2013 email marketing mailers ctr in uk

7/27/2019 2013 Email Marketing Mailers CTR in UK

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The UK email marketing benchmarkreport 2013

When youre running a small business in Britain, it can be difficult to find meaningful comparisons

to measure your marketing against. We know, we tried. Reports on big businesses and US firms

just arent that useful for a UK SME. Thats why we created our UK email marketing benchmark.

This report is the result of an analysis of over 1.1 billion email messages sent through the Sign-

Up.to online marketing platform in the 12 months from 1st January - 31st December 2012. These

email campaigns are all from small-medium sized UK organisations. All of these messages were

permission-based and sent to opted-in lists (never to 3rd party or purchased lists).

The 22 sectors listed here have been self-selected by the senders. For details of the calculation

methods and additional graphs and tables, please see the appendix at the end of this document.

These averages are a good place to start when benchmarking your performance, but remember

that there are many factors which will influence your own results. When judging the success of

your campaigns make sure you select relevant criteria for you and then look for incremental

improvements by benchmarking against your own average results. For more on this, check out

http://www.sign-up.to/resources/

Please feel free to pass this document around and post excerpts and links - all we ask it that you

include a link and attribution to www.sign-up.to when you do.

You can find the latest online version of this report, and interactive versions of the charts at

www.sign-up.to/email-marketing-benchmarks/email-benchmark-2013/

Overall averages

Across all industries the average results for UK SME email marketing campaigns were:

Open rate: 21.47%

Click-through rate: 3.16%

Unsubscription rate: 0.47%

Click-to-open rate: 14.72%

Unsubscribe-to-open rate: 2.29%

The Sign-Up.to 2013 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report Page 1/12

Sign-Up Technologies Ltd. 2013 Visit us at www.sign-up.to
http://www.sign-up.to/email-marketing-benchmarks/email-benchmark-2013/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/email-marketing-benchmarks/email-benchmark-2013/http://www.sign-up.to/email-marketing-benchmarks/email-benchmark-2013/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/resources/http://www.sign-up.to/resources/


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How do open and click-through rates compare across sectors?



Opens Clicks

B2B Sales

B2B Services

B2C Retail

Charity

Education/Training

Events

Fashion

Finance

Health/Beauty

HR/Recruitment

Industrial/Manufacturing

IT

Legal

Music

New Media

PR

Property

Publishing

Restaurants

Sales/Marketing

Sport/Leisure

Travel

0% 7.5% 15.0% 22.5% 30.0%

3.98%

2.87%

3.03%

2.53%

4.26%

2.36%

2.33%

5.81%

2.20%

1.57%

1.69%

2.16%

2.52%

2.77%

2.02%

3.15%

1.52%

1.74%

3.22%

3.22%

2.19%

4.55%

22.29%

25.57%

22.90%

22.29%

21.52%

22.08%

20.35%

21.74%

21.47%

17.01%

16.41%

20.67%

19.74%

21.72%

19.02%

17.51%

17.00%

17.63%

23.58%

20.58%

20.63%

27.97%
http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/


3/12

Which sectors have the best campaign engagement?

(Higher is better)

Clicks to Opens

New Media

Publishing

Fashion

Travel

B2B Sales

B2C Retail

Charity

Sales/Marketing

HR/Recruitment

Health/Beauty

PR

Restaurants

Sport/Leisure

Property

Finance

B2B Services


IT

Music

Education/Training

Legal

Events

0% 7.5% 15.0% 22.5% 30.0%

8.97%

9.24%

9.87%

10.26%

10.30%

10.44%

10.61%

10.62%

10.69%

11.22%

11.37%

11.46%

12.75%

12.78%

13.23%

13.66%

15.64%

16.28%

17.85%

18.00%

19.78%

26.75%




4/12

Click-to-open rates give a deeper insight into campaign performance by looking at actions

performed after a campaign has been opened. This puts the focus on the actual email content - its

design and relevance to the recipients - and removes factors which influence open rate, like

subject line and sender details.

When comparing click-to-open rates it's important to remember that different types of email

campaigns will have different objectives - driving a click-through may not always be the goal of a

campaign.

This year sees Business to Business Sales take the lead with a click-to-open rate of 27.97%. By

comparison, in the Events category (the worst performer) many of the emails are flyers which

contain all of the relevant content within the email itself rather than linking away, and so they resultin a fraction of the number of clicks.




5/12

Which sectors have the highest reader loyalty?

(Lower is better)

Unsubscriptions to Opens

IT

HR/Recruitment

Sales/Marketing

Restaurants

B2B Services

Property

Education/Training

Finance

B2B Sales

B2C Retail

PR

Publishing

Health/Beauty

Events

Legal

Fashion


Travel

New Media

Charity

Sport/Leisure

Music

0% 1.25% 2.50% 3.75% 5.00%

1.24%

1.51%

1.56%

1.62%

1.82%

1.94%

1.96%

2.05%

2.10%

2.15%

2.31%

2.42%

2.46%

2.53%

2.70%

2.76%

2.84%

2.85%

2.87%

3.02%

3.40%

4.14%




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To measure reader loyalty, we look at the ratio of unsubscriptions to opens - a good indicator of the

relevance of a campaign to the audience. The unsubscription rate alone is a useful measure but

doesnt take into account people who simply discard messages without ever opening them - which

is the worst possible result for an email marketeer.




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Appendix - more charts and tables

In this appendix weve included charts breaking down these statistics further, as well as details of

how we calculate the numbers and tables of the raw percentages, in case youre curious!

A little bit about Sign-Up.to

We develop software and provide services and support to thousands of businesses to help them

communicate better with their customers using email marketing, SMS and social media. Weve

been in business for 10 years, are still owned by the original founders, and have offices in the UK

and Australia.

To find out more about what we do visit us at www.sign-up.to drop us an email at solutions@sign-

up.to or give us a call on 020 3355 2631 - wed love to hear from you.


mailto:[email protected]://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/


8/12

Which sector has the best open rate?

(Higher is better)

B2B Sales

Sport/Leisure

Charity

Sales/Marketing

Travel

Restaurants

Property

New Media

Health/Beauty

Publishing

Music


B2B Services

B2C Retail

PR

HR/Recruitment

Finance

Education/Training

Fashion

Legal

Events

IT

0% 7.5% 15.0% 22.5% 30.0%

16.41%

17.00%

17.01%

17.51%

17.63%

19.02%

19.74%

20.35%

20.58%

20.63%

20.67%

21.47%

21.52%

21.72%

21.74%

22.08%

22.29%

22.29%

22.90%

23.58%

25.57%

27.97%




9/12

Which sector has the best click-through rate?

(Higher is better)

New Media

B2B Sales

Publishing

Travel

B2C Retail

Charity

Fashion

Sales/Marketing

Sport/Leisure

Health/Beauty

Restaurants

HR/Recruitment

Property

PR

Music

B2B Services


Finance

Education/Training

IT

Legal

Events

0% 1.50% 3.00% 4.50% 6.00%

1.52%

1.57%

1.69%

1.74%

2.02%

2.16%

2.19%

2.20%

2.33%

2.36%

2.52%

2.53%

2.77%

2.87%

3.03%

3.15%

3.22%

3.22%

3.98%

4.26%

4.55%

5.81%




10/12

Which sectors get the most unsubscriptions?

(Lower is better)

B2B Sales

Sales/Marketing

IT

HR/Recruitment

Restaurants

Property

B2B Services

B2C Retail

Finance

Publishing

Education/Training

PR

Health/Beauty

Travel


Sport/Leisure

Charity

Events

Legal

New Media

Fashion

Music

0% 0.20% 0.40% 0.60% 0.80%

0.27%

0.34%

0.35%

0.35%

0.36%

0.37%

0.39%

0.40%

0.41%

0.47%

0.49%

0.49%

0.50%

0.51%

0.51%

0.59%

0.63%

0.64%

0.67%

0.68%

0.69%

0.71%




11/12

Raw data

For the numerically inclined, here are the raw percentages in table format.

Opens Clicks UnsubsClick toOpen

Open toUnsub

B2B Sales

B2B Services

B2C Retail

Charity

Education/Training

Events

Fashion

Finance

Health/Beauty

HR/Recruitment


IT

Legal

Music

New Media

PR

Property

Publishing

Restaurants

Sales/Marketing

Sport/Leisure

Travel

27.97% 4.55% 0.71% 16.28% 2.53%

20.63% 2.19% 0.59% 10.61% 2.85%

20.58% 3.22% 0.51% 15.64% 2.46%

23.58% 3.22% 0.37% 13.66% 1.56%

17.63% 1.74% 0.49% 9.87% 2.76%

17.00% 1.52% 0.36% 8.97% 2.10%

17.51% 3.15% 0.34% 18.00% 1.96%

19.02% 2.02% 0.51% 10.62% 2.70%

21.72% 2.77% 0.47% 12.75% 2.15%

19.74% 2.52% 0.67% 12.78% 3.40%

20.67% 2.16% 0.40% 10.44% 1.94%

16.41% 1.69% 0.68% 10.30% 4.14%

17.01% 1.57% 0.35% 9.24% 2.05%

21.47% 2.20% 0.27% 10.26% 1.24%

21.74% 5.81% 0.35% 26.75% 1.62%

20.35% 2.33% 0.49% 11.46% 2.42%

22.08% 2.36% 0.63% 10.69% 2.84%

21.52% 4.26% 0.50% 19.78% 2.31%

22.29% 2.53% 0.64% 11.37% 2.87%

22.90% 3.03% 0.69% 13.23% 3.02%

25.57% 2.87% 0.39% 11.22% 1.51%

22.29% 3.98% 0.41% 17.85% 1.82%




12/12

Defining terms

Lets define some of the terms we're using as several of these figures can be (and often are!)

calculated in different ways.

All figures we use are based on unique user actions - for example we only count the same

recipient opening a campaign once, if they open that campaign again we don't count that asanother open.

Bounced: messages returned by the receiving mail server as undeliverable

Delivered: messages accepted for delivery by the receiving mail server (total sent -

bounced)

Open Rate: the proportion of delivered emails that were opened (measured by an image

load or link click); i.e. number opened / delivered

Clicks: the proportion of delivered emails that had a link clicked; i.e. unique clicks /

delivered Unsubscribes: the proportion of delivered emails that result in an unsubscription; i.e.

unsubscribes / delivered

For some of the reports we use different ratios, as these are a better way to compare some

aspects of campaign performance - these are:

Clicks to Opens: the proportion of opened emails that had a link clicked; i.e. unique

clicks / opens

Unsubscribes to Opens: the proportion of opened emails that result in an unsubscription;i.e. unsubscribes / opens

We use these 'x to Open' figures as ways to compare the performance of the actual campaign

content because these look at what happens after the first objective of someone actually opening

the campaign has been achieved.



2013 email marketing mailers ctr in uk

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