As you have probably seen in your Missile Mail account, your email is measured on its ‘unique opens’ and ‘clicked a link’, but what exactly is a unique open and what makes a good open rate?An open rate is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by:So if you have an open rate of 20% and 10 emails were delivered, two were opened.How do you measure an open?A piece of code is automatically added to each email sent out and requests a tiny, invisible image from web servers, so when a reader opens your email, the image is downloaded and we record that download as an open.If you are sending a plain text email, there is no way to record open rates as they can only be recorded if the reader is capable of displaying html with images and that option has been turned on.What is a ‘normal’ open rate?It’s hard to say exactly what a ‘normal’ or typical open rate is because it depends on your content, business type, group of lists and industry. A small business will most likely have a closer connection to their clients and will therefore have a greater open rate than a large corporation, but it also depends on what you’re writing in your emails.Below is an image with a rough guideline of a typical open rate depending on your industry:

A couple of things to remember about open rates:

• Sending to a niche market will increase your open rate as people are typically more interested in the content
• Organisations and companies sending to enthusiasts and supporters such as churches, sports teams and non-profits usually have higher open rates

Having an open rate between 20% and 40% is considered average So, how can you increase your open rate?There isn’t a magical secret to increasing open rates but there are a couple of adjustments you can try out for your next campaign:

• Try something different in your subject line. Include details about the content so the reader knows what to expects
• Play around with your article layout – include an intro if you don’t usually have one and always put your most important content up the top
• Try sending on a different day. Your subscribers might have meetings on Wednesday morning that you don’t know about, so mix it up a little

You can always contact Bang Online for help with Missile Mail at info@bangdigital.com.au