Top-Performing US Email Marketers Achieved an Average CTR of 8.3% Last Year

April 22, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Asia-Pacific | Digital | Email | Global & Regional | Media & Entertainment | Retail & E-Commerce | Travel & Hospitality

Silverpop-Email-Marketing-Benchmarks-in-2012-Apr2013The median email click-through rate (CTR) in the US stood at 2.2% last year, and the mean rate at 3.3%, but the top quartile of performers achieved an average rate of 8.3%, according to [pdf] a new email marketing benchmarks study from Silverpop. The study also reveals that when it came to unique open rates, the top quartile of performers in the US saw an average rate of 34.7%, more than double the median rate of 16.5%. The strongest performers bested the median click-to-open rate by 83% (24% vs. 13.1%). Finally, the top quartile of performers by gross open rate saw rates almost three times higher than the median (79.8% vs. 26.5%).

Interestingly, these US averages trailed other parts of the globe. In the Asia-Pacific region, for example, the top quartile of performers achieved a 44.6% unique open rate, while the top quartile in Canada saw an impressive 12.9% CTR.

Analyzing the data on a global basis, the study reveals that certain verticals performed far better than others. Limiting the results to those of the top quartile of performers, the study shows that:

  • Education sported the highest unique open rate (46.1%), followed by retail (39.6%) and travel and leisure (38.5%);
  • Education boasted the highest gross open rate (126.5%), followed again by retail, at 98.8%;
  • Consumer products saw an average of 2.98 opens per opener;
  • Education (once again) achieved the highest CTR, of 12.8%, ahead of healthcare (9.9%) and computer software (8.5%);
  • Healthcare saw the best click-to-open rate (33%), followed by computer software (25.1%);
  • Media and publishing experienced the lowest hard bounce rate (0.1%); and
  • Computer hardware, telecom and electronics saw an unsubscribe rate of just 0.01%.

About the Data: This study examined messages sent by Silverpop’s Engage client base. Researchers looked at all messages sent by 2,787 brands from 40 countries.

A broad set of message types was included in the study ”” from promotional emails and content-based newsletters to notifications and transactional messages ”” sent by companies in a variety of industries.

For the study, researchers analyzed various metrics for both the overall category [all 40 sender countries, including the United States, Canada, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asian Pacific (APAC) countries], and for just the United States, Canada, EMEA and APAC. Because the overall numbers include countries beyond the United States, Canada, EMEA and APAC, in some instances the overall median might actually be higher (or lower) than the combined median of the United States, Canada, EMEA and APAC.

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