The average email open rate sent out by businesses is 15-30% depending on the industry. This might not sound like a lot, but in reality, it’s a good number to shoot for. Since email marketing is a great way to build your email list, it’s worth taking the time to make sure you’re sending out emails that get a good response out of your audience—and emails that are worth sending out in the first place.
Open rate is one of the most important metrics you can measure in email marketing. Open rate is the percentage of recipients who open an email.
Beyond open rate is another key metric in email marketing – click-through rate. The click-through rate is the percentage of people who open an email and click on a link or button in that email. Aim for an average click-through rate between 2-5%.
However, clicking through is not the same as clicking on. In order to calculate the click-through rate, you have to consider multiple scenarios, such as opening an email and clicking a link, opening an email and reading all of the content, opening an email and clicking a link, and then clicking through to perform the desired action.
Thus, it all depends on your email marketing content and funnels.
Email Marketing Benchmarks and Statistics by Industry
Believe it or not, your industry dictates what you should expect for an open rate and click-through rate. Another factor that impacts your open rate is your relationship with your list. Regardless, it helps to get a ballpark idea of what your open rates should be.
The below industry average statistics are from Campaign Monitor’s 2022 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report.
Advertising & Marketing: 20.5% OR, 1.8% CTR
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting: 27.3% OR, 3.4% CTR
Consumer Packaged Goods: 20% OR, 1.9% CTR
Education: 28.5% OR, 4.4% CTR
Financial Services: 27.1% OR, 2.4% CTR
Restaurant, Food & Beverage: 18.5% OR, 2% CTR
Government & Politics: 19.4% OR, 2.8% CTR
Healthcare Services: 23.7% OR, 3% CTR
IT, Tech & Software: 22.7% OR, 2% CTR
Logistics & Wholesale: 23.4% OR, 2% CTR
Media, Entertainment & Publishing: 23.9% OR, 2.9% CTR
Nonprofit: 26.6% OR, 2.7% CTR
Other: 19.9% OR, 2.6% CTR
Professional Services: 19.3% OR, 2.6% CTR
Real Estate, Design & Construction: 21.7% OR, 3.6% CTR
Retail: 17.1% OR, 0.7% CTR
Travel, Hospitality & Leisure: 20.2% OR, 1.4% CTR
Wellness & Fitness: 19.2% OR, 1.2% CTR
