Summary
For B2B email marketing, defining "good" open and click rates can be nuanced due to evolving privacy changes and industry-specific benchmarks. While traditional wisdom often prized high open rates, experts increasingly caution against relying solely on this metric, advocating for a broader view of engagement. For instance, a 50% open rate, while seemingly excellent, should be viewed in context, considering factors like Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) which can inflate open figures. Conversely, a 5.43% click rate in B2B is often considered strong, especially when the primary goal is engagement beyond direct sales, such as encouraging replies or deeper content consumption.
Key findings
- Open rate benchmarks: A 50% open rate is exceptionally high and often uncommon, especially outside of highly transactional or internal communications. Most B2B marketers would be thrilled with such figures, but it's important to understand the factors contributing to it, including potential inflation from privacy features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection.
- Click rate benchmarks: A 5.43% click rate for B2B emails is generally considered very good. Many B2B marketers consider anything above 1-2% as successful, particularly when the primary objective is engagement rather than direct e-commerce conversion. For more industry-specific data, Campaign Monitor offers helpful insights into what constitutes a good click-through rate in various sectors.
- Open rate reliability: Due to tracking pixel inaccuracies and privacy changes, open rates are increasingly seen as a broken or less reliable metric for individual success. They are best used for trending analysis over time, rather than as a definitive measure of engagement or deliverability.
- B2B context: In B2B, content relevance and recipient interest significantly drive open rates. If the content is highly targeted and useful, higher engagement, including opens, is more likely. Even if clicks are lower, sustained opens can indicate continued interest in content.
Key considerations
- Focus on unique metrics: When evaluating open rates, always prioritize unique opens over total opens to avoid inflated statistics from automated systems or multiple opens by the same recipient. Similarly, unique clicks are more informative than total clicks.
- Shift metric focus: Given the limitations of open rates, consider prioritizing other metrics that offer a clearer picture of intent, such as click-through rate, click-to-open rate, replies, time spent on site after clicking, or conversion rates (e.g., resource downloads, demo requests). This aligns with the idea of shifting perspective on what truly matters for success.
- Trend analysis: While daily or weekly fluctuations may not be critical, monitoring month-over-month trends for both open and click rates can reveal underlying deliverability issues or changes in audience engagement. A sudden drop in open rates, for example, could signal a problem, even if the absolute number seems good.
- Holistic deliverability view: Ensure your broader email deliverability strategy is sound. A good email deliverability rate or benchmark typically means a high percentage of your emails reach the inbox. Even with good engagement, if emails aren't consistently delivered, other metrics will suffer. Regular monitoring of engagement thresholds for deliverability can help maintain sender reputation.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often find themselves grappling with what constitutes a 'good' open or click rate, especially in the B2B landscape where sales cycles and engagement goals differ from B2C. Many agree that while high open rates are desirable, the true value lies in the downstream actions. For B2B campaigns, a click often signifies a higher level of intent, leading to more meaningful interactions beyond the initial email open. The consensus is that industry-specific context and overall campaign objectives heavily influence how these metrics should be interpreted.
Key opinions
- High open rates are enviable: Many marketers expressed that a 50% open rate is exceptionally good, something most would aspire to achieve. It signals strong initial interest in the content being sent.
- B2B click rates vary: For B2B campaigns, even a 1-2% click rate can be seen as very successful, with a 5.43% rate being considered excellent. This is because B2B clicks often lead to high-value actions like lead generation or direct communication, as highlighted by Act-On research.
- Content is king: A high open rate is often attributed to highly relevant and interesting content that directly appeals to the industry or niche audience, indicating a good match between sender and recipient interests.
- Engagement beyond clicks: For B2B, direct replies to emails, even if manual to track, can be a significant sign of engagement and help humanize the interaction. This is a valuable metric to consider alongside clicks.
Key considerations
- Contextualize benchmarks: B2B marketers should compare their metrics against industry-specific benchmarks rather than broad averages, as what's considered good can vary wildly. Understanding your unique audience and campaign goals is critical.
- Optimize for clicks and actions: Even with high open rates, if the primary goal requires action, focus on optimizing your calls to action and content to drive clicks. Strategies to increase email click-through rate can include clear value propositions and compelling content.
- Monitor for declines: While high open rates are good, any rapid decline in click rates or open rates should prompt an investigation into content, audience relevance, or potential deliverability issues.
- Prioritize strategic goals: Ultimately, the 'best' metrics are those that align with your overarching business objectives. If your goal is content consumption, a high open rate, combined with some form of engagement like replies, might be sufficient, even if click-through is modest.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks notes that the provided metrics appear strong, asking what areas the sender aims to enhance.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks remarks that a 50% open rate is highly desirable for most, inquiring about the corresponding click rate.
What the experts say
Deliverability experts provide a critical lens through which to view email marketing metrics, particularly open rates. With the advent of privacy features from major mailbox providers like Apple and Google, the accuracy of open rate as a true engagement metric has diminished. Experts generally agree that while open rate can still provide some directional insight (e.g., for trending analysis), it should not be the sole or primary indicator of campaign success. Instead, they advocate for focusing on more tangible actions like clicks, conversions, or even direct replies, which offer a more reliable signal of recipient interest and value.
Key opinions
- Open rates are unreliable: Many experts consider open rates a "broken and useless metric" for measuring true engagement due to tracking pixel inconsistencies and automated image caching by mailbox providers. They are not a definitive measure of success.
- Focus on trends, not absolutes: Open rates are best used for month-over-month trending. A significant decline might indicate a problem, but consistent, stable rates, even if seemingly high, don't necessarily prove genuine user engagement.
- Bot influence: Changes in open rates can sometimes be attributed to better filtering of bot opens by email service providers, which might cause legitimate open rates to appear lower while actually reflecting cleaner data.
- Shift perspective to other metrics: Experts suggest moving focus to more reliable metrics like clicks, time spent on site, conversions, or A/B testing email elements to understand true engagement. This aligns with Rory Sutherland's perspective on the importance of reframing problems.
Key considerations
- Utilize unique metrics: Always look at unique opens and unique clicks to get a more accurate understanding of individual recipient engagement, as total counts can be skewed.
- Calculate click-to-open rate (CTOR): Measuring CTOR provides a valuable insight into how engaging your content is after an email is opened. This metric can reveal how effectively your email subject line and preheader entice recipients to open, and then how well the content drives clicks. For a deeper dive into this, see our article on what is a good CTR for email marketing.
- Consider deliverability impact: Even if open rates are inflated, a higher number still implies better inbox placement, as images are typically not cached for emails in the spam folder. This still makes it a valuable, albeit indirect, indicator of deliverability. For more on this, check out how should opens be used as a metric.
- Explore alternative engagement metrics: Since open rates are becoming less reliable, explore other ways to measure engagement such as replies, time spent on landing pages, social shares, or direct conversions. These metrics offer more actionable insights into recipient behavior and campaign effectiveness. For a deeper dive, consider alternative metrics to email open rates.
Expert view
Email deliverability expert from Email Geeks indicates that open rates below 30% might signal an issue, while over 50% is rare, and a 5% click rate can be excellent depending on the client.
Expert view
Email deliverability expert from Email Geeks states that open rates are primarily useful for identifying trends, indicating potential problems if declining, but otherwise generally positive if stable.
What the documentation says
Official documentation and research often provide the foundational definitions and benchmarks for email marketing metrics. While they may not always keep pace with the real-time shifts in deliverability caused by privacy enhancements, they offer a consistent framework for understanding basic performance indicators. These sources consistently highlight the importance of various metrics beyond just opens and clicks, such as conversion rates, unsubscribe rates, and bounce rates, to gain a holistic view of email campaign effectiveness and impact on return on investment (ROI).
Key findings
- Comprehensive metric tracking: Leading platforms and industry guides, like Shopify, emphasize tracking a wide array of metrics, including deliverability rate, open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, and ROI, to get a full picture of campaign health.
- Click rate definition: The click rate (or CTR) is consistently defined as the percentage of successfully delivered emails that prompted subscribers to click and explore further. It indicates the effectiveness of your call to action and content appeal.
- Engagement versus conversion: Documentation often distinguishes between engagement metrics (opens, clicks) and conversion metrics (sales, sign-ups), noting that both are crucial but serve different purposes in evaluating campaign success.
- Importance of deliverability: The foundational importance of email deliverability rate is consistently highlighted, as it underpins all other email marketing metrics. If emails don't reach the inbox, engagement can't occur.
Key considerations
- Integrate metrics for insights: To gain a holistic view, documentation suggests analyzing click-to-open rates alongside conversion rates and revenue, providing a more complete understanding of campaign performance and ROI. This integrated approach ensures you're not just tracking individual metrics but understanding their interplay.
- Understand metric limitations: While providing benchmarks, documentation implicitly advises marketers to understand the nuances and limitations of each metric. For example, knowing that an engagement metric like a high open rate doesn't necessarily translate to immediate business value unless followed by deeper action. This highlights the importance of benchmarks for email open, click, and complaint rates.
- Focus on the funnel: Email marketing metrics should be viewed as part of a larger marketing funnel. Each metric (open, click, conversion) represents a stage in the customer journey, and optimizing each stage is critical for overall campaign success. This is crucial for evaluating what email engagement metrics affect inbox delivery.
Technical article
Email platform documentation from Mailchimp states that email engagement metrics are essential for comprehending subscriber interaction and content effectiveness.
Technical article
Email marketing guide from Campaign Monitor suggests that monitoring conversion rates in conjunction with click-through rates offers a more complete understanding of campaign success beyond mere initial engagement.
Related resources
15 resources
Related pages
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How to find and interpret 2018 email open rate benchmarks, especially for Gmail?
Why do all-image emails have higher open rates and are open rates a reliable KPI?
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What are the benchmarks for email open, click, and complaint rates to ensure good deliverability?
How should opens be used as a metric for email marketing?
What are the best alternative metrics to email open rates for measuring engagement?
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