The 15th edition of the 2018 National Email Benchmark has been published. Email marketing ranks No. 1 in the top three most important online channels for businesses this year. This was indicated by a whopping 86% of respondents. Generating traffic to a website or webshop has become the most important goal of email marketing.
It is clear that email marketing is becoming an increasingly important role, with as many as 80% of companies having an email marketing strategy. Yet this means that 20% are still without a strategy. The most commonly cited reasons for this are: lack of time and lack of expertise.
In this blog, we share key results from the 2018 National Email Benchmark.
For those companies already using e-mail marketing, it is important to know how to measure the success of a sent e-mail campaign. It starts with standing out in the recipient's mailbox. In addition, the content needs to be interesting enough so that the recipient clicks through. Click Ratio is used along with Open Ratio and conversion to measure success.
The Open Ratio is the indication of the success of your email, it shows whether your email has been noticed and opened enough.
This year we see an increase in the Open Ratio from the previous year. The average Open Ratio this year is 25.59%.
In the B2B sector, the Open Ratio is again higher than in the B2C sector this year. The annual average is almost 5% higher in B2B.
Most emails were again opened via mobile, here again a slight increase can be seen compared to last year. There is a difference in terms of sector though: with B2B, the Open Ratio on a desktop is higher than on mobile, while with B2C most emails are opened on mobile.
To capitalize on and increase the Open Ratio, it is important to increase recipient interest by sending personalized and segmented emails.
Segmented emails are tailored to the recipient's interests. Sending out one message to your entire database no longer works.
By splitting the campaigns and targeting individuals more specifically, the campaigns better connect with the right audience.
In fact, the CTR tells you how effective the email campaign really is. In just a few seconds, a recipient determines whether the content is interesting enough to click through.
To ensure this, put e.g:
- a clear CTA In the email
- Striking titles above texts
- short texts in the mail
- Relevant images in the email
- Personalized and/or segmented content in the mail
The above tips will also ensure that your emails do not end up in the recipients' spam folder. Read more about this in our blog.
Still, CTR is visibly declining (2016 average 3.49% - 2017 average 3.45%). The B2B sector does score higher than the B2C sector. But the quarterly differences in both sectors are quite small.
The Click To Open Ratio has decreased compared to 2016, it averaged 15.19% then and 13.50% in 2017. In terms of device, mobile has a higher CTO compared to desktop. Looking specifically at industry, desktop has a higher CTO than mobile in the B2B sector.
The Click To Open Ratio is the percentage of recipients who opened the email and then clicked through. You calculate this by dividing the unique number of times a link was clicked by the number of uniquely confirmed opens.
Like the Open Ratio and CTR, the CTO is also higher in the B2B sector than the B2C sector. Although the difference is very small.
You will find out what the best sending day is for you by testing. But if you don't want your e-mail to be swamped by other people's e-mails, it's helpful to know which days are the most popular for sending an e-mail.
This shows that Thursday is when most emails are sent in the B2B sector. So if you want to stand out, it's best to pick another day. Unless Thursday works just right for you. After all, these numbers don't have to be the same for you. By testing, you will discover which day collects the most opens and clicks for you.
Research shows that business emails have the most clicks on Saturdays, even though there is almost no emailing on that day.
The same goes for the CTR, which in the B2B sector is also higher on Saturdays and Sundays than on other days.
Like the shipping day, the best shipping time varies by company. On average, there is a clear shipping peak between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and at 5 p.m. again.
In the B2B sector, there is a shipping peak at 07:00, 10:00 and at 12:00. The number of opens is highest at 10:00.
The main challenge for businesses in 2018 appears to be Marketing Automation to be. A whopping 47% of respondents see Marketing Automation as a challenge. Besides a challenge, Marketing Automation also appears to be a trend that companies are looking to capitalize on. Read more about this in our blog.
Another notable challenge appears to be legislation. In 2017, legislation was a challenge for 1% of respondents, this year it is for 25% of respondents. Most likely, this has to do with the AVG which has been in effect since this year and affects email marketing.
Need help implementing Marketing Automation? Our Marketing Automation specialists are here to help.
Email marketing is popular, but for the 20% who do not yet have a strategy, there are still a lot of opportunities to use email marketing to increase their business. If you already have a strategy, you can optimize your strategy based on the numbers above.
Need help with your email marketing strategy? Get in touch with us!
For the complete Email Benchmark 2018, click here >>
