At a glance
10.4%
Overall Avg CTOR, all industries combined
Open rate tells you how well your subject line and sender reputation work. CTOR tells you what happens once someone is inside your email. A high open rate with low CTOR = your subject line oversells. Low CTOR consistently means your content, design, or CTA is failing to convert engaged subscribers into traffic. Track both — but when troubleshooting, low CTOR is almost always a content or design problem, not a list problem.
| Industry | CTOR | Open Rate | Click Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government / Nonprofit | 18.4% | 28.7% | 5.3% |
| Healthcare / Wellness | 16.2% | 24.4% | 3.9% |
| Education / Training | 15.4% | 22.8% | 3.5% |
| Financial Services | 14.8% | 23.2% | 3.4% |
| SaaS / Technology | 13.4% | 20.4% | 2.7% |
| Publishing / Media | 12.8% | 21.4% | 2.7% |
| B2B Services | 12.4% | 18.8% | 2.3% |
| Real Estate | 10.8% | 19.4% | 2.1% |
| Travel / Hospitality | 9.8% | 20.8% | 2.0% |
| Restaurants / Food | 9.4% | 18.4% | 1.7% |
| Ecommerce / Retail | 8.4% | 17.2% | 1.4% |
| Fashion / Apparel | 7.8% | 16.4% | 1.3% |
| Beauty / Cosmetics | 8.2% | 17.8% | 1.5% |
| Home & Garden | 8.8% | 18.2% | 1.6% |
| Legal Services | 11.2% | 19.8% | 2.2% |
Open rates may be inflated 15–25% by Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Click rate (clicks ÷ sent) is a more reliable absolute metric.
Highest CTOR — triggered, expected, relevant
Avg CTOR 18.4% Welcome Series (email 1)Peak engagement window; set tone for list relationship
Avg CTOR 22.8% Abandoned CartHigh purchase intent; urgency drives clicks
Avg CTOR 16.4% Re-engagement / Win-backLower CTOR but filters inactive subscribers
Avg CTOR 8.4% Product Launch / AnnouncementPeaks on launch day; decays quickly in series
Avg CTOR 14.2% Newsletter / ContentDepends heavily on content quality and scan-ability
Avg CTOR 10.4% Promotional / SaleHigh open rate but click depends on offer strength
Avg CTOR 9.8% Survey / Feedback RequestClear single CTA drives strong CTOR
Avg CTOR 12.4% Event / Webinar InviteUrgency (date) and specificity drives engagement
Avg CTOR 13.8% Drip / Nurture (sequence)Declines through sequence; refresh content quarterly
Avg CTOR 11.2%These benchmarks are drawn from a multi-source benchmark cohort aggregated across industries and regions, covering the period Q1 2023 – Q4 2024. Figures on this page come from the Benchmarketing benchmark dataset: thousands of curated benchmark observations spanning channels, industries, and US metro areas, refreshed on a published schedule. Every statistic traces to a named source — no anonymous “studies show.” Data is sourced from:
The Benchmarketing 4-Band Method reads every marketing metric against four percentile bands — P25 (bottom quartile), median, P75 (top quartile), and elite (top ~10%) — for a specific industry and channel, instead of a single cross-industry average. Averages blend brand and non-brand campaigns, $500/month and $500,000/month accounts, and unrelated industries into a number almost nobody actually has.
Benchmarks reflect median values across large sample sets. Your industry, business model, and account maturity will cause variation. Use P25/P75 ranges to understand realistic distribution.
Read full methodologyClick-to-Open Rate (CTOR) = (unique clicks ÷ unique opens) × 100. It measures how well your email content converts openers into clickers. Click rate = unique clicks ÷ total sent. CTOR is a better measure of content relevance because it removes list quality from the equation — a low CTOR means your content didn't live up to the subject line promise, not that your list is bad.
Email Open Rate Benchmarks
Industry benchmarks for open rates
Email Click Rate Benchmarks
CTR benchmarks for email marketing
Email Newsletter Benchmarks
Newsletter-specific performance data
Email Drip Benchmarks
Automated nurture sequence benchmarks
Abandoned Cart Email Benchmarks
Cart recovery email performance
Conversion Rate Benchmarks
CVR across all channels
Every statistic on this page traces to a named source below. Benchmarketing does not publish anonymous "studies show" figures. Rows labeled Benchmarketing are our own aggregated, curated benchmark data.
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Written by
Benchmarketing Research Team
Data & Analytics
Reviewed by
Performance Marketing Editorial
Senior Review
Last updated
Reviewed March 2026
Observation period: Q1 2023 – Q4 2024