Last year we discussed the results of the UK email marketing benchmark report published by Sign-Up.to, showing that the Government sector was leading the way in open and click through rates for email campaigns. The same benchmarking report has been published for 2011 and not much has changed.
The Government sector is currently ahead of the other 22 industry sectors surveyed with an open rate of 34.06% which is lower than last year’s 35.6% but their click through rates have risen slighly from 9.08% in 2010 to 9.23% in 2011. Engagement levels are measured by click to open rates where Government is in second place (27.11%) with a significant increase from last year’s 25.51%. This could be because their emails continue to send out interesting, informative content or due to a general increase in public interest in what the Government is doing. Industrial/Manufacturing is roughly in the middle and Property relatively near the bottom, both experiencing a decrease in engagement levels when compared to last year and are also below the overall average. Why is this the case? Are the calls to action not strong enough to get people to click through to landing pages? Is the content not interesting enough? Is email not the right channel for the messages promoted? How does the shift in mobile usage impact the results?