Definition
Open rate
Open rate is the share of delivered emails that recipients open, the first sign your subject line and sender name earned attention.
Open rate is opens divided by delivered emails. It measures the envelope, not the contents: the subject line, the sender name, the send time, and whether the message cleared Email deliverability into the inbox at all. Treat it as a trend rather than an exact truth, because privacy features that pre-load images (such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection) now inflate reported opens for a large share of recipients.
For a restaurant, email is cheap and effective at bringing guests back, returning $10-$50 per $1, and the open is the gate that decides whether any of that happens. The lever is relevance: Segmentation lets you send regulars, lapsed guests, and new subscribers different subject lines, and timing a send near a meal decision beats a generic mid-morning blast.
Marketing tools (Klaviyo, Marsello) test subject lines and optimize send times automatically, but keep the metric in perspective: an open is a means, and the click (Click-through rate (CTR)) and the resulting order are the point. See email and SMS marketing.
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