Updated: 10 October 2025

When it comes to email marketing, analysing email open rates is one of the most popular benchmarks businesses use to determine the success of a campaign. Despite having a killer subject line or the most well-written email marketing content, if your target audience isn’t opening your emails, then all that creative juice has nowhere to flow.

Here’s a quick look at email open rates, including why it matters and a few contributing factors:

What is Open Rate?

Email open rate is the percentage of email recipients who have opened an email from an email campaign. This number is compared to the total number of recipients that have received your email, giving you an open rate percentage.

While no one metric should be used to determine the success of any strategy, many marketers look at the open rate to determine whether a campaign has been successful. Open rates vary from industry to industry, but a good percentage across all industries is around 17%.

Why Open Rates Matter

Other metrics, such as click-through rate and unsubscribe rate, are compared with your open rate to help provide a holistic view of your campaign’s performance. Here are a few reasons email open rates are important to analyse:

It provides a good engagement metric: Email open rates are a great way to determine how engaged your audience is with your business. It provides you with a clear indication of the quality of your email content and that it is, in fact, appealing to your target audience. It also provides a clear indication that potential customers are receiving your emails and that it is not getting lost in their spam inbox.

A healthy List: A high open rate indicates that your business is reaching the right people. It also confirms that there are people willing to engage with your brand and will likely look forward to the next email you send.

Optimisation and Improvement: Monitoring open rates allows you to refine your email marketing strategies continuously. You can learn from what works and what doesn’t, leading to improved campaigns over time.

So, what impacts open rates? There are several factors and having a better understanding of these factors can help boost your engagement on your email campaigns.

Is Open Rates The Only Metric You Should Be Analysing? 

According to our SOMS digital marketing guru, Geoff,  open rates are just one piece of the puzzle. 

“Other metrics and indicators can give you a more overall view of how your email marketing is performing.”

Here’s a look at what Geoff states is some of the most important metrics businesses and marketers should be looking at: 

  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. This is crucial to see if your content drives action.
  • Conversion Rate: Tracks how many recipients completed a desired action (purchase, sign-up, download). This is the ultimate measure of campaign ROI.
  • Bounce Rate: Shows how many emails couldn’t be delivered. A high bounce rate signals issues with list quality.
  • Unsubscribe Rate: While often seen as negative, it gives insight into how well your content aligns with audience expectations.
  • Forward/Share Rate: Indicates engagement and advocacy if recipients are sharing your emails with others.
  • Revenue per Email: For e-commerce, linking campaigns to revenue generated per email sent helps justify spend and strategy.

“Open rates tell you whether your audience opens, but these other metrics show whether they engage and act, which is ultimately the goal,” says Geoff. 

A Few Factors That Influence Open Rates

You need permission: There’s nothing more frustrating than receiving unsolicited emails from a brand. It should come as no surprise that emails like this receive low open rates. You should focus on recipients who have actually opted in to receive your emails. You can do this by offering a free e-book or 15% off products if they sign up for your newsletter.

Subject Line: A compelling and relevant subject line is crucial for encouraging recipients to open your email. It should be clear, concise, and pique recipients’ curiosity

Email Content: If your emails consistently provide valuable and relevant content to your audience, they’re more likely to open future emails from you.

Timing: The timing of your emails can affect open rates. Sending emails at times when your audience is most likely to be checking their inbox can lead to higher open rates.

Mobile Optimisation: Many people check their emails on mobile devices. Ensuring that your emails are mobile-friendly and display properly on various devices can improve open rates.

Relevance: Ensuring that your email content is relevant to the interests and needs of your subscribers increases the chances of them opening your emails.

A big question businesses often ask us is whether email marketing is for their business. According to Geoff, there are a few things you should consider when thinking about implementing this marketing channel into your strategy:

  • Pros: It’s a direct line to your audience, cost-effective, measurable, and supports long-term customer relationships.
  • Cons: Requires consistent content, proper segmentation, and compliance with email regulations (e.g., GDPR).

“Some niche B2B businesses or ultra-local services may find other channels like LinkedIn, direct outreach and in-person networking, more effective, especially when just starting out. However, once your audience is built, you may find that having an email presence will work well,” explains Geoff.

In short, email marketing is versatile and powerful, but it must be strategic and not just “because everyone does it.”

Struggling to increase your email campaign’s open rates? Let SOMS Digital Agency help you! We’re experts at crafting content that will leave your audience coming back for more and are skilled at providing you with insights into helping you grow that email list.

Don’t be shy! Get in touch with us today.