Newly published research by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) and Pure360 reveals an overall improvement in email engagement over a five-year period.
Among the metrics measured, click-to-open rates have risen by 12 percent on average since 2015 while email delivery rates have increased from 96 to 99 percent over the same period. This can be linked to GDPR’s implementation in May 2018, as many organisations have put effort to proactively manage their email contact database lists.
The research reveals that open rates have decreased to 20 percent this year, but still remain above the averages of the previous years. The decreased might be caused by organisations mailable list sizes recovering post-GDPR, as observed in the Marketer Email Tracker 2020 research which revealed 58 percent of marketers growing their lists over the last 12 months.
Tim Bond, Head of Insight at the DMA, said: “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.”
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.”
Email benchmark averages, 2015-2019
