What is open rate, and what does the CTOR metric tell you?

Table of contents

1. 01 Open Rate - what does the open rate indicate?
2. 02 What is CTOR (click-to-open rate)?
3. 03 How to improve open rate and CTOR?
4. 04 Open Rate and CTOR - your advisors in campaigns

01 Open Rate - what does the open rate indicate?

Open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened a message relative to the number of successfully delivered emails. It's the fundamental metric for assessing how effective your subject line and preheader are - the elements that decide whether a recipient even looks at the content.

Example: if 200 out of 1,000 emails sent are opened, the open rate is 20%.

Read also: Communicating with customers - how modern technologies help build relationships and increase engagement?

A good open rate - meaning what, exactly?

There's no universal threshold you can call a "good result." It all depends on the industry, the nature of your mailing list and the type of campaign. That said, the average is generally taken to sit between 15% and 25%. A result above 25% is a very good sign, while below 15% may suggest a need to change your strategy - e.g. the subject line, send times or recipient segmentation.

02 What is CTOR (click-to-open rate)?

Click-to-open rate (CTOR) shows what percentage of people who opened an email clicked the links inside it. Put more simply, it measures how engaging the content turned out to be once the message was opened.

What does the CTOR metric tell us?

A high open rate may mean the subject line grabbed attention, but it's CTOR that shows whether the email actually prompted action. A low click rate among the people who opened the message may point to a problem with the content, the layout or an unclear CTA. That's why CTOR is regarded as a content-quality metric - and it's worth tracking regularly.

03 How to improve open rate and CTOR?

Here are a few proven ways to get better results from your email campaigns:

• Personalize the subject line - the better it speaks to the recipient's needs, the greater the chance they'll open it.
• Test different variants - A/B tests help you check what works best on your target group.
• Keep the content clear and the CTA visible - simple messages and distinct buttons increase the chance of a click.

04 Open Rate and CTOR - your advisors in campaigns

Open rate and CTOR are the two pillars of effective email marketing. The first tells you whether the recipient was interested, the second - whether they took action. Analyzing these metrics regularly isn't just about technically ticking off results; above all, it's a way to understand your audience better and run sharper promotional campaigns.