Marketing Glossary

Open Rate (Email Engagement Signal)

The percentage of delivered emails that recipients actually open — the first sign anyone noticed you at all.

Used in context
4.1 — Email Performance Benchmarks

…We’ll track open rate weekly against your industry benchmark to catch subject-line fatigue before it hurts sends.…

What it means

Open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that recipients open, calculated as unique opens divided by emails delivered. It’s typically the first metric marketers check after a send.

Because privacy features on some email clients now pre-fetch images and inflate opens, open rate is best read as a directional trend — alongside clicks and conversions — rather than an absolute truth.

Tests subject lines fast

Open rate is the quickest feedback loop for whether your subject line and send time are working.

Flags list health early

A sudden drop often signals deliverability trouble before it shows up anywhere else.

Guides send timing

Comparing opens across days and times shows when your audience is actually reading email.

DNA’s Take

DNA's Take: We benchmark open rate against your industry and your own history, not a generic average, and pair it with click data so subject-line wins actually translate into pipeline.

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