Summary
Email marketers should be wary of generic "industry average" benchmarks, as they can be misleading. Instead, prioritize internal improvement by tracking metrics like open rates (aim 15-25%, industry-dependent), click-through rates (2.5-5%), unsubscribe rates (below 0.5%), and complaint rates (below 0.1%) over trailing 3, 6, and 12-month periods. Segment and personalize your email lists, A/B test your campaigns, and ensure emails are mobile-responsive and accessible. Maintain a good sender reputation, implement email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), monitor deliverability metrics, and keep your list clean by minimizing bounce rates. Balancing email frequency and understanding your industry-specific benchmarks is essential. Ultimately, focus on optimizing ROI and building a customer-centric approach.
Key findings
- Internal Improvement: Prioritize improving metrics over time rather than comparing against generic benchmarks.
- Segmentation & Personalization: Segmenting email lists and personalizing content increases engagement and reduces unsubscribes.
- Mobile & Accessibility: Ensure emails are mobile-responsive and accessible to all users.
- Authentication & Reputation: Implementing authentication protocols and maintaining a good sender reputation is crucial for deliverability.
- List Hygiene: Monitoring and minimizing bounce rates maintains a healthy email list.
- Deliverability Metrics: Focus on inbox placement and overall deliverability as key metrics.
- Complaint Rates: Keeping complaint rates below 0.1% is crucial.
Key considerations
- Industry Variance: Benchmarks can vary significantly across different industries.
- Email Frequency: Finding the right email frequency is key to avoid subscriber burnout.
- ROI: Tracking ROI is important to justify email marketing investments.
- External Factors: External factors and changes in the email landscape can impact metrics.
- Mailbox Provider Perspective: Consider how mailbox providers view your mailings.
- Test and refine: Continually test and analyse results, adjusting approach over time
What email marketers say
14 marketer opinions
Email marketers should exercise caution when relying solely on industry average benchmarks, as individual business needs and audience characteristics vary significantly. Focusing on improvement over time, segmentation, personalization, and list hygiene are critical. Metrics such as open rates (aiming for 15-25%, but industry-dependent), click-through rates (2.5-5%), unsubscribe rates (below 0.5%), and complaint rates (below 0.1%) offer guidance, but understanding ROI and deliverability metrics, while testing and optimizing campaigns, are crucial for achieving success. Over-reliance on benchmarks can mask underlying problems and prevent a holistic, customer-centric approach.
Key opinions
- Avoid Over-Reliance: Marketers should avoid relying solely on industry average benchmarks due to the unique nature of each business and audience.
- Focus on Improvement: Tracking improvement over time is more valuable than comparing against general industry standards.
- Segmentation is Key: Segmenting email lists based on demographics, behavior, and interests leads to better engagement and lower unsubscribe rates.
- Personalization Matters: Personalizing emails can significantly improve engagement and make recipients feel valued.
- A/B Testing Optimizes: A/B testing different elements of email campaigns helps optimize performance based on audience response.
- Monitor Metrics: Key metrics to monitor include open rates (15-25%), click-through rates (2.5-5%), unsubscribe rates (under 0.5%), and complaint rates (under 0.1%).
- Low Complaint Rates: Keeping complaint rates low (under 0.1%) is vital to avoid deliverability issues.
- Sender Reputation: Maintaining a good sender reputation is crucial to ensure email reaches the inbox.
Key considerations
- Industry Variance: Email benchmarks vary considerably by industry, so research is critical to find relevant targets.
- Email Frequency: Balancing email frequency is important to avoid subscriber burnout and high unsubscribe rates.
- ROI Tracking: Tracking ROI is essential to justify email marketing efforts and ensure profitability.
- Deliverability Metrics: Monitoring deliverability metrics such as inbox placement rates, is essential to ensure your messages reach recipients.
- Subject Line: Subject lines, sender reputation, and the timing of emails influence open rates.
- Avoid overgeneralising: Avoid assuming there is a good average open rate for all your customers and instead aim to improve the rate and conversion for your current customers over time.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks answers that the bottom line is to keep asking the question "how to make it 100%?" and Send less, earn more.
18 Nov 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Constant Contact shares that a good click-through rate is generally between 2.5-5%. Click-through rate indicates how engaging your content is to your audience.
3 Jun 2022 - Constant Contact
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Instead of focusing on generic industry benchmarks, email marketers should prioritize improving their own performance over time by tracking metrics over 3, 6, and 12-month periods. Monitoring deliverability metrics like inbox placement rate and sender reputation provides insight into how mailbox providers view your mailings. Maintaining low complaint rates (below 0.1%) is also vital to protect sender reputation and prevent deliverability issues.
Key opinions
- Focus on Internal Improvement: The primary target should be improvement over past performance, tracked over trailing months.
- Deliverability Matters: Deliverability metrics such as inbox placement and sender reputation are crucial indicators of success.
- Complaint Rates are Key: Keeping complaint rates low is essential for maintaining a positive sender reputation.
Key considerations
- External Factors: Trending metrics help to accommodate changes outside your control.
- ISP Perspective: Understanding how mailbox providers view your mailings is critical for optimizing deliverability.
- Reputation Impact: High complaint rates can negatively impact sender reputation and lead to deliverability problems.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that focusing on deliverability metrics such as inbox placement rate and sender reputation are key. She explains that these metrics provide insights into how mailbox providers view your mailings, directly impacting whether your messages reach the intended recipients.
9 Aug 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource shares that keeping your complaint rates low is vital. They indicate a good benchmark is under 0.1% as higher rates can negatively impact your sender reputation and lead to deliverability issues.
2 Oct 2024 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Email deliverability depends on various technical and design factors. Responsive design for mobile devices is essential due to widespread mobile email consumption. Accessibility, including alt text, proper heading structures, and color contrast, improves user experience for all. Implementing email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) verifies sender identity. Maintaining a positive sender reputation is crucial for avoiding the spam folder. Monitoring and minimizing bounce rates ensures a healthy email list.
Key findings
- Mobile Responsiveness: Emails must be designed to display correctly on mobile devices.
- Accessibility: Emails should be accessible to users with disabilities.
- Authentication Protocols: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC improves deliverability.
- Sender Reputation: Maintaining a good sender reputation is critical for inbox placement.
- Bounce Rate Monitoring: Monitoring and minimizing bounce rates is essential for a healthy email list.
Key considerations
- Design Impact: Email design directly affects user engagement.
- Inclusivity: Accessibility considerations make emails more inclusive.
- Technical Setup: Technical configurations like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are crucial for authentication.
- ISP Filtering: Sender reputation impacts how ISPs filter emails.
- List Hygiene: Regularly cleaning your email list minimizes bounce rates.
Technical article
Documentation from Email on Acid answers that making emails accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities, is essential. Using alt text for images, proper heading structure, and sufficient color contrast will improve the user experience.
27 May 2024 - Email on Acid
Technical article
Documentation from Litmus shares that designing emails for mobile devices is crucial, as a majority of users now read emails on their phones. They explain that using responsive design ensures your email looks good on any device, improving engagement.
9 Oct 2024 - Litmus
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