Is Your Email Marketing Open Rate on Target?

During a recent email marketing campaign, a colleague achieved a 30% open rate on her newsletter. She asked me if this was a good target or should her results be even higher.

The answer to this question isn’t as cut and dry as you might think. Simply different niches as well as industries enjoy a different level of success with their email marketing campaigns.

Is your email marketing open rate on target? Are you pleased with your conversion rates? We all know that you need to use this highly valuable marketing initiative; email marketing is inexpensive and can be highly effective at converting prospects into clients.

Advanced email marketing software

But only if you do it correctly!

I uncovered a bit of Hubspot data that showed the results of mixed industry email marketing studies. They looked at B2B vs. B2C, company size, and the number of emails sent per month.

I’d like to examine their findings more in depth and discuss how you can apply best email marketing practices to your business.

Be Realistic With Your Email Marketing Benchmarks

Before we can discuss good email open rates, we need to be clear about what an email open rate is. The email open rate means that someone has opened the email that you sent them.

What Were the Results of Hubspot’s Email Marketing Survey?

A click-through rate indicates that someone who opened the email clicked on a link in the email that directed them to something you wanted them to read, buy, or something else.

These two pieces of data will show you how engaged your email marketing subscribers are with your business. For example, a subscriber list of 1,000 emails with a 30% open rate had 300 subscribers see their email.

Hubspot looked at company size, click-through rate, and email open rates across B2B and B2C organizations. They determined that:

  • Companies that sent 16 to 30 emails per month had the highest email open rates of 32.3%
  • Companies that sent 16 to 30 emails per month had the highest CTRs of 6.5%
  • Companies with 1 to 10 employees had the highest open rates (up to 35%), unless more than 30 emails were sent per month (decreased to 30%).
  • Companies with more than 201 employees had the highest CTRs (5-7%), followed closely by companies with 1-10 employees (5-6.5%).
  • B2C companies had a higher email open rate. However, B2B companies had a higher CTR.

Consequently, as you read this data, consider how your campaign falls within these numbers. Who are your emails being sent to? Do you have an engaged, active audience?

If you are only reaching a 20% open rate (or less), for example, you may want to consider consulting with us to trouble-shoot why your email marketing campaign isn’t working for you.

How Does Email Marketing Automation Give Readers a Better User Experience?

The Hubspot research did not mention whether those companies sending 16 to 30 emails per month were using email marketing automation software, such as Infusionsoft.

Start Ranking Now has found that if you send generic emails to everyone on your list, the more emails you send, the lower the CTR, which makes us think that something more was at play here.

While it’s a great idea to run 16 campaigns at the same time (for example sales funnels to attract your ideal clients), we are unclear if that’s the tactic they were referring to in the research.

Advanced email marketing software, when we discuss sending 16 -30 emails, will also segment and target your list for you, allowing the user to control their own experience with your company. If this was the case for the 30 emails being sent by Hubspot’s users, naturally, the open rates and CTRs will be higher than generic “on sale today” scripts used by most large corporations.

Readers Will Always Open Valuable Email Marketing Content

Another hard and fast rule of successful email marketing is that readers will always open valuable content. I am a frequent reader of Neil Patel’s Kissmetric emails; they offer key data points and strategies that I can use to better support my clients.

Other email marketers don’t offer exclusive content, and, therefore, I do not open their emails. You might consider:

  • What makes your campaign irresistible?
  • Are you selling too much in your email?
  • Do you segment your list by users and interests?
  • What benefits or offers do you provide only to your readers?
  • Can your offers have a theme that readers can look forward to?

Daily Love is one example that comes to mind. For several years, the owner of this program sent inspirational emails to his readers, eventually gaining popularity that took him around the world on a speaking tour.

You too, should inspire your readers to the point that they must open everything that you send because they don’t want to miss anything.

What Gets Measured Improves…Especially in Marketing

As you begin to digest the data that we’ve provided here, consider what a good email marketing open rate means for you and your business. If you know your audience, you will soon be able to achieve over 30% open rates every TIME.

Your CTRs will also improve when you realize how many emails are ideal to send for your business. Shooting for 5-7% CTRs is ideal. Do you have any tricks for getting yours even higher? Let us know in comments below.

If you continue to struggle to put tests and measures in place, remember that you are more than welcome to book a consultation with Start Ranking Now. We’ll review your metrics and help you develop a strategic plan to achieve your marketing goals.

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