2014 Destination Marketing Organization Email Marketing Benchmark Report www.informz.com
Table of Contents 03 Data s Role in Results-Driven Email Marketing 04 The Details about the Data 05 Key Email Marketing Metrics 06 Key Themes 07 The Data 08 Overall DMO Metrics 09 Results by Email Client Type 10 Results by Number of Links 11 Results by Number of Recipients 12 Results by Time of Day 13 Results by Day of Week 14 Results by Subject Line Length 15 Open Duration Results 16 Results by Hour 17 Email Marketing Strategy Forecast 18 About Informz 2
Data s Role in Results-Driven Email Marketing From one data guru to another WELCOME! You re in the right place. At Informz, we are numbers people. We eat, breathe, and sleep all things email marketing, and reporting is a huge, huge part of that. Open rates, click rates, conversion rates, open duration and email client reports the list of reports available goes on and on. How many other communications methods allow you to track and analyze results as in-depth as email marketing does? Very few. Data analysis helps you to accurately evaluate performance and plan for the future. It is the basis for strategic email marketing something we re pretty serious about. Results-driven email marketing provides you with the best possible ROI, and data analysis will get you there. Our annual Association Email Marketing Benchmark Reports have become a hit with our association friends, and we wanted to share the love with our Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) clients. This is the inaugural Destination Marketing Organization Email Marketing Benchmark Report. 3
The Details about the Data The Data We ve performed a study on our DMO client base to provide email marketers from DMOs benchmarking information for their email marketing programs. This report includes a summary of email marketing metrics from over 8 million emails sent in 2013 by DMOs located in the United States and Canada. Email marketing is one of the primary ways for DMOs to communicate with visitors and partners for their cities. Whether promoting an event or creating awareness for their city, DMOs have found value in the effectiveness of email marketing and the ability to report on its performance. How to Use This Report This report is designed for email marketers from DMOs. 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. Keep in mind these are averages from your peers. If your metrics are on the low end, read on for tips to improve metrics. 4
Key Email Marketing Metrics Key Email Marketing Metrics Four key metrics are used in this report: delivery, open, click and unsubscribe rates. Delivery Rate is the percentage of emails that were not reported back to Informz as bounced or blocked. Open Rate is the percentage of delivered emails that were reported back to Informz as having been opened. If the text version of an email is read, it is not counted. Likewise, if an HTML email is read with the images turned off, it is not counted. However, if an email is opened with images off, but a link is clicked, the email is counted as being opened. Open rate only includes unique subscribers. Multiple opens by one subscriber only count once. Click Rate is the percentage of opened emails that were clicked by the recipient. Clicking on a link in a text email is not counted as a click. Click Rate only includes unique subscribers. Multiple clicks by one subscriber only count once. Unsubscribe Rate is the percentage of recipients who unsubscribed from a particular mailing. 5
Key Themes In a sea of data, there were three key themes that were jumping off the pages at us. You want their attention? You have a few seconds. Literally. Recipients are not spending a lot of time reading emails. More than 30% of emails opened were opened for less than three seconds. Three seconds! If an email isn t rendering properly, if there s too much text, or if headlines aren t attention grabbing, the chances of your email getting read are pretty slim. Shorter emails have a better chance, so keep them concise. Speaking of short things shorter subject lines outperform lengthier subject lines. We suspect it s due to mobile device usage and subject line truncation on email clients. Subject lines with fewer than 10 characters had 66.20% open rates. Mobile readers behave differently than desktop readers. Mobile email readership has been on the rise over the past few years, but surprising to us, mobile readership has not surpassed desktop readership for DMOs. Nearly half of all email opens (49.16%) were desktop opens. With 33.49% of email opens being mobile, mobile optimization is no longer just an idealistic goal it needs to be a priority. Larger font size and links, one column layouts, and even responsive design are creating better experiences for mobile readers. Off hours, or hours at the beginning and end of the day, tend to be prime mobile hours, so if your DMO typically sends during this time, mobile optimization is critical. Timing really is everything. While open rates didn t vary much based on the time of the day an email is sent, click rates did. During evening hours, when people are winding down (and most likely on a mobile device, based on our Results by Hour report) click rates dipped. Results by day of the week were most noteworthy. Throughout the traditional work week, Monday through Friday, open and click rates didn t fluctuate a great deal, but they dropped by over 10% on weekends. Based on results, we recommend sending during the week, specifically on Mondays during the late afternoon. 6
2014 Destination Marketing Organization The Data 7
Overall Email Metrics Key Findings >> The average email metrics for DMOs include a 95.20% delivery rate, 32.69% open rate, 17.38% click rate, and.25% unsubscribe rate. 100% Overall Metrics 95.20% 80 60 40 32.69% 20 17.38% 0 Delivery Rate Open Rate Click Rate 8
Results by Email Client Type Key Findings >> Mobile readership has not surpassed desktop readership for DMOs. Nearly half of all email opens (49.16%) were desktop opens. Results by Email Client Type 9.34% Unknown 8.01% Web Client 33.49% Mobile 49.16% Desktop 9
Results by Number of Links Key Findings >> Emails containing more links boasted higher click-thru rates, especially emails containing 31 50 links. Results by Number of Links 1 14.99% 2 15.67% Number of Links 3 4 19.84% 5 7 19.21% 8 15 16.57% 16 30 17.06% 31 50 20.13% 51 70 17.08% >70 18.72% 0 5 10 15 20 25% Click Rate (%) 10
Results by Number of Recipients Key Findings >> Open and click rates were highest on emails sent to the smallest number of recipients, which tend to be more targeted and relevant to recipients. Results by Number of Recipients <50 26.10% 58.89% 50 100 23.12% 40.00% 100 250 20.91% 35.44% 250 500 18.49% 28.43% Mailing Size 500 1K 1K 5K 5K 50K 50K 100K 13.49% 11.77% 13.11% 15.05% 14.49% 21.89% 19.34% 26.35% Open Rate Click Rate 100K 250K 13.91% 13.40% >250K 8.44% 7.90% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60% 11
Results by Time of Day Key Findings >> Messages sent in the late afternoon had the highest open and click rates. Results by Time of Day 35% 30 30.24% 33.22% 34.29% 31.80% 25 20 17.46% 17.08% 18.23% 15 13.28% 10 5 0 Morning Mid-Day Late Afternoon Night Open Rate Click Rate 12
Results by Day of Week Key Findings >> While there was a slight spike in open and click rates on Monday, there was little variation between open and click rates overall during the traditional work week. Saturday and Sunday had lower open and click rates.* Results by Day of Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 18.02% 17.66% 17.13% 17.73% 16.73% 34.37% 32.25% 32.63% 32.89% 32.11% Saturday* 13.53% 22.61% Sunday* 10.23% 22.72% 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Open Rate Click Rate *Volume was much lower on weekends, but was included for informational purposes. 13
Results by Subject Line Length Key Findings >> Shorter subject lines outperform lengthier subject lines. Subject lines with fewer than 10 characters had 66.20% open rates. Results by Subject Line Length 9 and less 66.20% 10 19 32.70% Number of Characters 20 29 30 39 40 49 50 59 31.24% 33.47% 32.68% 35.12% 60 69 32.89% 70 and up 27.07% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Open Rate 14
Open Duration Results Key Findings >> 80% Recipients are not spending a lot of time reading emails. Over 30% of emails opened were opened for less than three seconds, so focusing on engagement is key. Open Duration Results 70 60 57.7% 50 40 30 30.1% 20 12.2% 10 0 Read Open Rate (Greater than 10 seconds) Skim Open Rate (3 10 seconds) Open Open Rate (Less than 3 seconds) 15
Results by Hour 20% Desktop opens are higher during regular business hours. Mobile opens tend to be higher early in the morning and late in the evening. Results by Hour Key Findings >> Desktop Mobile 16.34 15 13.04 13.64 12.12 11.41 10 8.74 10.61 8.72 10.39 10.55 10.38 9.82 7.64 7.86 6.85 5 4.57 3.48 4.33 4.68 3.62 2.68 2.79 2.03 1.44 1.08 0.84 0.35 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.15 0.07 0.21 0.00 0.01 0.10 0.05 0 12 AM 2 AM 4 AM 6 AM 8 AM 10 AM 12 PM 2 PM 4 PM 2.57 2.24 1.73 1.69 0.20 0.08 0.43 0.33 0.01 0.00 6 PM 8 PM 10 PM 16
Email Marketing Strategy Forecast Always keep in mind that the results from this study should only provide a general baseline to compare your current email marketing metrics. Use this data in combination with your DMO s email marketing campaign results for the most comprehensive analysis. If you re looking to improve results, here are our recommendations for where to start. Engage readers from the get-go You re not just competing with other DMOs for attention in the inbox you are also competing with your recipient s favorite clothing store, personal emails from family and friends, and discounts from their preferred online retailer. You need to stand out! Write short, descriptive subject lines and try using a preheader to further entice them to open. Shorten articles and create landing pages for full stories, so they have enough time to scroll through your email and see all of your great content. One of our DMO clients did this and saw click rates rise by 514%. Make mobile a priority Responsive design is no longer the future of email design it s the present. Emails designed with responsive design will instantly shrink, expand, or reformat to fit the device it s being viewed on, creating a seamless experience for the reader. If responsive design isn t for you (yet), making minor tweaks to emails like adding more white space, using larger links and font sizes, and changing your layout to one column will set you up for mobile success. Be smart about your send time You know when most audiences are likely to open and engage with emails, but what about your specific readers? Check your email reports to see when recipients are most likely to open your emails. If your reports don t display one conclusive time, utilize send time optimization, a feature that predicts when a recipient is most likely to open based on past behavior. Whatever you do don t just hit send and hope it works out. Be smart about it. 17
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