The world of email marketing is constantly evolving and keeping up with the latest trends and benchmarks is crucial for any marketer.
That’s why I’m excited to share some insights from GetResponse’s 2024 Email Marketing Benchmarks report! It’s packed with valuable data and trends that can help you boost your email marketing game.
Want to see the data for yourself? 🔥
Check out the full report here and level up your email game! 🚀
A Year of Growth and Change
Want to see the data for yourself? 🔥
Check out the full report here and level up your email game! 🚀
I was surprised to see how email engagement rates have surged in 2023. The average open rates jumped by 12.84 percentage points (pp) and click-throughs grew by 1.36 pp.
At the same time the average unsubscribe rates remained stable and bounce rates even dropped slightly.
This indicates that marketers are doing a better job of creating compelling and relevant content that resonates with their audiences.
While Apple’s Mail Privacy Policy is distorting the data with its auto-opens there’s no denying that marketers have put in the effort to produce more valuable content.
Understanding Key Metrics
Let’s dive into some key metrics that can help you understand email performance:
Open Rate (OR)
The open rate is the percentage of recipients who open your email.
It’s an important indicator of how engaging your subject lines are and how relevant your content is to your audience.
A good open rate depends on your industry audience and campaign type.
For example newsletters typically have an average open rate of 40.08% while triggered emails can reach 45.38%. Welcome emails often see even higher open rates averaging 83.63% this year.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The click-through rate is the percentage of recipients who click on a link in your email.
This metric reveals how effectively your email drives engagement and encourages users to take action.
Factors such as industry audience and campaign type influence a good CTR.
Newsletters have an average CTR of 3.84% while triggered emails often achieve a CTR of 5.02%.
It’s essential to remember that not all campaigns aim for a high CTR.
For example an email informing customers about a privacy policy update might have a lower CTR.
Click-To-Open Rate (CTOR)
CTOR measures the effectiveness of your email content.
It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of opens and multiplying by 100. A high CTOR indicates that your email content is engaging and relevant while a low CTOR suggests it didn’t resonate with the audience.
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate focuses on the results of your email campaign.
It measures how many recipients take a specific action such as downloading an ebook registering for a webinar or visiting your product page.
This metric is particularly useful when you assign a monetary value to your conversions allowing you to assess a campaign’s success and determine if it needs repetition or a different approach.
Defining a “good” conversion rate is difficult as it varies depending on your goals and the action you’re trying to drive.
However you can use the average click-through rate as a benchmark.
Geographic and Industry Insights
Here’s a breakdown of how average email marketing metrics vary across different locations and industries:
Geographic Variations
- North America saw a strong year with a 14.2% increase in open rates to 45.3% and click-through rates (CTR) increasing by 1.81% to reach 4.7%.
- Oceania leads in open rates with 55.6% but its CTR didn’t increase significantly resulting in a decrease in the click-to-open rate.
- Asia experienced the biggest CTR increase rising from 1.4% to 4%. This was coupled with an 8.9% increase in open rates and the highest click-to-open rate reaching 14.4%.
These trends highlight the importance of maintaining good list hygiene crafting compelling subject lines and providing valuable content.
Industry Trends
- Communications sector continues to dominate with the highest open rates jumping from 48.8% in 2022 to 65.1% in 2023.
- Legal Services saw a notable jump in click-through rates almost quadrupling from 3.2% to 12.1%.
- Non-profits continue to demonstrate high engagement rates with open rates increasing from 39.7% to 54.5% and CTR from 3.2% to 6.7%.
These increases in CTR across different industries indicate that marketers are creating more relevant engaging and effective content.
Timing and Frequency
The Best Time to Send
The data suggests that sending emails early in the morning (4-6 AM) or late in the afternoon (5-7 PM) can improve open and click-through rates.
These times often result in less inbox clutter increasing the chances of capturing your audience’s attention.
The Best Day to Send
While Tuesdays tend to have the highest open and click-through rates the differences between individual weekdays are minimal.
Average metrics generally drop on weekends.
Ultimately choose the day that makes sense for your audience and focus on delivering valuable content tailored to their needs and interests.
Optimal Email Frequency
The data shows that sending 1-2 newsletters per week results in high open and click-through rates.
However sending more frequently (6+ newsletters per week) can lead to lower unsubscribe rates indicating higher content tolerance among engaged subscribers.
The ideal number of newsletters depends on your goals and audience engagement.
Aim for 1-2 per week if your focus is on CTR and conversions but if you have a highly engaged audience you can send up to 12 newsletters per week.
However be aware that CTRs may not be as good at higher frequencies.
Autoresponder Cycles
Shorter autoresponder cycles with 1-3 messages tend to have the highest open and click-through rates.
While longer cycles might not impact unsubscribe rates significantly keeping your cycle concise is generally better for engagement.
Engagement Over Time
The first hour after sending your email sees the most opens and clicks capturing 21.20% of opens and 44.14% of clicks.
This emphasizes the importance of sending emails during peak engagement hours.
Using email marketing features that help you identify the best timing based on subscriber data can be very helpful.
Most email engagement happens within the first day but a significant portion still occurs after 26 hours.
While the first day is crucial for maximizing opens and clicks don’t underestimate the power of delayed engagement.
Your email might continue to drive results long after it’s sent.
Email Type and Tactics
Email Type Performance
Triggered emails autoresponders and even newsletters are showing significant improvements in engagement.
These results highlight the power of timely and automated emails in connecting with audiences.
Video Content
Adding engaging videos to your emails can boost click-through rates.
Videos whether short walkthroughs webinar recordings or customer testimonials can increase engagement.
Subject Line Length
Shorter subject lines (below 70 characters) tend to have higher open rates and are more popular among email marketers.
It’s crucial to test and see what works best for your audience as there might be exceptions.
Emojis in Subject Lines
Emojis might not significantly impact email performance.
While they are trendy their influence on open and click-through rates is minimal.
Conduct A/B testing to see what works best for your brand.
Personalization
While personalization in email content generally leads to higher open rates and lower bounce rates it may not always drive further engagement in terms of clicks and click-to-open rates.
Focus on tailoring your content to meet user needs rather than over-personalizing your messages.
Subject Line Phrases
Certain phrases in subject lines can significantly impact email performance.
Phrases like “invitation” “name of a month” and “now” tend to have higher open rates.
Conversely phrases like “bargain” “PDF” and “guaranteed” often result in lower unsubscribe and complaint rates.
Preheaders
Preheaders the snippets of text appearing next to your subject line can boost open and click-through rates.
Make sure to use them to tell a complete story with your subject line capturing attention and maximizing the impact of your email.
Images in Emails
Emails with graphics generally achieve higher open rates click-through rates and click-to-open rates compared to text-only emails.
However it’s essential to test and see how your audience responds to different approaches.
Webinar Marketing
Webinar Invitations and Reminders
Webinar invitations and reminders are powerful tools for driving engagement and attendance.
Sending reminders one day and one hour before the webinar consistently results in higher open rates.
A strategy that includes multiple reminders—one day before one hour before and five minutes before the webinar—can maximize engagement and attendance.
Best Days and Times for Webinars
Hosting webinars from Monday to Thursday tends to lead to higher attendee-to-registrant ratios and more attendees.
Monday despite being the least common day for webinars shows promising stats.
For optimal engagement schedule your webinars between 5 PM and 8 PM.
This time aligns well with the end of the workday making it convenient for attendees.
Webinar Registration and Attendee Demographics
Most webinar registrations occur within the two-week window before the event.
Focus your efforts on those crucial two weeks leading up to your webinar.
Over 40% of webinar attendees join via mobile devices emphasizing the importance of having a mobile-friendly platform to maximize your reach and engagement.
Other Key Considerations
List Size and Engagement
While smaller lists tend to have higher engagement rates maintaining a strong connection with your audience is crucial as your list grows.
Personalize your communications deliver consistent value and nurture relationships to keep a large list engaged.
Email Address Length
Most email addresses are between 5 and 29 characters long.
Ensure your signup forms can handle these lengths to avoid frustrated users typos and fewer sign-ups especially on mobile devices.
Landing Page Features
Webinars stand out as top performers in landing page conversions.
Clear compelling images generally work better than videos or social media links.
Simple forms with 1-3 fields tend to have higher conversion rates than those with more fields.
Send-Time Optimization Algorithms
Tools like GetResponse’s Time Travel and Perfect Timing can help you deliver your emails at the optimal time for each subscriber.
These features analyze past behavior to determine when recipients are most likely to open and click on your emails.
Wrapping It Up
The data from GetResponse’s 2024 Email Marketing Benchmarks report provides valuable insights into the current landscape of email marketing.
By understanding these trends and applying them to your campaigns you can create more effective engaging and results-driven email marketing strategies.
Want to see the data for yourself? 🔥
Check out the full report here and level up your email game! 🚀