Email marketing is an important strategy for marketers looking to reach new leads, stay top-of-mind with existing customers, and keep them aware of new products and services — but the practice isn’t always straightforward. Technology and consumers change, and keeping up can be challenging. However, the challenge is worth it.
47.5% of marketers said their email marketing strategy was very effective toward reaching their business goals, while 47.2% said it was only somewhat effective. Only 2.7% said it was somewhat ineffective, and less than 1% said it was very ineffective.
Now that you know a sound email marketing strategy can help you reach your broader marketing goals, how exactly can you strengthen your marketing tactics to see the best results? To improve your email marketing metrics, here are some useful email marketing benchmarks we gathered from a survey we conducted among hundreds of marketers.
Most Important Metrics for Effective Email Marketing
When we asked marketers which metrics were the most important in measuring the effectiveness of an email campaign, the majority included click-through rate, open rate, and conversion rate in their answers.
Click-Through Rate
In email marketing, click-through rate (CTR) is calculated by the number of subscribers that have clicked on at least one link in the email campaign. And 35.9% of the marketers we surveyed said improving it is one of the biggest challenges they face with their email marketing efforts.
If you’re struggling to boost your CTR, the following email marketing benchmarks will help refine your strategy:
30.7% of marketers said emails featuring new product/feature announcements have the highest CTR. Another 30.7% said the same about emails with special offers or promotions. This likely means consumers are more prone to click on emails that hold valuable information about what exactly your company can do for them — whether it’s providing in-demand offerings or enticing deals that could save them money.
Speaking of value, we also found 38.2% of marketers said providing value through their marketing emails is one the most effective strategies for increasing CTR. Other popular answers include:
- Crafting effective subject lines (36.5%)
- Optimizing emails for mobile (29.6%)
- Including clear calls to action (28.6%)
Our data also suggests consumers respond to a more personalized approach to email marketing, particularly segmented emails. Our survey found 52.9% of marketers reported segmented emails have a better CTR than unsegmented, while only 23.8% said the opposite is true.
And as we mentioned before, changes in technology can also impact your email marketing metrics, including CTR. 39.9% of the marketers we surveyed said the Apple IOS 15’s privacy protection feature reduced CTR —and 34.7% of marketers said the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has reduced CTR as well.
Fortunately, there are ways to adjust your email marketing strategy to account for these privacy changes. 62% of marketers surveyed included prioritizing different KPIs to measure effectiveness in their method of adapting their strategy.
51.9% included leveraging user data from sources that are not affected by data privacy changes, like non-Apple users. And 36% included leveraging channels other than email marketing, like text message marketing.
Open Rate
In our survey, 32.9% of marketers included low open rates among the biggest challenges they face in email marketing. If open rates are a challenge for your company, the following statistics can help you make the right adjustments to your strategy.
About 31% of marketers said emails with special offers and promotions have the highest open rates, and 30% said the same about emails announcing new products and features.
You also need to consider subject lines when sending your marketing emails. About 65% of marketers said subject lines have the greatest impact on open rates.
More than half of the marketers we surveyed said subject lines that engage curiosity are the most effective in boosting open rates. About 36% said the same about emails with promotion offers, and 27.9% said expressing urgency in subject lines are most effective.
Similar to CTR, 65% of marketers say segmented emails have a better open rate than unsegmented —while 17.9% say unsegmented is better, and 17.1% say it’s about the same.
Privacy protection advancements also impact open rates, according to 34.1% of marketers who said Apple IOS 15’s privacy protection feature reduced their ability to see open rates. And 24.3% said it reduced open rates altogether. GDPR also impacts open rate. About 21% of marketers said the policy reduced their open rate, and about 34% said it reduced their ability to see open rates.
Conversion Rates
A little over 30% of marketers said low conversion rates are among the biggest challenges facing their email marketing strategy, according to our survey. However, if you refine your email marketing strategy to boost open rates and CTR, then you’ll likely see boosts in conversions as well.
Another method that can potentially lead to better conversion rates is to optimize your emails to be readable and engaging on the devices most used to read them. We found that 41% of email views come from mobile devices. The second most popular device is desktop with 39%. Coming in third place are tablets, where 19% of email views come from.
The right email marketing strategy will keep you consumers in the know about your company’s exciting new products and services, and will keep your brand in their mind when they’re in between purchases.
Now that you know what kind of email tactics will make your audience open and click through your emails to become new leads, you’re ready to craft the best email marketing strategy for your organization.