Open rate says nothing about interest: what to check instead

A newsletter report shows a 40% open rate — the number looks good, but sales didn't budge after the email went out. Opening an email is a reaction to the subject line in an inbox, not a judgment of the content.

Look at clicks, not opens

Open rate can be inflated by mail-provider bots that open an email to scan it for spam before a person ever sees it. A more honest number is the click-through rate on a link inside the email: it shows the text actually caught someone's interest, not just flickered in an inbox list.

Separate the click from the action

A click to your site isn't a purchase or a lead yet. Check what happens next: did the person read the article to the end, fill out a form, come back the next day. If clicks are there but actions aren't, the subject line may be promising something the page doesn't deliver.

Compare your own emails, not industry averages

Checking the "average open rate for your industry" isn't useful: audiences and subject lines differ too much. It's more useful to compare your own emails against each other — which subject line or send day got more clicks last week. After a few newsletters, that comparison reveals a pattern better than a one-off open-rate number.