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Email Marketing Benchmarks for
2014—How Do You Stack Up?
Lauren T. Fisher
Analyst
November 20, 2014
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Agenda
Usage trends
Email marketing benchmarks
Trends worth tracking
– Relevancy
– Responsive design
– Smarter use of data
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Usage Trends
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Today, nearly all US adults are accessible via
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Email remains
a staple of
consumers’
media diet,
even despite
an ever-
growing
number of
available
channels and
options
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In fact,
it’s a staple
for both
consumers
and business
professionals
alike
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Business
professionals
in particular
rely heavily
on email to
share key
purchase and
research
information
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Mobile devices are increasingly becoming an
integral part of the email marketing story
Mobile opens
nearly tripled
between early
2011 and early
2014
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But email
engagement
on specific
devices is not
necessarily an
either-or
decision
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Younger generations in particular are using
smartphones to vet their inboxes
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What does this mean for marketers?
Email is a vital part of both consumer and B2B daily
media diets
Mobile is a growing influence affecting email usage and
actions
That effect is also influencing key email marketing
metrics
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Email Marketing
Benchmarks
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Compared
to 2012,
marketing
email open
rates have
continued their
upward climb
Nonbounce and
clickthrough rates
(CTRs) have held
somewhat steady
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“ With the wider usage of mobile,
people are actually looking at
their emails when they have
downtime. They’re combing
through their emails, but they’re
not necessarily going to click
through.”
—Jennifer Wiese, analytic consultant at
Epsilon
Mobile is a key influence affecting open rates
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Ecommerce-
related
measures are
also seeing
year-over-year
variance
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But make
no mistake,
email is still
considered a
very effective
channel
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Key benchmarks such as open rate and
clickthrough rate (CTR) vary by industry
Industry Open Rate CTR
Retail: 43.2% 4.4%
Financial Services: 40.2% 4.4%
Travel & Hospitality: 30.1% 3.5%
General B2B: 26.2% 4.4%
Consumer Services: 18.9% 3.8%
CPG: 17.4% 4.2%
Source: Epsilon “Q2 2014 Email Trends and Benchmarks,” Sept. 23, 2014
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Several additional factors affect email
benchmarks
These include:
– Day of week
– Time of day
– Personalization
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Most
companies
send emails
on weekdays
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But for those looking to drive sales, weekend
sends might prove ideal
Saturday:
highest open
rate, transaction
rate and order
size
Sunday: highest
click rate,
transaction rate
and revenue per
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Clicks and
opens might
be greater
during non-
work hours,
but those
engaging with
email during
the day tend
to spend more
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Mobile usage
is one factor
likely
affecting
email metrics
by time of day
morning
commute
evening
commute
leisure
work
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Adding personalized touches to subject lines can
lead to mixed results
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But keep in
mind that
personalization
is a much
broader tactic
that includes
more than
dynamic
content
insertion
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Takeaways: Email benchmarks
Benchmarks are helpful, but any number of factors have
the ability to influence performance
Performance improvement comes from understanding
how to mitigate the effects of the key factors affecting
your email metrics
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Trends Worth Tracking:
It’s All About Relevancy
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Consumers
really do want
to hear from
companies via
email …
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… but what
they don’t
want is noise
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The two biggest trends in email marketing today
center on improving email relevancy
1) The continued move toward responsive design
2) Smarter use of data
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Trends Worth Tracking:
Responsive Design
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Most
marketers
plan to
incorporate
responsive
design into
their email
marketing
programs
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Today,
a good portion
of emails still
lack mobile
optimization
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“ Some people have combined their
forces in terms of how to tailor their
email to mobile devices, but that’s a
mistake. The interaction and the
behavior of a customer on a
smartphone vs. a tablet are
very different, especially when it
comes to purchases.”
—Matt Hayes, co-founder and CEO of
Kickdynamic
Mobile optimization is about more than just
creating a ‘mobile’ email template …
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Tablet- and desktop-delivered emails should
emphasize conversions
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“ Moving to responsive design is largely
how we’ve dealt with a lot of the
mobile influence. But it’s critical that if
you’re a retailer or someone else
looking to drive a conversion, the
entire digital experience
needs to be mobile-enabled.
Just designing email for mobile won’t
cut it.”
—Charles Simpson, senior director of
worldwide marketing operations for McAfee
Keep in mind: Mobile email optimization is only
one part of a broader strategy
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Takeaways: Responsive design emails
The more mobile activity, the greater the mandate
Not all mobile devices are created equal
Email is only one part of a broader mobile optimization
strategy
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Trends Worth Tracking:
A Smarter Use of Data
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Data is the key to relevancy
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Today,
most
marketers
rely on
demographic
or behavioral
data to
understand
their email
audience
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“ People aren’t just saying, ‘Here’s my
email list, and here’s my message.’
They are getting smarter
about using demographic with
contextual data. That’s important
because people are on the move
a lot more.”
—Matt Hayes, co-founder and CEO of
Kickdynamic
Both types of data can provide valuable signals
for reaching the right individual at the right time
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For many,
time of day
has become
a critical
indication of
when to best
deliver a
message
morning
commute
evening
commute
leisure
work
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“ A lot of clients take time of day
seriously as a point of
personalization. We’re not looking for
the best time of day to send to your
entire email campaign, it’s the best
time of day for that particular
customer, determined by the
segment and the device they
are viewing it on.”
—Julianne Manoogian, director of the digital
intelligence group at Epsilon
In fact, many are considering its use beyond the
segment level to the individual recipient level
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But to offer
this level of
customization
in real time is
often easier
said than
done
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And with a growing number of channels to
consider—and integrate—it will only get harder
“ The practicality of
connecting your data
sources to make sure you
get the right
customer at the
right time is really
tough.”
—Charles Simpson, senior director,
worldwide marketing operations at
McAfee
“ It’s hard to stitch the
addressable consumer
across all these channels.
I don’t think we’ve
solved those
problems across all
devices or channels.”
—Katrina Conn, vice president of
marketing services at StrongView
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However, that’s not to say that marketers today
are shying away from cross-channel marketing
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But in the end, consumers will require marketers
to find a way to make it work
“ It’s about reaching a
consumer where
they want to be
reached, vs. just
emailing them because
we have their email
address.”
—Jeremy Levine, SVP of digital
sales at Live Nation
“ Customers don’t care
what channel they’re
using. They just want
to get the most
relevant message
that’s useful and
important.”
—Matt Hayes, co-founder and
CEO of Kickdynamic
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Key takeaways
1) Mobile’s influence is real and growing
2) The key to continued email marketing improvement is
relevancy
3) Data and responsive design are critical to cater to
consumer needs
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Marketo Overview
Jessica Langensand
Marketing Programs Manager, Marketo
© Marketo, Inc.
Marketo Company Overview
#1 independent marketing platform:
• Innovative digital marketing platform
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• Customer system of record, 1B leads, 220B+ activities
Top rated by Analysts including Gartner,
Sirius Decisions and Forrester
Marketing First
• Helping marketers master the art and science of digital marketing
• Unparalleled expertise
3,500 customers across 20+ industries in 36 countries
© Marketo, Inc.
Engagement MarketingBuild personalized, meaningful & lifelong relationships
Engage People:
• As individuals
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• Everywhere they are
The Engagement Marketing Platform
Engage people in a meaningful, lifelong and personalized way across channels
Measure and maximize impact of marketing investments across channels
Generate awareness and ensure potential customers can find you
Manage, coordinate and plan the marketing activities across your teams
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• Marketing calendar
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© Marketo, Inc.
Summary
How it helps you
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What we do
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Why Marketo
•Marketing First:
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• Vibrant community of 50K+ marketers and deepest expertise driving your long-term success
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
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Lauren T. Fisher
Email Marketing Benchmarks for
2014—How Do You Stack Up?
Email Benchmarks 2014: Richer Data, Mobile Optimization
Crucial for Greater Relevancy
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