Getting a good grasp of your own marketing pursuits is no easy feat, especially without a good point of reference. What kind of CTRs should a company like yours expect? Should you feel proud about your open rates? In line with our tradition, we have compiled an email marketing study that highlights the most important KPIs for newsletter creators.
open and click rates in email marketing
Getting a good grasp of your own marketing pursuits is no easy feat, especially without a good point of reference. What kind of CTRs should a company like yours expect? Should you feel proud about your open rates? In line with our tradition, we have compiled an email marketing study that highlights the most important KPIs for newsletter creators. Click-, open rates and other factors were accounted for in 30 most important industries. These will help you to estimate an average open rate, for example, for your campaign. You can also compare your company’s results to those in other industries. Such a comparison should help to identify optimisation opportunities for future newsletters and to increase future campaign success.
We offer data we’ve gathered throughout this year and we haven’t omitted a single newsletter. The blog post should make for a representative overview of email marketing results for 2016. Both newsletters and automated mailings were included in the study.
The email marketing study offers you an overview of average values and click-, open rates, Click-through rates (CTR) and bounce rates. Feel free to compare these statistics with our 2015 and 2014 report.
Client privacy is in our utmost interest, therefore the study includes average stats which protects customer privacy. Feel free to use these starts and customize your email marketing strategy!
Basic Terminology
The open rate indicates the number of people who opened a commercial email, which is measured either by sent or delivered emails. It is calculated by dividing the number of email messages opened by the total number of email messages sent or by the number of unique clicks an email message’s links as a percentage of subscribers (unique click rate). The latter is also included in the study.
The click rate measures the number of users who click on a specific link sent in an email. It is calculated by dividing the number of email messages opened by the total number of email messages sent or by the number of unique clicks an email message’s links as a percentage of subscribers (unique click rate). Our study showcases unique click rates in order to highlight the number of engaged subscribers.
Click-through-rate (CTR) is the ratio of users who click on a specific link after reading an email. This helps to evaluate the click rate in relation to the open rate.
Bounce rate occurs when an email is rejected by a subscriber’s email server. Soft bounce typically indicates a temporary delivery issue to an address, while a hard bounce implies a permanent reason an email cannot be delivered. Bounce rate also includes spam e-mail.
Email Marketing Stats in Detail
We drew average values from 30 different industries. Feel free to check our graphics to learn which industries were included.
While the open rates have slightly dropped in comparison to last year, click rates have remained stable. The click-through rates have raised by one percentage point, while the bounce rates have dropped.
Low open rates indicate a higher number of sent out emails, which is what our data confirms. Getting a client to open an email has therefore become harder. An increase of CTS is a positive trend. This trend marks success for both Newsletter2Go and our clients. We strive to empower you to produce more quality in email marketing and reward you for your good results. It is also worth to acknowledge the decreased bounce rate, which indicates more clean email lists.
Unique Open Rate by Industry
The real estate industry has enjoyed the highest open rates for the past two years. Buyers agent services, for example, seem to know best how to compel the reader to open a newsletter. High click rates are also noted in hobbies, photo and video, art and architecture industries. Digital agencies and online shops are at the bottom of the list, probably because a high volume of commercial emails is in the nature of these industries.
Unique Click Rate by Industry
Email click rates tell a similar story. Real estate and hobbies top the list. Not only do they know how to draw the reader in, but they are well informed about their interests. Travel and transportation, insurance, NGO and digital agency marketing campaigns come second. Newspaper industry, among others, has noted a slight decrease in unique click rates in comparison to last year.
The list is closed by healthcare, daily deals/e-coupons and entertainment. Keeping a clean subscriber list and content improvement should up the score.
Click-through Rate By Industry
The CTR is an extremely meaningful ratio, which doesn’t only measure the clicks in relation to all sent emails, but also in relation to opened emails. Therefore, the CTR is more reliable than the absolute click rate.
The highest CTR rates were achieved by digital agencies, non-profit and retail representatives, however hobbies and travel and transportation industries came close. Online shops have much higher CTRs than click rates. Once the subscriber opens the email, there’s a high chance that they will find the content interesting.
Entertainment and events, computers and electronics, telecoms, architecture and daily deals/e-commerce enjoy the lowest CTRs. What it means is that either the email content isn’t engaging or relevant.
Bounce Rate by Industry
The bounce rate is an important indicator of a clean email list. The smaller the bounce rate, the better the email list turns out to be. Regular email dispatch and keeping the list updates result in low bounce rates. Consequently, a high bounce rate indicates an outdated list. Newsletter2Go is proud to see a decrease in bounce rates.
The beauty industry enjoys the lowest bounce rate. Sport, e-coupons and online shops campaigns also note low bounce rate levels. Even industries that can’t boast high subscriber engagement seem to keep up-to-date email lists.
The highest bounce rates were noted in healthcare, architecture, construction and consulting sectors. Updating the email list would certainly improve the score.
Track More
The key to a successful email marketing strategy is a detailed analysis of newsletter reports and email warmup service. Our reporting tools aim to support your email marketing strategy. What do your stats look like in comparison to your industry and other markets? Were they many surprises? Where do you see a need for optimization?
If you’d like to improve your stats and do even better in email marketing, head to our comprehensive knowledge database. You can enjoy informative blog posts, infographics and whitepapers on email marketing-related topics on a regular basis. Our YouTube channel also provides a great source of knowledge. If you’d like to know more about a specific topic, feel free to reach out.
Stefania Goldman is a passionate storyteller at Newsletter2Go. She lives and breathes all things technology.
