1-Minute Recap
If you only skim, here’s the big picture:
- Email click-to-open rate (CTOR) is an email marketing metric that shows what percentage of people who open your email actually click.
- It sits alongside email open rate and click through rate (CTR) as one of the core performance signals:
- Open rate = inbox and subject performance
- CTR = campaign-level action
- CTOR = email content and call to action quality
- For casinos, hotels, and franchises, CTOR is the fastest way to:
- Compare promos vs “reputation” sends (PR, brand campaigns, host outreach)
- Decide which always-on flows in your marketing campaign stack to scale, tweak, or kill.
If you haven’t yet, this blog sits alongside:
What Is Email Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)?
Email click-to-open rate (CTOR) measures what percentage of people who open your email went on to click at least one link.
In other words, CTOR asks:
“Out of everyone who opened this email, how many people clicked and showed real interest in the email content?”
That makes it one of the most useful email marketing benchmarks for content and creative performance.
How to Calculate Click to Open (CTOR)
Here’s the standard way to calculate click to open:
CTOR (%) = (Number of unique clicks ÷ Number of unique opens) × 100
A few key points:
- Number of unique clicks = the total number of people who clicked at least once (not all clicks combined).
- Unique opens = the total number of people who opened the email at least once.
- You can also use total clicks and total opens, but most teams prefer the unique version for cleaner comparison.
Example:
- You send a marketing campaign to 100,000 contacts on your email lists.
- 40,000 unique opens
- 3,200 unique clicks
So:
- Total number of unique opens = 40,000
- Total number of unique clicks = 3,200
CTOR = 3,200 ÷ 40,000 × 100 = 8%
At the same time, CTR (click through rate CTR) would be:
CTR = 3,200 ÷ 100,000 × 100 = 3.2%
Same total number of clicks, but two different email marketing metrics telling different stories.
CTOR vs CTR vs Email Open Rate
To derive value from CTOR, you must determine where it fits within your metric stack.
Email Open Rate – “Did we win the inbox?”
Email open rate measures what percentage of delivered emails were opened.
It’s shaped by:
- From name
- Subject line
- Timing
- Inbox placement
Our open rate 101 guide covers this top-of-funnel email marketing metric in detail.
Click Through Rate (CTR) – “Did the campaign drive action overall?”
Click-through rate (CTR) measures the percentage of delivered emails that generated a click:
CTR = (clicks ÷ delivered) × 100
CTR mixes:
- List quality & segmentation
- Subject + preview
- Email content & call to action
- Landing page alignment
For definitions, formulas, and tactics, that’s exactly what our CTR guide is for.
CTOR – “Did our email content earn the click?”
CTOR zooms in on people who open:
CTOR = (unique clicks ÷ unique opens) × 100
So:
- High open rates + low CTOR
- People thought the subject line was interesting, but the email content or CTA did not deliver.
- Modest open rate + strong CTOR
- Fewer people opened, but those who did found it relevant and compelling.
That’s why CTOR is the best “quality filter” for email marketing campaigns: it isolates what happens after the open.
What Is a “Good” Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR) in 2026?
Because industries and lists differ, there’s no single perfect average click to open rate CTOR, but we can define reasonable ranges:
- Under 5% – Your content or offer likely isn’t resonating with people who open.
- 5–10% – In line with many global averages and email marketing benchmarks.
- 10–15%+ – Strong performance for most segments, especially at scale.
- 15–25%+ – Often seen in highly targeted, triggered flows (cart/booking abandon, expiring offers, trip/event reminders).
For casinos, hotels, and franchises—where you’re not blasting strangers, but known guests, players, and franchise leads—your “good” CTOR should usually be at the upper end of those bands.
Why CTOR Matters More Than Ever
Open data is noisy, CTOR is cleaner
Privacy changes and auto-loading can inflate open rate and give the illusion of high open rates even when engagement is average. CTOR looks only at people who opened and then took an action, so it’s much harder to fake.
It tells you if content and CTAs are actually working
Because CTOR is all about people clicked ÷ people who open, it’s the clearest signal of:
- Whether your email content is relevant
- Whether your call to action is strong
- Whether your hero offer is actually worth the click
If you want to know whether that beautifully designed email was more than just eye candy, CTOR is the metric.
It helps prioritize what to scale (and what to kill)
In enterprise setups—multiple brands, locations, hosts, and journeys—there’s always more you could send. CTOR helps you decide what deserves more volume and budget.
- High CTOR flows → scale, repeat, clone for similar segments
- Mediocre CTOR flows → test new subject lines, offers, layouts
- Consistently low CTOR → retire or radically rework
How Casinos, Hotels, and Franchises Can Use CTOR
Compare promos vs “reputation” emails
You’re not only sending heavy offer-driven emails. You’re also sending:
- Casino PR stories and community updates
- Brand, loyalty, and experience campaigns for hotels
- Educational content and success stories for franchise development
Use CTOR to:
- Separate short-term promo performance from long-term reputation building
- See whether “soft” campaigns are still engaging the right audience
Our guide on casino email marketing strategies is a helpful link. It explains how promotional and PR content work together in casino email campaigns.
Rank always-on journeys by engagement
Always-on journeys include:
- Casino: welcome series, new player education, host outreach, reactivation
- Hotels: browse/booking abandon, pre-arrival upsells, post-stay review requests
- Franchises: lead nurture stages, territory overviews, funding education
For each email in the sequence, track:
- Open rate
- CTR
- CTOR
Then:
- High open rate + high CTOR → star content. Consider sending similar messaging to more segments.
- High open rate + low CTOR → the hook is great, but the body needs work.
- Low open rate + high CTOR → get more people to the party (test list, subject, send time).
This is how you turn CTOR into a practical editing tool, not just another number.
Use CTOR to evaluate segments, not just campaigns
CTOR by segment tells you whether your email lists are set up in a way that actually reflects customer behavior:
- VIP players vs casual visitors
- Local hotel guests vs destination travelers
- Early-stage vs late-stage franchise leads
If a segment consistently delivers high open rates but low CTOR, they’re either:
- Getting the wrong kind of content, or
- No longer a good audience for that type of campaign
When you see segments with a high average click to open rate CTOR, those are the people to build more journeys and offers around.
How to Improve CTOR: Practical Levers
Deliver on the subject line promise
If the subject and preview promise one thing and the hero content switches topics, CTOR nosedives.
- Keep topic, benefit, and tone aligned from subject line to hero to CTA.
- Don’t use clickbait subject lines that steal attention but create disappointment.
Make your primary CTA impossible to miss
Your call to action is the bridge between engagement and conversion. To improve CTOR:
- Have one primary CTA per email whenever possible.
- Make the button visually distinct and mobile-friendly.
- Put the CTA high in the email, then repeat it at the bottom for scrollers.
- Use language that connects to the core value of the marketing campaign:
- “See your offers for this weekend”
- “View March rates for your dates”
- “Download the franchise investment guide”
Tighten who you send to before you rewrite everything
If CTOR is weak:
- Check if you’re sending to a bloated audience on your email lists.
- Consider suppressing:
- Old, cold segments
- People who haven’t opened in months (or years)
- Split the campaign by intent (e.g., recent visitors vs lapsed, early vs late-stage leads) and monitor CTOR for each.
Often, you’ll see CTOR jump just by cutting out the least interested slices.
Make mobile the default, not the afterthought
Most modern email marketing campaigns see a majority of opens on mobile devices. If your design is cramped, slow, or cluttered, people won’t bother to scroll—much less click.
- Stick to a single-column layout
- Use large text and ample spacing
- Keep copy tight and scannable
- Make sure links and buttons are easy to tap
Better mobile UX → more people clicked → stronger CTOR.
Bring personalization down to earth
Personalization helps CTOR when it solves a problem for the reader:
- Casinos: “Here are your offers based on your last visit and favorite games.”
- Hotels: “These dates and packages match your typical stay pattern.”
- Franchises: “Case studies and build-out examples for your region and investment level.”
It’s not about showing how much data you have—it’s about using that data to make clicking feel like the obvious next move.
Where iPost Fits in a CTOR-Driven World
For enterprise marketers in casinos, hospitality, and franchises, iPost is built around data-rich, regulated environments:
- Player IDs and host data
- PMS and booking systems
- Multi-brand, multi-location franchise structures
That means you can:
- Calculate click to open and other metrics per property, segment, or journey, not just at the account level
- See CTOR for:
- Promo vs PR vs lifecycle streams
- Different email lists and hierarchy levels
- Specific casino/hotel/franchise programs
- Use CTOR to decide where to invest more creative, budget, and automation effort
And if you’re deep in casino marketing specifically, you can tie all of this into the playbooks inside:
