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Industry benchmarks

How do you know if your newsletter is doing well? Industry benchmarks give you a reference point.

How do you know if your newsletter is doing well? Industry benchmarks give you a reference point.

A note on benchmarks

Benchmarks are a starting point, not a verdict. Your specific audience, industry, and content strategy matter more than average numbers. A 25% open rate might be excellent in one industry and concerning in another.

That said, here are some broadly applicable ranges to help you orient.

General email marketing benchmarks

These are rough averages across industries (based on commonly cited industry reports):

  • Open Rate — Typical: 18-25% | Good: 25-35% | Excellent: 35%+
  • Click Rate — Typical: 2-4% | Good: 4-7% | Excellent: 7%+
  • Click-to-Open Rate — Typical: 10-15% | Good: 15-25% | Excellent: 25%+
  • Bounce Rate — Typical: 1-3% | Good: under 1% | Excellent: under 0.5%
  • Unsubscribe Rate — Typical: 0.2-0.5% | Good: under 0.2% | Excellent: under 0.1%
  • Spam Complaint Rate — Typical: under 0.1% | Good: under 0.05% | Excellent: 0%

By industry (rough ranges)

  • Associations / Member organizations — typically higher open rates (30-45%), engaged audience
  • B2B media / Publishing — 20-30% opens, 3-6% clicks
  • Nonprofits — 25-35% opens, 2-4% clicks
  • Education — 25-40% opens, 3-6% clicks
  • B2C retail / Consumer brands — 15-25% opens, 1-3% clicks
  • Government / Public sector — 25-40% opens, 2-5% clicks
  • Tech / SaaS — 20-30% opens, 2-5% clicks

Why rasa.io users often outperform benchmarks

Because rasa.io's newsletters are AI-personalized:

  • Subscribers see content they're more likely to engage with
  • Engagement compounds over time as the AI learns
  • Click rates in particular tend to outperform industry averages

If you're consistently below benchmark for your industry, that's worth investigating. If you're above, great — but always look for opportunities to grow further.

What to do if you're below benchmark

If opens are low:

  • Review your subject line strategy (see Subject lines)
  • Check deliverability — are you authenticated? Are bounces low?
  • Consider list hygiene — inactive subscribers drag down rates
  • Test send time and frequency

If clicks are low (but opens are fine):

  • Subject line is working, content isn't landing
  • Review your sources — are articles relevant to your audience?
  • Look at featured articles — are they compelling?
  • Review your layout — is it easy to read and click?

If both are low:

What to do if you're above benchmark

  • Don't get complacent — engagement can drift
  • Document what's working so you can replicate it
  • Look for opportunities to grow your list — you have a strong product
  • Consider testing higher frequency to see if engagement holds

Important caveats

  • Open rates are less reliable since Apple Mail Privacy Protection — they tend to inflate iOS opens, so trend lines are more useful than absolute numbers
  • B2B sees more bot/scanner traffic than B2C — use Without Suspect Clicks for cleaner numbers
  • Highly engaged niches (member organizations, paid subscribers) typically run higher than general benchmarks

What's next

  • Analytics overview — the full map of reports
  • Email Health Report — a deeper look at your performance
  • Suspect clicks — getting accurate click data