According to MailerLite's 2025 benchmark report:

Across all industries:

• Median open rate: 43.46%
• Median click rate: 2.09%
• Median unsubscribe rate: 0.22% (MailerLite)

What These Numbers Mean

While open rates remain useful for directional analysis, they should no longer serve as the primary measure of campaign success because Apple's Mail Privacy Protection inflates reported opens. Instead, marketers should emphasize:

• Qualified responses
• Website engagement
• Demo requests
• Content downloads
• Meetings booked
• Pipeline contribution

This shift is particularly important for organizations marketing to schools, where purchasing decisions often involve multiple stakeholders.

Data Quality Is the Foundation of Campaign Performance

One consistent finding across modern email marketing research is that database quality directly influences campaign outcomes.

An outdated school email database can lead to: