Mobile Share of Email Opens and Clicks Varies Widely by Industry

June 13, 2014

Experian-Mobile-Share-Opens-Clicks-by-Industry-in-Q1-June2014Half of total email opens occurred on a mobile device in Q1 2014, according to the latest quarterly email report from Experian Marketing Services, a figure in line with various industry estimates (such as this one). But mobile click-to-open rates continue to lag desktop, and the Experian study indeed shows that mobile accounted for a relatively smaller 38% of clicks in Q1. Those averages mask significant differences when sorting by industries, though, with multi-channel retailers on the high end of mobile activity and business products and services brands on the low end.

Indeed, mobile accounted for just 22% share of opens and 10% of clicks in Q1 for business products and services brands, compared to 63% and 52%, respectively, for multichannel retailers. Those results to some extent align with consumers’ content consumption habits: according to comScore, mobile devices account for 53% share of online time spent with retail content, but just 20% with B2B content. (For more on how B2B buyers and decision-makers access emails on their mobile devices, see the new MarketingCharts Debrief [download page] on reaching and influencing B2B buyers and decision-makers.)

The Experian data also indicates that mobile only accounted for one-third of email opens and 14% of clicks for publishers. Its influence was larger in the consumer products and services (58% of opens; 47% of clicks) and media and entertainment (54% of opens; 50% of clicks) industries.

Brands’ Email Volume Continues to Rise

Experian-Email-Volume-Growth-Trends-Q2-2012-Q1-2014-June2014Separately, the study indicates that brands sent 15.6% more emails overall in Q1 2014 than they did in Q1 2013, representing the 5th consecutive quarter of double-digit increases. Interestingly, open rates continued to rise, with the total open rate increasing from 24.4% in Q1 2013 to 25.5% in Q1 2014. That marks the 5th consecutive quarter that open rates have risen on a year-over-year basis, even as email volume has also grown.

Click rates haven’t followed the same trend, though: the click-to-open rate declined by a significant margin, from 14.7% to 12.7%, as did the total click rate (3.9% to 3.2%) and unique click rate (2.7% to 2.3%). Experian also notes that, disturbingly, bounce rates increased from 1.9% to 2.2%.

Remarketing Emails: More is Better

Finally, the study spotlights remarketing email series, analyzing the effectiveness of 18 brands that sent an abandoned cart series from January 2013 through January 2014. The analysis finds that:

  • Brands sending a second abandoned cart email had a 50% increase in revenue from their first mailing, and those sending three emails enjoyed a 56% increase in revenue over the initial email;
  • Brands that sent a second abandoned cart mailing on Day 3 had the highest transaction rates;
  • Those sending three mailings had the best transaction rates when sending them on Days 1, 2, and 3; and
  • Abandoned cart emails showing the actual dynamic cart had a transaction rate 25% higher than those linking to the brand’s website.
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