The 2023 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report just dropped and it’s full of juicy data making it a must-read for any email marketer worth their salt.

GetResponse analyzed over 4.4 billion messages sent by their customers last year focusing on senders with at least 500 contacts to ensure accuracy.

They looked at open rates click-through rates unsubscribes bounces and spam complaints – all the good stuff that tells us how our emails are performing.

Table of Contents

Average Email Engagement Metrics: 2023 vs 2022

You know how I always say that email marketing is a marathon not a sprint? Well this year’s report is a testament to that.

We saw a significant increase in engagement metrics across the board compared to the previous year.

The average email open rate increased by 12.84 percentage points while click-through rates grew by 1.36 points.

At the same time unsubscribe rates remained stable and bounce rates slightly decreased.

Now before you start popping champagne corks keep in mind that some of this growth can be attributed to Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection feature which distorts the data with its auto-opens.

However the increase in click-through rates and click-to-open rates suggests that marketers are focusing on crafting more relevant and engaging content.

Key Strategies for Email Marketing Success in 2024

The report highlighted some key strategies that are crucial for success in the ever-evolving world of email marketing:

Craft compelling subject lines: Think of your subject line as your email’s first impression. Make it catchy relevant and personalized to grab your audience’s attention and convince them to open your email.
Focus on delivering high-quality content: This is where the rubber meets the road. Make sure your emails are providing value to your readers whether it’s informative entertaining or offers a solution to their problems.
Maintain good list hygiene: This is a big one. Avoid sending emails to inactive or invalid addresses because it can damage your sender reputation and impact deliverability. Use a double opt-in process to ensure your list is full of engaged subscribers.
Track your results and make adjustments: Don’t just send emails and hope for the best. Use your email marketing platform’s analytics to monitor your performance identify trends and make adjustments to your strategy as needed.

Email Marketing Benchmarks by Region

The report also broke down average email marketing metrics by continent and country to give us a better understanding of regional trends.

Average Email Metrics by Continent

North America: North America saw a great year with open rates reaching 45.3% and click-through rates reaching 4.7%. Bounce rates also saw a significant improvement decreasing from 4.92% to 2.68%.
South America: While open rates in South America improved click-through rates remained relatively unchanged.
Oceania: Oceania recorded the highest open rates (55.6%) but also saw a decrease in click-to-open rates.
Asia: Asia saw the biggest increase in click-through rates jumping from 1.4% to 4%. This was accompanied by a significant increase in open rates and the highest click-to-open rate (14.4%).

Average Email Metrics by Country

Brazil and India: These countries surprised everyone by achieving some of the highest click-through and open rates challenging the narrative that email is dead in these regions.
English-Speaking Countries: The U.S. U.K. Canada and Australia also saw an increase in open and click-through rates.

Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry

Across different industries we saw some interesting trends in email engagement.

Communications: The communications sector led the pack in open rates achieving a staggering 65.1% in 2023.
Legal Services: This industry saw a remarkable 4x increase in click-through rates jumping from 3.2% to 12.1%.
Non-Profits: Non-profits continued their strong performance with open rates increasing from 39.7% to 54.5% and click-through rates rising from 3.2% to 6.7%.

Landing Page Conversion Rates

The 2023 data showed significant shifts in landing page conversion rates demonstrating the need for businesses to constantly adapt to changing market conditions and consumer behavior.

Restaurants & Food: This sector saw a massive 2235% jump in conversion rates likely due to improved online ordering systems and effective marketing strategies.
Retail: In contrast the retail sector experienced a steep 85.94% drop in conversion rates possibly due to market saturation and shifts in consumer spending habits.
Legal Services: This industry saw a notable 167.63% increase potentially driven by increased demand and better online engagement.
Publishing: The publishing industry experienced a significant 80.35% decline likely due to increased competition from other digital content platforms.
Healthcare: This sector saw a 92.55% rise in conversion rates reflecting the surge in telehealth services and improved digital outreach.

The Importance of Confirmed Opt-In

The report also looked at how businesses are approaching email marketing regarding confirmed opt-in methods.

Double Opt-In: The automotive sector has embraced double opt-in more than other industries reflecting a growing emphasis on subscriber quality.
Single Opt-In: Agencies and the publishing industry have shifted towards single opt-in to boost subscriber numbers prioritizing volume over quality.

Ultimately the best opt-in method depends on your specific business goals.

If you prioritize subscriber quality double opt-in might be the better option.

If you’re looking to grow your list quickly single opt-in might be more effective.

Optimizing Email Send Times & Frequency

GetResponse’s report tackled some common questions about email sending times and frequency.

Best Times to Send Emails

The report found that there are two optimal time slots for sending emails:

Early Morning (4-6 AM): Sending emails right before your recipients wake up can help you capture their attention before their inboxes get cluttered.
Late Afternoon (5-7 PM): Sending emails as your recipients are about to finish work for the day can also be effective because they are likely to be checking their inboxes then.

Best Days to Send Emails

Interestingly the report found that there is little difference in engagement between individual weekdays.

Average open and click-through rates were slightly higher on Tuesdays but not significantly different from other days.

As expected average metrics were lower on weekends.

Optimal Email Frequency

The majority of marketers send 1-2 newsletters per week and this approach appears to be highly effective.

Open and click-through rates are generally higher at this frequency.

However the report found that sending more frequent newsletters (up to 12 per week) can actually result in lower unsubscribe rates indicating higher content tolerance among engaged subscribers.

Autoresponder Cycle Length

The report analyzed how average engagement metrics change depending on the number of emails in an autoresponder cycle.

Shorter Cycles: Shorter cycles with 1-3 messages generally show the highest open and click-through rates. The majority of autoresponder cycles fall within this range.
Longer Cycles: While shorter cycles perform better subscribers can still tolerate longer cycles without a significant increase in unsubscribes or spam reports.

Email Engagement Over Time

The report also looked at how recipient engagement changed over time after the campaign was sent.

First Hour: The first hour after sending an email captures the most opens and clicks with 21.20% of opens and 44.14% of clicks occurring during this period.
First Day: Most email engagement happens within the first day with about 70% of opens and 85% of clicks occurring within the first 24 hours.
Beyond the First Day: There is still a significant portion of engagement after 24 hours meaning that recipients engage with emails later on.

Email Marketing Tactics & Performance

GetResponse’s report explored the average performance of different types of emails and email marketing tactics.

Email Type Performance

Triggered Emails: Triggered emails such as welcome emails cart abandonment emails and birthday emails saw significant jumps in engagement with more recipients opening and interacting with them.
Autoresponder Campaigns: Automated email sequences like welcome series and follow-up emails after a purchase saw a surge in performance.
Newsletters: Newsletters the cornerstone of email marketing also saw notable gains in open and click-through rates.

The Power of Video

The data confirmed that adding videos to your emails can boost click-through rates.

Video Formats: Short video walkthroughs webinar recordings and customer testimonials can all be effective.

Subject Line Length & Open Rates

Short Subject Lines: Shorter subject lines (below 70 characters) consistently achieved higher open rates and are the most popular among email marketers.

Emojis in Subject Lines

Mixed Results: Emojis in subject lines didn’t significantly impact open or click-through rates. A/B testing is recommended.

Email Subject Line Personalization

No Significant Impact: The report found that personalization in subject lines didn’t have a significant impact on open rates click-through rates or click-to-open rates.

Subject Line Phrases & Email Performance

Impactful Phrases: Certain phrases like “invitation” “name of a month” and “now” tended to have higher open rates.
Subscriber Satisfaction: Phrases like “bargain” “PDF” and “guaranteed” showed lower unsubscribe and complaint rates.

The Importance of Preheaders

Improved Open Rates: The report confirmed that using preheaders (a snippet of text that appears next to your subject line) can help increase open rates and click-through rates.

Personalized Email Content

Open Rate Boost: Personalized email content generally achieved higher open rates but had slightly lower click-through rates and click-to-open rates.

The Value of Welcome Emails

High Engagement: Welcome emails continue to be the most effective email marketing campaign achieving impressive open rates click-through rates and click-to-open rates.

Images vs Text-Based Emails

Graphics Win: Emails with graphics achieved higher open rates click-through rates and click-to-open rates compared to text-based emails.

Send-Time Optimization Algorithms

GetResponse’s Time Travel and Perfect Timing features leverage AI to optimize email send times.

Time Travel: Time Travel sends your email at a specific local time for each subscriber maximizing engagement.
Perfect Timing: Perfect Timing analyzes each recipient’s past behavior to determine when they’re most likely to open and click on your emails.

Email Marketing Metrics & List Size

The report explored the relationship between email marketing results and list size.

Smaller Lists: Smaller lists (250-499 contacts) achieved higher open rates and click-through rates.
Larger Lists: Larger lists generally showed lower engagement rates but the unsubscribe and spam rates remained consistently low across all list sizes.

Average Email Address Length

Consistent Length: The average email address length remained relatively consistent. The majority of email addresses fall between 5 and 29 characters.

Landing Page Conversion Rate Factors

The report examined the impact of different landing page elements on conversion rates.

Webinar Promotion: Promoting a webinar stands out as a top performer suggesting that valuable content can significantly boost conversion rates.
Visual Elements: Including an image can help but videos and social media links didn’t have the same impact.
Simple Forms: Forms with 1-3 fields tend to have higher conversion rates than those with more.

Webinar Engagement Metrics

Webinar Invitations: Webinar invitations saw a noticeable increase in open rates indicating higher engagement.
Webinar Reminders: Reminders sent one day and one hour before the webinar had the highest open rates suggesting that multiple reminders are effective.

Best Days to Host Webinars

Weekdays: Webinars hosted from Monday to Thursday consistently showed higher engagement rates.
Avoid Fridays & Weekends: Friday and weekend webinars typically have lower attendee-to-registrant ratios.

Best Times to Host Webinars

Late Afternoon to Early Evening (5 PM – 8 PM): This time window attracts more registrants and has some of the highest attendee-to-registrant ratios.

Webinar Platform Considerations

Mobile Optimization: Ensure your webinar platform is mobile-friendly as over 40% of attendees join from mobile devices.

The 2023 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report provides valuable insights into the current state of email marketing.

By utilizing the key strategies and best practices highlighted in the report marketers can optimize their campaigns and achieve greater success in 2024 and beyond.

2024 Email Marketing Benchmarks ⚠️