Email is not dead. In fact, it is the one channel through which most people are happy to receive marketing messages. So long as they are relevant.
So, we know that email is a crucial weapon in the marketer’s arsenal, but how do we measure that our email campaigns are effective?
The best way is to compare your statistics week-by-week and month-by-month.
Nobody has exactly the same customers as you or exactly the same demographic as you. Nobody else has devised your campaigns. What you should be measuring is improvement.
Are your campaigns getting better results as time goes by? Are more people choosing to open your emails and click through to your content than this time last month and last year? However, it is always good to see how your campaigns are doing in comparison to some industry benchmarks too.
IBM has just published its 2016 “Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study”. It’s a full 34 pages and you can download the full report here.
IBMs data comes from messages sent by nearly 750 companies and 3,000 brands in 2015 and it certainly makes for some interesting reading.
For instance, did you know that emails sent in the UK have the highest mobile readership at roughly 55%? That means that we should always test to see what our emails look like on a mobile.
Engagement rates are startlingly brief. Most email is read (53%) which means that the recipient has spent 8 seconds or more looking at it.
Twenty-six per cent were just glanced at (2 seconds or less) and twenty two per cent were skimmed (between 2 and 8 seconds). How good do our emails have to be to get a message across in that short time?
Open Rates in the UK are as follows:
Mean Median Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
UK Open Rates (Unique) 24.3% 21.2% 43.1% 10.9%
Most interesting is the open rate by industry – what a useful benchmark to compare our own campaigns against:
|
Open Rate (Unique) |
Mean |
Median |
Top Quartile |
Bottom Quartile |
|
Automobiles & Transportation |
27.30% |
24.10% |
47.30% |
11.80% |
|
Banks & Financial Services |
23.30% |
18.70% |
46.50% |
7.80% |
|
Computer Hardware & Telecommunications |
24.90% |
22.50% |
44.60% |
9.10% |
|
Computer Software & Online Services |
20.80% |
17.40% |
39.80% |
7.50% |
|
Consumer Products |
25.10% |
21.10% |
48.10% |
8.60% |
|
Consumer Services |
21.60% |
19.00% |
40.90% |
7.40% |
|
Corporate Services |
23.00% |
20.30% |
41.90% |
9.10% |
|
Food Service, Sports & Entertainment |
20.70% |
16.60% |
42.30% |
5.90% |
|
Hospitals, Healthcare & Biotech |
26.10% |
23.30% |
49.40% |
8.10% |
|
Industrial Manufacturing & Utilities |
25.90% |
22.50% |
46.50% |
10.90% |
|
Insurance |
27.50% |
24.40% |
50.20% |
10.20% |
|
Lodging, Travel Agencies & Services |
22.70% |
18.50% |
40.80% |
11.30% |
|
Marketing Agencies & Services |
18.20% |
13.60% |
37.40% |
6.50% |
|
Media & Publishing |
19.30% |
16.50% |
34.80% |
8.50% |
|
Non-profits, Associations & Government |
26.40% |
23.80% |
43.10% |
14.40% |
|
Real Estate, Construction & Building Products |
25.60% |
23.40% |
41.60% |
13.70% |
|
Retail & Ecommerce |
20.50% |
16.80% |
39.20% |
8.00% |
|
Schools & Education |
30.90% |
27.30% |
58.70% |
8.40% |
Are you beating yourself up over your Click Through Rates? Well here are the UK statistics:
Mean Median Top Quartile Bottom Quartile
UK click through rates (Unique) 3.9% 2.5% 10.1% 0.6%
And across the various industry sectors:
|
Click-Through Rate (Unique) |
Mean |
Median |
Top Quartile |
Bottom Quartile |
|
Automobiles & Transportation |
3.70% |
1.90% |
10.40% |
0.10% |
|
Banks & Financial Services |
3.20% |
1.40% |
9.40% |
0.10% |
|
Computer Hardware & Telecommunications |
5.00% |
2.50% |
13.90% |
0.50% |
|
Computer Software & Online Services |
2.70% |
1.00% |
8.30% |
0.20% |
|
Consumer Products |
3.40% |
1.80% |
9.20% |
0.60% |
|
Consumer Services |
4.00% |
1.80% |
11.80% |
0.30% |
|
Corporate Services |
3.40% |
1.50% |
10.00% |
0.20% |
|
Food Service, Sports & Entertainment |
3.60% |
1.30% |
11.00% |
0.30% |
|
Hospitals, Healthcare & Biotech |
3.50% |
1.60% |
10.20% |
0.20% |
|
Industrial Manufacturing & Utilities |
3.50% |
1.80% |
9.70% |
0.30% |
|
Insurance |
3.60% |
1.40% |
10.90% |
0.10% |
|
Lodging, Travel Agencies & Services |
2.40% |
1.30% |
6.40% |
0.40% |
|
Marketing Agencies & Services |
2.40% |
1.00% |
7.40% |
0.20% |
|
Media & Publishing |
2.70% |
1.50% |
7.30% |
0.30% |
|
Non-profits, Associations & Government |
5.30% |
4.00% |
12.30% |
0.70% |
|
Real Estate, Construction & Building Products |
3.60% |
2.50% |
8.50% |
0.50% |
|
Retail & Ecommerce |
3.50% |
2.00% |
9.20% |
0.50% |
|
Schools & Education |
4.30% |
1.80% |
13.10% |
0.20% |
There are also some interesting List Churn Metrics and Email Usage and Engagement Metrics, but I will leave you to discover those for yourself.
In addition, there are also five pages in the report which cover Holiday, Retail and Ecommerce metrics. As we focus on B2B marketing I haven’t included them, but it is all there in the full report.
Thank you Big Blue. I’m just off to cast an eye over my open rates…
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