The average autoresponder sequence contains 8 emails and spans 49 days, according to a GetResponse analysis of more than 300 million messages. Indeed, about 8 in 10 cycles have less than 10 autoresponders in their sequence, with 79% of those cycles shorter than 30 days in length. Those appear to be sound strategies, as the research suggests that subscriber engagement is higher for the initial emails in a sequence.
The analysis shows that the average open rate for the first 2-10 emails in any given cycle was 27%, while the average click-through rate (CTR) for the emails was 8.8%. Those numbers tended to decrease for later emails: the 11th-19th emails in the cycles saw a 19.7% open rate and a 4.8% CTR, while the 20th-29th emails had a 17.6% open rate and a 3.7% CTR.
The initial email naturally saw the highest engagement, but the scale of that engagement was surprising: a 67% open rate and 37% CTR on average. The researchers believe this signals the importance of that initial email – but it also shows that there’s a significant drop-off in engagement between the first and second email of a cycle. (While the results are divided into groups of 9-10 messages, the data also shows that engagement declines within the first group of 10 emails.)
In general, the data indicates that automated emails had 24% higher open rates and 47% higher CTRs than standard newsletters last year.
Other Findings:
- 23.8% of all opt-in email opens (not just autoresponders) occur during the first hour after delivery. Research released last year by GetResponse similarly found 23.6% of opens occurring during the first hour.
- Email volume is smaller on Saturdays (8.6% share of weekly volume) and Sundays (8.7%), while the largest share of emails are sent on Tuesdays (19.9%). Open rates were found to be lowest on the weekend – a detailed look at email results by time of day and day of the week can be found here.
- 29% of all emails sent last year were sent during the fourth quarter.
