What a good open rate looks like

Open rate is the share of delivered emails that someone opened. Each person counts once. See How Jounce counts opens, clicks, and bounces. An open rate looks like a score, but there is no number to grade it against.

Why one number doesn’t work

Some mail apps open an email on the reader’s behalf before the reader sees it, so opens run high.

Apple Mail does this for everyone who uses it. That is why the results page adds Apple Mail opens some emails on its own, so its share of opens runs high.

Two lists with different mail apps show different open rates for the same email. So an average from somewhere else says little about yours.

What to compare instead

• Your own sends. The Emails tab on the Analytics page charts open and click rate for each email, over the range you pick. A drop against your own run is worth a look; a number under someone else’s average isn’t. See See how your emails did over a period.
• Clicks. A click is a person choosing to act, and no mail app clicks for them. That is why an A/B test picks its winner by clicks. See The A/B test results.

What moves opens

The subject line and the preview text are all a reader sees before opening. A test of two subject lines shows which one your readers prefer. See Test two subject lines. Mail filed under spam is never opened at all, so a low number often starts there. See Why did my email land in spam or promotions?.