Agency email addresses achieve about 15% higher open rates than brand addresses, with agency emails seeing an open rate of 41.54% compared to 35.68% for brands. This difference likely stems from agencies' ability to craft more engaging subject lines. Agencies also tend to filter their pitches for newsworthy content, enhancing their appeal. When agencies send from brand domains, their open rates increase even further to 43.51%. The article provides examples of catchy subject lines from agencies that evoke urgency and emotion, which contrasts sharply with the more clinical tones found in brand subject lines. When it comes to replies, brand email addresses outperform agency addresses, generating around 60% more replies. Brand emails have a reply rate of 1.07%, while agency emails sit at 0.67%. This trend holds across various data slices, indicating that brand recognition plays a significant role in enticing responses. Agencies sending from brand domains still see a boost in replies, suggesting that established authority influences engagement. The article notes that brands tend to leave their pitches open-ended, inviting further conversation, but advises against this practice. Providing complete information upfront is more effective. The analysis draws from over 16,000 PR campaigns and highlights the importance of email addresses in outreach effectiveness. While reactive campaigns didn’t significantly change the reply rates, sending from personal Gmail accounts had minimal impact, with a mere eight campaigns recorded and an open rate of just 24%. The findings emphasize the need for strategic choice in email domains and the crafting of compelling pitches to engage journalists effectively.