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Business partnerships can be challenging!

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Welcome back!

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Today’s LOWDOWN: 😎 12.5-minute read time

  • 🦾 Prompt-Genie

  •  📧 Business partnerships can be challenging!

  • 💰 What are good open rates, CTRs, & CTORs for email campaigns?

  • 🤖Marketing Tool Spotlight: FullEnrich

  • 🔦 Featured Company: Coladka, Inc.

🦾 Prompt-Genie

@digitalsamaritan

Underrated AI hack! #aitools #aiwebsites #chatgptprompts #chatgpttutorial #learnchatgpt

📧 Business partnerships can be challenging!

If you've ever struggled to form the ideal partnership, you're in good company. It took time to realize that partnerships are more than just business deals—they're about building lasting relationships grounded in shared value.

Here are three key lessons I’ve learned along the way:

  1. It’s not just a partnership—it’s a relationship.
    Think of it as a two-way street. It’s not just about what your partner can do for you but also how you can bring value to them. When you prioritize the relationship, mutual respect and long-term success naturally follow. Both sides need to benefit.

  2. Consistent communication is crucial.
    Don't only check in when there’s something to report or a new initiative to launch. Sometimes, a simple “How are things on your side?” can go a long way. Regular, sincere communication shows you’re invested in their success, not just your own.

  3. Look for new ways to support them.
    At a recent event, I offered one of our partners the chance to display a sign at our booth. It was a small gesture, but it helped them gain leads and increase visibility. Little acts of support show that you’re thinking about their interests, too.

Key takeaway: Partnerships thrive when treated as relationships built on ongoing communication and mutual support. The more you invest in these connections, the stronger and more rewarding they become.

What’s your top tip for building strong business partnerships? I’d love to know!

💰 What are good open rates, CTRs, & CTORs for email campaigns?

Tracking the results of your email campaigns is one of the most effective ways to learn what your audience responds to and improve your results. When starting, it’s tough to know what to compare your results with. If you haven’t done much email marketing in the past, it’s tough to know a reasonable open rate, click-through rate, or click-to-open rate.

What is open rate?
Email open rate is the percentage of subscribers who open a specific email out of your total subscribers.

Tracking open rates will help you better understand how often people look forward to your emails, how effective your subject lines are, and what type of content interests your email list the most.

How do you calculate open rate?
To calculate it, you’ll divide the number of subscribers who opened your email by the number of subscribers the email was sent to. Or, you know, let our analytics tool calculate it for you.

While open rate is a helpful metric, it should never be the only email metric you look at to measure your campaign’s performance. Instead, you should consider multiple metrics and consider your goals for your email marketing campaigns.


What is a good open rate for email?
Depending on your industry, a good email open rate should be between 17% and 28%. While knowing these numbers is a great starting point, it’s worth looking into your industry averages and comparing your metrics with those in your industry.


What is the average open rate for email marketing & newsletters?
The average email open rate across all industries in 2021 was 21.5%, up 3.5% from 2020.

The industries with the highest open rates, such as Education, Agriculture, and Financial Services, average between 25% and 28%.

Here’s a look at how averages break down per industry.

Industry | Open Rates
Advertising & Marketing | 20.5%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting | 27.3%
Consumer Packaged Goods | 20%
Education | 28.5%
Financial Services | 27.1%
Restaurant, Food & Beverage | 18.5%
Government & Politics | 19.4%
Healthcare Services | 23.7%
IT/Tech/Software | 22.7%
Logistics & Wholesale | 23.4%
Media, Entertainment, Publishing | 23.9%
Nonprofit | 26.6%
Other | 19.9%
Professional Services | 19.3%
Real Estate, Design, Construction | 21.7%
Retail | 17.1%
Travel, Hospitality, Leisure | 20.2%
Wellness & Fitness | 19.2%
Average | 21.5%

What is the click-through rate (CTR)?
Click-through rate, or email click rate, measures how many people clicked on a hyperlink, call-to-action (CTA), or image within your email’s content. 

The main goal for tracking click-through rates is to measure engagement. Using click-through rates, you can gauge performance in the following areas:

  • Overall brand interest or email fatigue

  • Email content (written and visual)

  • Link placement

  • Link count

  • Media type

Since CTR shows the percentage of subscribers who clicked your email, it’s a good indicator of what percentage of your audience is interested in your content over time.


How do you calculate click-through rates?
Click-through rates can be calculated by taking the total number of clicks an email receives and dividing that number by the total number of delivered messages. Here’s what that equation looks like:

What is a good click-through rate for email?
A good click-through rate should be between 2% and 5%, depending on your industry.

What is the average click-through rate for email marketing?
In 2023, the average email open rate across all industries was 2.3%, down 0.3% from 2020. The industries with the highest click-through rates—like Education, Real Estate, and Agriculture—average between 3-5%.

Here’s a look at how averages break down per industry.
Industry | Click-Through Rates
Advertising & Marketing | 1.8%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting | 3.4%
Consumer Packaged Goods | 1.9%
Education | 4.4%
Financial Services | 2.4%
Restaurant, Food & Beverage | 2.0%
Government & Politics | 2.8%
Healthcare Services | 3.0%
IT/Tech/Software | 2.0%
Logistics & Wholesale | 2.0%
Media, Entertainment, Publishing | 2.9%
Nonprofit | 2.7%
Other | 2.6%
Professional Services | 2.1%
Real Estate, Design, Construction | 3.6%
Retail | 0.7%
Travel, Hospitality, Leisure | 1.4%
Wellness & Fitness | 1.2%
Average | 2.3%


What is click-to-open rate (CTOR)?
A metric that marketers aren’t very familiar with is the click-to-open rate (CTOR), which essentially measures the effectiveness of your email’s content

Because it’s based on the number of unique opens, CTOR is a good indicator of how engaging your content is to your subscribers. If your links, layout, copy, and overall content are interesting, your readers will want to learn more.

How do you calculate click-to-open rate?
Click-to-open rate is calculated by dividing the number of unique clicks by the number of unique opens.

For example, 100 clicks / 180 opens (multiplied by 100 for a percent) = 55%. As with all other email metrics, this can fluctuate based on the quality of your content.

To best understand and report on your CTOR, we recommend creating your own benchmarks rather than going by average numbers. Factors like industry, list size, and others all play into CTOR. So, when measuring your audience’s interest in your content, it’s best to compare it to your internal metrics to learn what your audience is responding to.

Looking at the CTOR numbers for each of your email campaigns is a great place to start. Better yet, if you send different email types, track the CTOR for each type. This may include monitoring your newsletter, welcome email, or one-off campaign to determine how effective your content marketing is and where you can improve.

What is a good click-to-open rate for email?
A good CTOR should be between 6% and 17%, depending on your industry. Again, we recommend looking at your specific industry to get a good idea of the metrics you should expect.

What is the average click-to-open rate for email marketing & newsletters?
In 2023, the average click-to-open rate was 10.5% across all industries. This is down 3.6% from 2020.  The industries with the highest CTORs — Real Estate, Education, Government & Politics — average between 14-17%.

Here’s a look at how averages break down per industry.
Industry | Click-to-Open Rates
Advertising & Marketing | 9.0%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting | 12.5%
Consumer Packaged Goods | 11.1%
Education | 15.7%
Financial Services | 10.1%
Restaurant, Food & Beverage | 10.5%
Government & Politics | 14.3%
Healthcare Services | 13.4%
IT/Tech/Software | 9.8%
Logistics & Wholesale | 11.7%
Media, Entertainment, Publishing | 12.4%
Nonprofit | 10.2%
Other | 13.2%
Professional Services | 11.1%
Real Estate, Design, Construction | 17.2%
Retail | 5.8%
Travel, Hospitality, Leisure | 8.7%
Wellness & Fitness | 6.0%
Average Totals | 10.5%

🤖Marketing Tool Spotlight: FullEnrich

FullEnrich provides data enrichment services, focusing on B2B companies. They specialize in offering email and phone waterfall enrichment solutions, helping businesses enhance the accuracy and quality of their contact data. Their services help companies improve marketing and sales by supplying complete and updated contact information, allowing for more effective customer outreach. The platform optimizes lead generation and customer engagement through enhanced data quality.

For more details, visit FullEnrich.

🔦 Featured Company: Coladka, Inc.

Coladka, Inc., currently raising funds on Wefunder, is an innovative liquor company known for its two premium brands, Moonbird Gin and GOATz Rum. These award-winning spirits are crafted using high-quality ingredients and offer unique experiences through augmented reality (AR) interactions via QR codes on each bottle. Moonbird Gin recently won a double gold medal at the 2024 San Francisco Spirits Competition.

Coladka has built a solid following, especially within its NFT communities, with over 12,000 active members supporting the brand. Their products are available nationwide and sold in 34 states through online retailers like https://www.spiritofthedao.com/. They are making strides in distribution agreements, particularly in North Carolina and Texas.

With a focus on quality and innovation, Coladka is positioning itself as a key player in the growing premium spirits market. The company is led by a team with deep industry connections, allowing them access to exclusive distribution channels and a strong foundation for future growth.​

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