Multiple email performance metrics have improved over a five-year period – with delivery, open and click-to-open rates all increasing, according to new research.
The ‘Email Benchmarking Report 2020 from DMA and Pure360 indicate that click-to-open rates have continually increased since 2015, rising to 12%, on average.
Email delivery rates have also increased from 96% to 99% over this period. These improved performance metrics will be heavily influenced by the GDPR’s implementation in May 2018, with many organisations becoming more proactive and efficient at managing email contact database lists.
Open rates saw a slight decrease this year to 20%, but this remains above the averages years prior. The shift may be down to organisations’ mailable list sizes returning to growth again post-GDPR. This is something that was observed in the ‘Marketer Email Tracker 2020’ research, where 58% of marketers said their lists had grown over the last 12 months.
“Our latest findings provide marketers with some key benchmarks to help better understand how their email campaigns compare. To realise the full potential of your email programme, be sure to look beyond the metrics in this report and analyse both the goal of your marketing campaigns and how you can most accurately measure that. Only then will you be able to understand the real impact and return of email,” says Tim Bond, Head of Insight at the DMA.
Mark Ash, CEO, Pure360 said: “It’s perhaps no surprise to see that the email channel continues to enjoy strong engagement given consumers’ continued appetite to receive this type of communication from their brands of choice. Our experience over the last couple of months would suggest that engagement has only increased further, as consumers and brands alike have become more reliant on the email channel as the single most dependable conduit for 121 personalised communication.”
As can be seen in the chart below, the key email metrics surveyed for remain on a long-term positive trend over the last five years.
Email benchmark averages, 2015-2019
Bond concluded: “This report is released amid a significant period of change for many marketers and people, with the lasting impact of these times still to be fully understood over the coming months and years. Coronavirus and the resulting lockdown have brought about a feeling of common experience that we’ve never seen before. Amid these changes, we’ve continued to see email used as a key method of communicating with customers to ensure they have the information they need.”
Further information about the report can be found on the DMA website: https://dma.org.uk/research/email-benchmarking-report-2020
www.pure360.com