Open Rates are the first vital clue to the health of your Email Marketing Campaigns. A high open rate indicates that you are consistently providing your subscriber list with valuable and useful promotions and information. A low open rate tells you that there is work to be done on your strategy and execution.

So what is a high open rate?

I often have new clients who are surprised when their email newsletter is not opened by all of the recipients. If you have reacted this way then I assure you that you should not be dissapointed as this is normal. There are many factors involved and believe me, no one gets their emails 100% opened unless they are sending to a very select small list.

Surveys taken across the email marketing industry show that an open rate anywhere between 30% and 50% can be considered to be an excellent achievement.

Recent Australian research shows that average open rate across all industries and all size sends is around 22%. Smaller and segmented sends tended to show a higher open rates than large volumne sends.

Remember, that your audience is full of busy people who are being constantly bombarded with advertising and marketing messages. Email is a quick and easy form of communication, but it is also quick and easy to ignore and/or dispose of messages that aren’t deemed urgent or important.

You will never get everyone to open your emails. Your objective should be to improve your existing open rate steadily over time. Read part 2 of this article on Improving Email Open Rates.