Open Rate Benchmarks by Industry

Why this matters

Open rate benchmarks give you the baseline to know whether your own numbers represent a real problem or normal variation for your sector. Comparing a SaaS open rate to a retail average leads to the wrong diagnosis and the wrong fix.

Try it yourself

1. Find your industry in Mailchimp's benchmark report and write down the average open rate, click rate, and unsubscribe rate for your sector.
2. Calculate your own list's open rate for the last five campaigns and plot the trend — note whether it's rising, falling, or stable relative to the industry benchmark.
3. Segment your list by signup source and compare open rates per segment — identify which source consistently beats or misses the industry average.

References

• Mailchimp Email Marketing Benchmarks