Newsletters are always a special creation. Whatever their topic and design, they represent a unique message carefully crafted by a sender to their recipient.
Though these emails may provide their creators with a sense of pride, what’s more important is the number of recipients actually opening the email.
What is an open rate?
The email open rate is one of the most important metrics for measuring the success of an email marketing campaign. It’s a benchmark that individuals and organizations strive to improve. Read on to learn more about this important data point if you’re looking to improve yours and to know where you stand.
How to measure email open rates for newsletters
When a company sends a newsletter, it can offer a number of possibilities. Maybe they want the reader to click a link and sign up for something. They could be looking for subscribers, sales, or any other type of engagement.
But, first, the company needs to know how many people are actually opening their newsletters. To calculate this metric, use the following formula:
With tools like the ones from Campaign Monitor, you can also tell if an email has been opened by tracking the download rate of a special image sent along with it.
Whether you check your email open rate automatically through tools or manually through your own calculations, you’ll know at least how many of your carefully crafted newsletters are actually being seen by recipients.
Due to the wide variety of possibilities newsletters can offer, it’s helpful to consider the following question in terms of average open rates: Is there one number to look toward when thinking about the average open rate or is it better to segment before looking at averages?
Why open rates matter, especially within individual industries
Open rates are an important metric to keep track of, but it’s also vital to clearly track your total emails sent and bounce rate to keep up with the calculation. And there’s a lot more to learn from there.
How are your campaigns doing in comparison to competitors? What’s your average among your industry? Since specificity is usually better, segmenting the approach to analyze open rates provides more useful data. For example, working in the marketing and PR industry, you’ll have an open rate of about 13.52% on average.
Different industries will utilize different email campaigns, and the volume, direction, and structure of their campaigns will all vary. So, while it’s good to know about average email open rates across industries, you’re better off looking at the metrics to your own field.
Making adjustments to campaigns to boost your metrics is much easier when you focus on your own industry. From doing industry research to revamping your subject lines, there are plenty of ways to improve metrics.
You compete against over 100 emails per day. Make sure yours stand out.
Focusing on your own industry gives you a clearer goal as well as more room to show off your expertise and your creativity through your newsletter’s design.
What now?
Now that you’ve learned about how to calculate open rates on your newsletters and how to focus your efforts on the average within your own industry, what’s next? The best way to improve your open rates is to give your recipients a reason to read.
Email newsletters are a powerful tool, and working to improve your open rate can help you get the most out of your newsletters, while steadily gaining momentum in your industry.
For more information on improving email marketing, specifically with email open rates, check out this technique that can increase your email open rates.