While I was out of the office recently tending to some personal affairs, my husband commented on the number of “dings” from my iPhone. He was shocked when I explained that said “dings” indicated yet another email.
When I returned, I had 400 emails. Really. After only three days.
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir, but I can’t keep my inbox clean. I operate three accounts regularly and they’re all suffering from inbox overload.
So. Much. Email.
And…so much deleting.
But I have to admit even when I’m overwhelmed, I open the emails with the catchy subject lines.
Lesson here: People are suffering from email fatigue, so as an association marketer, your job is tough. How do you get people to open your emails, let alone read them?
It’s a delicate balance of testing, creativity and, most importantly, research, finds a new Informz report.
The “2015 Association Email Benchmarking Report” summarizes email marketing metrics from more than 1 billion emails associations sent in 2014. The four metrics measured in the report: delivery rate, open rate, click rate and unsubscribe rate.
Informz found email testing is on the rise. In 2014, there was increase of more than 26 percent in email subject line testing. But also, associations are testing layouts, timing and call-to-actions.
At the same time, the survey found 72 percent of email subscribers received five or fewer emails per month. But subscribers who received six to 10 emails per month had slightly higher open and click rates. And while all this is important, the single most important engagement factor is relevancy, Informz said.
Key findings from the report:
- The average email metrics for associations include a 98.34 percent delivery rate, 35.49 percent open rate and 15.87 percent click rate.
- Mobile usage has dropped slightly and desktop usage has returned to the most frequently used email client type.
- Emails containing one to 15 links had click rates lower than the click rate benchmark of 15.87 percent. Messages with 51 to 70 links had the highest average click rates at 21.17 percent.
- Engagement rates decrease as mailing size increases. Mailings sent to fewer than 50 people had open rates 34 percent higher than the industry benchmark.
- Messages sent at night had the highest open rates and messages sent midday had the highest click rates.
- Subject lines with fewer than 40 characters have open rates above the 35.49 percent open rate benchmark.
- More than 78 percent of all opens were viewed just once on a mobile device, desktop or other client, while 22 percent of all opens were combinations of the three. More readers prefer to view on desktop only than any other email client.
“The data shared will help you understand what metrics to analyze, what goals to set and how your email marketing program is performing in comparison to your peers,” Informz said. “Always keep in mind that these are averages from your peers.”