$ man open-rate-rule

5% Open Rate Rule for First 2 Weeks

During the first 2 weeks of a new campaign, expect low open rates (around 5%) and don't panic. The mailbox is building reputation with real contacts. Real open rates stabilize after 2-3 weeks of consistent sending with healthy infrastructure.

New senders freak out when their first campaign shows 5% open rates. They think the copy is bad, the list is wrong, or the platform is broken. Usually it's none of those. It's just a new domain with new mailboxes that haven't built inbox-level reputation yet. Email providers are cautious with new senders — they route some emails to spam, some to promotions, some to primary. After 2 weeks of consistent, clean sending, the ratio shifts. Open rates climb.

I tell every partner: ignore open rates for the first 2 weeks of a new campaign on new infrastructure. The data is noise. What I watch instead is bounce rate (<5% hard bounces), spam complaints (near zero), and warmup engagement (healthy in Instantly's dashboard). If those metrics are clean, the low open rates are just the inbox providers testing us. By week 3-4, open rates should climb to 15-30% depending on the campaign. If they don't, then something's actually wrong.