Every email program has stats for open, click and click to open rates. The common question is, are the rates we see good?
The first comparison you need to make to answer that question is relative to your list’s recent performance. Depending on how you have built and maintained your list and the type of emails you send, as well as program specifics like whether or not you use a dedicated IP address, your rates are going to be different than your competitors’. So look at your performance over time to see if your rates are holding steady or trending up or down.
Next, compare your rates to email rates by type and by industry. IBM has released benchmarks for 2016, so has MailChimp.
When you draw these comparisons, make sure you are matching your email type as closely as possible.
Separate your transactional, triggered and other emails. Separate your holiday marketing campaign from the rest of the year. These groups may perform very differently. When your customer makes a purchase and you send an order confirmation, that confirmation counts as a transactional email and will measure very differently than your newsletter.
Below are benchmark rates by industry. IBM and MailChimp stats are provided.
When using an industry number, find the closest match to your company. You’ll see how education, when grouped differently and measured by different providers, the reported open rate varies by 9%.
Use these benchmarks as a guide. Use the relative performance of your list over time and information about what actions you’ve taken with your list and email campaigns to guide your decision making.