2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study
This 2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark will allow you to discover how you measure up across 25 open, click-through, list churn and mobile metrics, plus get insights on:
- Industry-specific comparisons and geographic breakouts from across the world
- Device usage, holiday trends, transactional emails and engagement rates
- Benchmarks beyond “average, ” including median and top-performing quartiles
- Using this data and related best practices to improve your email program
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Email marketing – it’s measurable, flexible, and affordable, making it one of the most effective digital marketing tactics and one Sales Renewal recommends for all our clients.
And like any marketing tactic, reviewing your email marketing on a regular basis is important to be sure your emails are working the best they can. This annual report of email marketing benchmarks from IBM is a helpful resource that offers 25 open, click- through, list churn and mobile metrics that you can use to help you see where you rank.
Here are some of the top highlights; download the report for more details.
Open Rates
Open rates can signal progress or problems with engagement. It’s not a completely accurate metric because it doesn’t capture all opens due to image blocking and other factors. In the US, average unique open rates are 21.3%. When comparing message types, unique open rates for transactional messages are 47.1% vs non-transactional at 21.6%.
Click-Through Rates
The click-through rate (CTR) is measures recipient action on an email message, measured as a percentage of messages opened. In the US, average click through rate is 3.3%. When comparing message types, unique click-through rates for transactional messages are 8.8% vs non-transactional at 3.3%.
List Churn Metrics Overview
One of the biggest concerns our clients have is unsubscribes. All businesses can expect some list turnover (churn), but it’s quite often difficult to determine if this is a natural rate or if there is some problem with your email communications. Rising unsubscribe rates might tell you your email messaging doesn’t match what subscribers expected when they signed up. Higher-than- average hard-bounce rates can indicate you don’t practice good, ongoing list maintenance.
According to the IBM study, the unsubscribe rate is most useful as a trend indicator. Even the lowest performers generate unsubscribe rates well below 1 percent. However, is that rate going up or down? If your unsubscribe rate rises over time or remains constant while spam complaints increase, you might have an unclear unsubscribe process or be losing subscriber trust.
In the US, the mean hard bounce rate is 0.467%; the mean unsubscribe rate is 0.122%.
Download the study to read about Holiday Retail and Ecommerce Metrics and Device and Email Client Usage. And if you have questions about how you can make your email program work for your business, contact Sales Renewal today.
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Best of Growth Spurts – Our Favorite Posts from June
We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information. These articles are often hand-picked to address issues and projects we’re working on with our clients. We believe they are relevant to most business owners involved with any aspect of marketing their business, and we offer a regular summary roundup of the most popular/interesting posts.
On Exit Planning: Miscalculation: The Little Big Horn Of Exit Planning – Any business owner disagree with: “It’s far better to start planning two years earlier than you think necessary than five minutes too late”? The article’s author recently surveyed business owners and found that owners frequently underestimate what needs to be done to transfer their businesses to the person they choose, when they want, and for the amount of money they need. Find out more here.
On Content Marketing: 10 Techniques to Successfully Amplify Your Content Marketing – Write it and they will come? Only if you follow through by letting people know your content exists. These tips will help with one of the most important steps in content marketing: “amplify”, or get the word out. Some of our go-to techniques: Keep sharing your most popular posts; Update and republish relevant, evergreen posts; and Curate similar content (and include a link to your original post). Read all the tips here.
On Email Marketing: Using Email Addresses for Retargeting – Take your email list to the next level by combining it with re-targeted advertising. Even if you have a very small ad budget, you can take advantage of the re-targeting options available on Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Read more.
On Local Marketing: 10 Things People Still Get Wrong about Local SEO – Do you still believe targeting keywords for Local Search is irrelevant? Claiming a Google listing will automatically increase search visibility? A huge radius will make you rank better for local cities? Find out how Google really ranks your business on SEO.
On Analytics: Four Key Metric Groups for B2B Marketers – This article reviews four of types of metrics key to succeeding in the B2B marketing space:
- Lead generation metrics (ROI of ads & campaigns; raw leads; quality of leads);
- Top of funnel metrics (Visitors to most popular landing pages; Organic / non-paid traffic; PR and non-paid media impact)
- Community & nurturing metrics (Email metrics; Time to respond for user questions)
- Customer satisfaction / loyalty metrics (NPS score; Survey data )
Read the article for details about each of these metrics groups. How many of them are you using?
Sales Renewal’s insight:
We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information. These articles are often hand-picked to address issues and projects we’re working on with our clients. We believe they are relevant to most business owners involved with any aspect of marketing their business, and we offer a regular summary roundup of the most popular/interesting posts. Continue reading…
Best of Growth Spurts – Our Favorite Posts from April
We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information.Just case you’ve missed these updates, we offer a regular summary roundup of the most popular/interesting posts. where we extract the most useful information, and in many cases, provide a link to learn more.
Here, then, are our 5 favorite posts from the past month:
Email Marketing
What Consumers Want from Brand Emails. Read this article if you’ve been rethinking the content and focus of your company emails. It seems pretty clear that offers – 20% off, BOGO, free shipping – are what consumers are looking for. Read more
Content Marketing
50 Terrible Work Phrases You Need to Stop Using. Guilty as charged? It can be hard to avoid buzz words, but you can lose credibility in the workplace by using too many. Did they miss any?
Social Media Marketing
How Homebuilders Can Leverage Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram. A picture is worth a thousand words – and may bring you some customers, too! – especially if you are a “visual” business that takes advantage of image-based sites like Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram. Read more
Social Media and the CEO. Does your company CEO have a voice on social media? If so, are they sharing information the public wants to hear? Read about a recent survey that shows how company news, goals, aspirations are much more important to share than those leaders’ personal stories.
How to Maximize Your Content Exposure on LinkedIn. If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn, you’ve probably realized that it’s not always as clear cut as to the best way to use it for your business. That’s because at its core, it’s a peer-to-peer network, designed primarily for individuals to connect. There are some things you can do, though, to bring visibility to your business. Read more
Stay up-to-date with marketing news and advice for your business. Subscribe to our Best of Monthly Digest here.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Our monthly roundup of actionable marketing & technology advice from the Sales Renewal Growth Spurts blog includes our 5 favorite posts from the past month: What Consumers Want from Brand Emails; 50 Terrible Work Phrases You Need to Stop Using; How Homebuilders Can Leverage Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram; Social Media and the CEO; and How to Maximize Your Content Exposure on LinkedIn.
Now you can Manage your Google Location Data with Yext
Yext now offers integration with the new Google My Business API.This allows for rapidly updating key location data such as unforeseen closings or changes to opening hours across Google Search, Google Maps, and ads; controlling the data Google receives about your locations and ensure it is always consistent, authoritative, and up-to-date; and saving time and streamlining your data management process.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Sales Renewal has used Yext for managing nearly all of our clients’ online listings presence for several years now. With this integration with Google, we no longer need an extra step of making Google listings are in sync with the rest of a client’s listings.
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How to Plan and Create Evergreen Content
Evergreen content has potential for SEO purposes. Here is a look at how to plan and create content, and where to find ideas.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Not every blog post has to cover late breaking news or special discoveries. Your blog needs a solid stable of quality, evergreen posts – those that have a longer shelf life – that address questions your audience is asking. This article explains how to plan for your evergreen content.
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Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too
They are call centers – often out of state, sometimes in a different country – that use a high-tech ruse to trick Google into presenting them as physical stores in your neighborhood. These operations, known as lead generators, or lead gens for short, keep a group of poorly trained subcontractors on call. After your details are forwarded, usually via text, one of those subcontractors jumps in a car and heads to your vehicle or home. That is when the trouble starts.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
If you are a local merchant, it is bad news to read that the scourge of online florists–call centers that manipulate SEO to fraudulently claim they’re local–have begun praying on other retail business categories. If you haven’t yet, do review your SEO program to make sure you’re inoculated.
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The Eight-Second Attention Span
A survey of Canadian media consumption by Microsoft concluded that the average attention span had fallen to eight seconds, down from 12 in the year 2000. We now have a shorter attention span than goldfish, the study found.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
The implications of such a short attention span are profound for marketing. Now more than ever, it’s critical to keep Marketing’s Golden Rule in mind: WIIFM (What Is In It For Me)!
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Why SEO Is About Visibility Instead of Ranking
In the past, “SEO” and “ranking” have been used as synonyms. But are they really the same thing?
Sales Renewal’s insight:
It’s time to make the subtle – but important – shift in perspective from “ranking” to “visibility” when thinking about SEO goals. Marketers and business owners should not rely on SEO as a stand-alone tactic. Rather, SEO efforts need to be integrated into a cohesive marketing plan that includes online advertising (PPC, Google Shopping ads), content marketing (articles, news, events), social media (Twitter and Facebook updates), and local marketing (Google+).
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A Guide to Social Media Etiquette
There are a few good practices that can go a long way to keeping your nose clean. Here is a guide to social media etiquette containing logical tips that will help your social media strategy and avoid any mistakes.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Nice summary of how to make the most of social media for your business – without offending or losing prospects and customers.
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5 Reasons Brands Should Use Email in 2016
Social media may seem more exciting, but studies prove that most people prefer good old-fashioned email. Need more convincing? Read on.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Agreed. Email is one of the essentials of marketing and will continue to be a cornerstone of any solid marketing plan.
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