Email Marketing Benchmarks: Open Rates, Click Rates by Industry

Knowing what “good” looks like is the first step to improving your email marketing. Without benchmarks, you are flying blind.

Figures last checked against the publishers’ reports on October 5, 2026. Each publisher measures its own customers, so the numbers differ by platform and are not interchangeable.

Average Email Marketing Benchmarks

Three publishers’ own reports, each with a different customer base and period:

Metric	MailerLite (Dec 2024 to Nov 2025)	GetResponse (2023 data, 2024 report)	Mailchimp (updated Dec 2023)
Open rate	43.46%	39.64%	35.63%
Click rate	2.09%	3.25%	2.62%
Click-to-open rate	6.81%	8.62%	not published
Unsubscribe rate	0.22%	0.15%	0.22%

MailerLite’s report covers 3.6 million campaigns from more than 181,000 accounts. GetResponse’s covers 4.4 billion messages sent in 2023. Mailchimp has not republished its table since December 2023, so treat that column as dated. GetResponse also reports a 2.33% bounce rate and a spam complaint rate below 0.01%.

Open rates are inflated by mail clients that preload images, so the gap between platforms says as much about audience mix as about performance. MailerLite attributes its rise in unsubscribes (0.08% to 0.22%) to Gmail’s changes that make unsubscribing from promotional email easier.

Open and Click Rates by Industry

Industry matters. MailerLite’s 2025 report (campaign-level averages for its customers) shows a wide spread:

Industry	Open rate	Click rate	Unsubscribe rate
Religion	55.71%	2.95%	0.13%
Non-profit	52.38%	2.90%	0.19%
Government	48.52%	3.05%	0.22%
Business & Finance	43.34%	2.37%	0.16%
Medical, Dental & Healthcare	43.75%	2.25%	0.20%
Media	42.97%	4.10%	0.10%
Software & Web App	39.31%	1.15%	0.20%
Retail	37.47%	1.27%	0.22%
E-commerce	32.67%	1.07%	0.18%
Travel & Transportation	30.10%	1.68%	0.13%

Religion has the highest open rate in that report and Travel & Transportation the lowest. The click-rate extremes are Legal (4.90%) at the top and Politics (0.83%) at the bottom.

Mailchimp’s December 2023 table gives a similar ordering on a smaller set of industries: Non-Profits (40.04% open, 3.27% click), Education and Training (35.64%, 3.02%), Business and Finance (31.35%, 2.78%) and Ecommerce (29.81%, 1.74%). GetResponse’s 2023 data puts Communications at 65.14% open and Legal Services at a 12.11% click rate, so its industry figures run well above the other two.

A high open rate with a low click rate suggests your subject lines work but your content or calls to action do not. MailerLite’s click-to-open rate for ecommerce (4.01%) against Media (12.92%) shows how much that varies.

What Separates Good from Great

Hitting the industry average is fine. Exceeding it consistently requires attention to four areas:

List hygiene. Remove inactive subscribers every 3-6 months. A clean list of 5,000 engaged subscribers will outperform a neglected list of 50,000 every time. Our email list cleaning guide covers the process in detail.

Segmentation. Sending the same email to everyone guarantees mediocre results. Segmenting by behavior, purchase history, or engagement level tends to produce more relevant sends than one message to the whole list. See our segmentation guide for strategies.

Send frequency. More is not always better. Most B2B audiences respond best to 1-2 emails per week. Ecommerce can push to 3-5 during promotional periods, but watch unsubscribe rates closely. Our frequency guide breaks down the data.

Subject lines and preview text. These determine your open rate. Keep subject lines short, use specific numbers or questions, and write preview text that complements rather than repeats the subject. Check our subject line tips for tested approaches.

How Your Email Tool Affects Deliverability

Here is something many marketers overlook: the platform you send from directly affects whether your emails reach the inbox. Each email marketing tool maintains shared IP pools, enforces (or fails to enforce) sender policies, and has a reputation with inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook.

Tools with strict onboarding, anti-spam enforcement, and well-maintained sending infrastructure tend to have higher deliverability rates. Tools that allow anyone to sign up and blast purchased lists drag down deliverability for everyone on their shared IPs.

Based on our own measurements (see each tool’s review for the verification date), here is how the top tools compare on deliverability:

• GetResponse: 99% deliverability rate (the highest in our data)
• Omnisend: 98.5% (strong for ecommerce senders)
• Kit (ConvertKit): 98.2% (consistently strong for creator newsletters)
• Moosend: 98% (strong deliverability at budget pricing)
• ActiveCampaign: 97.5% (reliable across all campaign types)
• MailerLite: 97% (solid, with strict account approval that helps maintain quality)

For a deeper look at what drives inbox placement, read our deliverability feature guide.

Dedicated IP vs Shared IP

Most email tools use shared IP addresses on their lower-tier plans. This means your deliverability is partially influenced by other senders on the same IP. If another sender on your shared IP gets flagged for spam, your emails can be affected too.

Dedicated IP addresses isolate your sender reputation, but they are only worth it if you send enough volume (typically 50,000+ emails per month) to build and maintain a good reputation on that IP. Too little volume on a dedicated IP can actually hurt deliverability because inbox providers have less data to evaluate.

Most small and mid-sized senders are better off on a shared IP from a reputable platform that enforces strict sender policies.

Authentication Matters More Than Ever

In 2024, Gmail and Yahoo rolled out stricter authentication requirements. Google’s bulk sender rules apply to senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail and require SPF, DKIM and DMARC, plus a spam rate below 0.30% in Postmaster Tools (0.10% recommended). Every sender should have:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Tells inbox providers which servers can send on your behalf
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Cryptographically signs your emails to prove they have not been altered
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication): Tells inbox providers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks

Most email marketing tools handle SPF and DKIM setup during onboarding. DMARC requires a DNS record on your domain. If you have not set these up, that is likely costing you inbox placement right now.

Benchmarks Are a Starting Point, Not a Target

Industry averages tell you where you stand relative to peers, but they should not cap your ambition. A well-maintained list with relevant content and proper segmentation can beat the average for its industry.

Focus on trends over absolute numbers. If your open rate is climbing and your unsubscribe rate is falling, you are moving in the right direction regardless of where you sit relative to benchmarks.

For help choosing a tool that prioritizes deliverability, explore our deliverability-focused tools or take the tool finder quiz to get a personalized recommendation. You can also compare tools side by side on our email marketing metrics guide to understand which numbers matter most for your business.

Sources

1. MailerLite: Email Marketing Benchmarks 2025-2026 — accessed 2026-10-05
2. GetResponse: Email Marketing Benchmarks & Statistics (2024) — accessed 2026-10-05
3. Mailchimp: Email Marketing Benchmarks and Metrics — accessed 2026-10-05
4. Google: Email sender guidelines (bulk sender requirements) — accessed 2026-10-05
5. GetResponse — Official Website — accessed 2026-03-31
6. Kit (ConvertKit) — Official Website — accessed 2026-03-31