E-mail Open Rates Declining, Click-Through Rates Rising [Study]

There are mixed messages for e-mail marketers in a new benchmark study from digital marketing software provider Silverpop: E-mail open rates are falling, but click-through rates are on the rise.

The findings are included in Silverpop’s 2012 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study, and include analysis of e-mails sent in 2011 and Q1 of 2012 by more than 1,100 brands in 20 countries. The exact number of e-mails studied isn’t mentioned.

Silverpop reports that the overall open rate for all regions was 20.1 percent, which is down from the 22.2 percent that Silverpop reported in a July 2009 study. Open rate was lowest last year in the U.S. and highest in Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA).

Computer software companies had the best open rate at 24.7 percent, while the Education sector had the lowest at 15 percent.

The numbers are better where click-through rate is concerned. Silverpop’s current study shows overall CTR at 5.2 percent, which is up from 4.5 percent in the 2009 study. Click-through rates were strongest in the U.S. and weakest in Canada.

It should be noted that this year’s study involved a much wider base than the study two years ago, which only involved three regions (U.S., U.K. and Germany) and also covered only one month of e-mails, compared to five quarters in the current study.

This year’s study can be downloaded from Silverpop’s website. You’ll need to provide contact information to access the PDF.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.