscribers.

It’s also important to benchmark your email open rates over time and set goals for improvement based on your specific situation and objectives. Regularly monitoring your email performance and adjusting your strategy can optimize your available rates and achieve better results from your email marketing campaigns.

Wrapping Up

Email marketers always want to know how their campaigns and personal emails perform. Open rates are the first and clearest indicator that your marketing message engages this audience. 

You can use email available rates by industry to show how your emails are performing. Still, we strongly recommend using this number as an objective and analyzing your email marketing data to establish the rate at which you are measuring your performance accordingly.