A look at recent email marketing data shares statistics on open rates and click-through rates
Today we have more data to share on email marketing campaigns throughout 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. The findings come from more than 1,100 brands, sharing benchmark data related to their email marketing efforts. These numbers will help you compare your own email marketing statistics with those of other brands.
All the statistics shared below come from 2012 Silverpop Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study.
Open rates
The unique open rates for the US, Canada, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) had a mean of 20.1%; a median of 15.0%; a top quartile of 43.7%; and a bottom quartile of 8.0%.
As for the overall gross open rate for these countries, the average was 44.9%; the median gross open rate was 23.0%; the top quartile gross open rate was 128.7%; and the gross open rate of the bottom quartile was 11.4%.
By industry, Computer Software fared the best, with the highest average unique open rate (24.7%) and the highest unique open rate in the top quartile (55.0%). Financial Services, Consumer Services, and Media & Publishing were the only other industries with an average unique open rate over 20% and a unique open rate over 40% in the top quartile.
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An interesting statistic on open rates was the “opens per opener” stat. On average, each industry had over 1.5 opens per opener, with a couple industries averaging over 2 opens per opener (Real Estate & Construction and Financial Services). The reasons for these multiple opens relate to the use of mobile devices, relevant content, and viral sharing. This statistic dictates how users are interacting with the email contact that they receive. For instance, some recipients first check their email on their smartphone and go back to the message on their computer. If the content is very relevant to them, they will return to the content when needed. And if they believe a friend or colleague benefits from the information, they will forward it to them (forwarding, using the button in email software, is associated with an open by the original recipient).
Click-through rate
The overall unique click-through rate for the US, Canada, and EMEA has a mean of 5.2%; the median unique click-through rate was 2.3%; the top quartile unique click-through rate was 16.6% while the bottom quartile was 0.7%.
A similar metric – click-to-open rate (CTOR) “measures click-through rates as a percentage of messages opened, instead of messages delivered,” according to study. Click-to-open rates were much higher than click-through rates as the overall numbers include: the mean click-to-open rate was 19.3%; media click-to-open rate was 16.3%; the click-to-open rate of the top quartile was 40.0% while the bottom quartile was 6.7%.
The clicks per clicker were similar to the data of the opens per opener with the mean overall mean at 1.56. Like opens, people are clicking more links or the same links multiple times in emails.
You can take a closer look at this benchmark data at the Silverpop website.
How do your numbers compare with the data from this study? If you’re willing, please share your information below.
