| name | sales-openrates |
| description | Open Rates platform help — real-time database of 10,000+ companies actively advertising in newsletters, with decision-maker contacts and niche filtering for sponsor prospecting. Use when you need to find brands that are actively buying newsletter ad placements, want contact info for sponsor decision-makers in your niche, trying to build a list of potential sponsors to pitch, comparing Open Rates to alternatives like SponsorGap or Who Sponsors Stuff, or need a larger sponsor database than SponsorLeads offers. Do NOT use for general newsletter monetization strategy (use /sales-newsletter) or newsletter sponsorship marketplace transactions (use /sales-paved). |
| argument-hint | [describe your newsletter sponsor prospecting question] |
| license | MIT |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| tags | ["sales","newsletter","sponsorship","platform"] |
Open Rates Platform Help
Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.
-
What are you trying to do?
- A) Find companies that sponsor newsletters in my niche
- B) Get contact info for sponsor decision-makers
- C) Compare Open Rates to alternatives (SponsorGap, Who Sponsors Stuff, SponsorLeads)
- D) Build a sponsor outreach list for cold pitching
- E) Understand what sponsors are actively buying in my vertical
-
What's your newsletter niche? (e.g., fintech, marketing, health, tech, education)
-
Current subscriber count and open rate? (affects sponsor targeting)
Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already contains enough context, skip to Step 2.
Step 2 — Route or answer directly
| If the question is about... | Route to... |
|---|
| Newsletter monetization strategy (subscriptions, ads, pricing models) | /sales-newsletter [question] |
| Sponsorship marketplace / programmatic ad network | /sales-paved [question] |
| Sponsor intelligence with API access, competitor monitoring, spend trends | /sales-sponsorgap [question] |
| Sponsor intelligence with ad creative screenshots | /sales-whosponsorsstuff [question] |
| Curated sponsor lead list in Airtable with weekly updates | /sales-sponsorleads [question] |
| Managing sponsor operations (invoices, portals, reporting) | /sales-sponsy [question] |
| Growing your subscriber list | /sales-audience-growth [question] |
If the question is Open Rates-specific, continue to Step 3.
Step 3 — Open Rates platform reference
Read references/platform-guide.md for the full platform reference — capabilities, data coverage, comparison with alternatives, and prospecting workflows.
Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.
Step 4 — Actionable guidance
Focus on the user's specific situation:
- Small list (<5K subs): Use Open Rates to research which brands sponsor newsletters in your niche. Build a target sponsor list for when you're ready to pitch.
- Mid-size (5K-25K subs): Filter sponsors by your vertical, export contacts, and run a cold outreach campaign. Focus on brands already advertising in similar-sized newsletters.
- Larger (25K+ subs): Use the 10K+ sponsor database to identify patterns — which industries are most active, which brands are scaling spend. Combine with SponsorGap (for trend data and API) or Who Sponsors Stuff (for ad creative intel).
- Budget-conscious: Compare with SponsorGap Starter ($39/mo) and SponsorLeads ($97/mo) which have transparent pricing. Open Rates pricing requires contacting the team.
If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.
Gotchas
Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration gotchas that may be outdated.
- No API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make: All data access is through the web interface only. No programmatic access.
- Pricing not publicly disclosed: You must contact the Open Rates team for pricing. No self-serve checkout visible.
- Database size is the main differentiator: 10,000+ sponsors is larger than SponsorLeads (~4,318) but smaller than SponsorGap (~38,000). The value depends on niche coverage and data freshness.
- No ad creative visibility: Unlike Who Sponsors Stuff, you can't see the actual ads sponsors are running. Focus is on contact data and sponsor activity.
- Website may have connectivity issues: The openrates.co domain has shown intermittent TLS errors — if the site is unreachable, try again later or contact support.
Related skills
/sales-newsletter — Newsletter monetization strategy (paid subscriptions, sponsorships, ad sales, pricing)/sales-sponsorgap — SponsorGap sponsor intelligence (38K+ brands, verified contacts, competitor monitoring, spend trends, API)/sales-whosponsorsstuff — Who Sponsors Stuff sponsor intelligence (8,000+ sponsors, ad creative screenshots, email alerts)/sales-sponsorleads — SponsorLeads sponsor lead lists (4,318+ companies, decision-maker contacts, Airtable database)/sales-paved — Paved newsletter sponsorship marketplace, Ad Network, Booker, Radar/sales-reletter — Reletter newsletter search engine (7M+ publications, subscriber data, creator contacts, API)/sales-sponsy — Sponsy sponsorship operations (ad inventory calendar, sponsor CRM, customer portals, reporting)/sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do
Examples
Example 1: Finding sponsors for a health newsletter
User says: "I run a health and wellness newsletter with 10,000 subscribers. How do I use Open Rates to find sponsors?"
Skill does: Explains how to filter the 10K+ sponsor database by health/wellness vertical, suggests building a shortlist of 20-30 actively sponsoring brands, recommends exporting contacts and verifying before cold outreach
Result: User has a targeted sponsor prospect list ready for outreach
Example 2: Comparing Open Rates to alternatives
User says: "Should I use Open Rates or SponsorGap for finding newsletter sponsors?"
Skill does: Compares database size (Open Rates 10K+ vs SponsorGap 38K+), features (Open Rates is simpler prospecting tool vs SponsorGap has API, competitor monitoring, spend trends), pricing (both require contacting sales or have tiered pricing)
Result: User picks the right tool — Open Rates for simple prospecting, SponsorGap for intelligence-driven workflows
Example 3: Automating sponsor data into outreach tools
User says: "Can I automatically sync Open Rates data into my CRM?"
Skill does: Explains no API or native integrations exist, walks through manual export workflow, suggests SponsorGap as an alternative if API access is required for automated pipelines
Result: User understands the manual workflow and can decide if that's sufficient or if they need a more automated tool
Troubleshooting
Database doesn't cover my niche
Symptom: Searching for sponsors in your vertical returns too few results
Cause: The 10K+ sponsors may skew toward popular verticals (tech, business, marketing); smaller niches may have less coverage
Solution: Try broader search terms (e.g., "technology" instead of "developer tools"). If coverage is truly insufficient, try SponsorGap (38K+ brands) or Who Sponsors Stuff (500+ newsletters tracked) for broader coverage.
Can't determine pricing before committing
Symptom: No public pricing page, unsure about cost
Cause: Open Rates uses a contact-based sales process
Solution: Reach out directly through their website. For comparison: SponsorGap Starter is $39/mo, SponsorLeads Pro is $97/mo. If transparent pricing matters, start with one of those.
Contact data is stale or bouncing
Symptom: Emails to Open Rates contacts bounce or get no response
Cause: Decision-makers change roles; contact databases have a natural decay rate
Solution: Always verify emails before sending (ZeroBounce, SafetyMails). Cross-reference contacts with LinkedIn for current role. Focus outreach on the most recently active sponsors.
