Email Marketing Benchmarks in 2022 [HubSpot Data]

Email marketing is an important strategy for marketers to find new leads, focus on existing customers, and make them aware of new products and services—but it’s not always easy. Technology and consumers are changing, and keeping pace can be challenging. However, the challenge is worth it.

47.5% of marketers said their email marketing strategy was very effective in achieving their business goals, while 47.2% said it was only somewhat effective. Only 2.7% said it was somewhat ineffective, and less than 1% said it was very ineffective.

Now that you know that a sound email marketing strategy can help you achieve your broader marketing goals, how exactly can you enhance your marketing strategy for best results? To improve your email marketing metrics, here are some useful email marketing benchmarks we’ve gathered from a survey we conducted among hundreds of marketers.

The Most Important Metrics for Effective Email Marketing

When we asked marketers which metrics were most important in measuring the effectiveness of an email campaign, click-through rates, open rates, and conversion rates were among the most responses.

CTR

In email marketing, click-through rate (CTR) is calculated based on the number of subscribers who click on at least one link in an email marketing campaign.35.9% of marketers we surveyed said improving it was one of their biggest challenges email marketing effort.

If you’re struggling to increase your click-through rate, the following email marketing benchmarks will help refine your strategy:

30.7% of marketers say emails featuring new product/feature announcements have the highest click-through rate. Another 30.7% said the same about emails with special offers or promotions. This could mean that consumers are more likely to click on emails that contain valuable information about what your company can do for them — whether it’s offering a product in demand or an attractive deal that will save them money.

Speaking of value, we also found that 38.2% of marketers say that delivering value through marketing emails is one of the most effective strategies for increasing click-through rates. Other popular answers include:

• Make an effective subject line (36.5%)
• Optimize email for mobile devices (29.6%)
• Include a clear call to action (28.6%)

Our data also shows that consumers are responding to more personalized email marketing methods, especially segmented emails. Our survey found that 52.9% of marketers say segmented emails have higher click-through rates than unsegmented emails, while only 23.8% say the opposite.

As we mentioned before, changes in technology can also affect your email marketing metrics, including click-through rates. 39.9% of the marketers we surveyed said the privacy features of Apple IOS 15 reduced click-through rates – and 34.7% said the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also reduced click-through rates.

Fortunately, there are ways to adjust your email marketing strategy to deal with these privacy changes. 62% of marketers surveyed included prioritizing different KPIs to measure the effectiveness of their approach to adjusting strategy.

51.9% includes leveraging user data from sources not affected by data privacy changes, such as non-Apple users. 36% included leveraging channels other than email marketing, such as SMS marketing.

open rate

In our survey, 32.9% of marketers ranked low open rates as their biggest challenge in email marketing. If open rates are a challenge for your company, the following statistics can help you make the right adjustments to your strategy.

About 31% of marketers say emails with special offers and promotions have the highest open rates, and 30% say the same about emails announcing new products and features.

When sending out marketing emails, you also need to consider the subject line. About 65% of marketers say subject lines have the biggest impact on open rates.

More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that topics that sparked curiosity were the most effective way to increase open rates. About 36% said the same about emails with promotional offers, and 27.9% said expressing urgency in the subject line is most effective.

Similar to CTR, 65% of marketers say segmented emails have higher open rates than unsegmented emails – while 17.9% say unsegmented emails are better and 17.1% say about the same .

34.1% of marketers said that improvements in privacy protections also affect open rates, saying that Apple IOS 15’s privacy protection features have reduced their ability to view open rates. 24.3% reported a complete reduction in open rates. GDPR also affects open rates. About 21% of marketers said the policy reduced their open rates, and about 34% said it reduced their ability to see open rates.

Conversion rate

According to our survey, over 30% of marketers say low conversion rates are one of the biggest challenges facing their email marketing strategy. However, if you improve your email marketing strategy to increase open and click-through rates, you may also see an increase in conversion rates.

Another method that may lead to higher conversion rates is to optimize your emails to be readable and engaging on the devices that are most commonly used to read them. We found that 41% of email views come from mobile devices. The second most popular device is the desktop at 39%. In third place are tablets, with 19% of email views coming from tablets.

The right email marketing strategy will keep your consumers informed about your company’s exciting new products and services and keep your brand in mind between their purchases.

Now that you know what email strategies will get your audience to open and click on your emails to become new leads, you can develop the best email marketing strategy for your organization.