All Industries Q1 Benchmarks
The email performance numbers are in for the first quarter of 2018. The full infographic at the bottom of this post is based on data from the quarterly benchmark report. Compare your own results to these benchmarks from across all industries.
The unique open rate for all industries was 16.9%. This represents a 5.8% decline compared to the unique open rate of 18% in the first quarter of 2017. Unique opens are the number of unique subscribers that have opened an HTML-formatted message divided by emails received.
The unique click rate for all industries in Q1 was 1.7%. This was unchanged from the same quarter last year. Unique clicks are the number of unique subscribers who have clicked on any link divided by emails received.
The click to open rate was 9.6% for all industries. This increased 8% from 8.9% in the first quarter of 2017. The click-to-open rate is unique clicks as a percentage of unique opens.
The transaction rate was 0.05% in the first quarter and was the same last year. Transaction rate is the overall percentage of transactions divided by delivered messages.
Revenue per email was $0.07 in Q1 of 2018, which is a 7% increase from $0.06 this same quarter in 2017. Revenue per email is the total revenue divided by emails delivered.
Mobile Trends
The importance of mobile devices continues to have an impact on email as their usage grows. Responsive design is no longer an option for email, but a requirement, as mobile outpaces desktop. Compare your own numbers to the benchmarks to understand where your customer activities occur. Mobile opens and clicks can be a leading indicator for how to think about other mobile marketing efforts.
For all industries, 57% of total email opens occurred on mobile phones or tablets in Q1 2018. This is just slightly higher than the 53% seen in Q1 2017. The percent of clicks received on mobile devices was 60%, which exceeded the amount in Q1 2017 by 28%.
Industry Verticals Q1 Benchmarks
The following are benchmarks for unique open rates and unique click rates for selected industry verticals. Compare your own performance against your industry to know how you are doing against your peers. These metrics will also let you see how your industry is doing compared to all email marketers as a whole.
Business Products and Services
Companies that sell products or services to other businesses
- Open Rate 17.1%
- Click Rate 2.8%
Consumer Products and Services
Companies that design, manufacture, and/or market food and beverages, personal care, household cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, and utilities
- Open Rate 18.4%
- Click Rate 1.6%
Media and Entertainment
All entertainment media such as music, movies, television, radio, and interactive games
- Open Rate 18.7%
- Click Rate 1.8%
Multi-channel Retailers
Primarily business-to-consumer retailers that sell merchandise, such as housewares, apparel, and sporting goods, across more than two buying channels (such as catalog, e-commerce, retail stores)
- Open Rate 14.7%
- Click Rate 1.6%
Publishers
Magazine, newspaper, and book publishers
- Open Rate 22.1%
- Click Rate 4.2%
Travel
A variety of travel are represented in this grouping including land, air, and sea.
- Open Rate 19.3%
- Click Rate 1.7%
The benchmark numbers above will help you ask the right questions and understand how your email program compares to other programs and campaigns. Get even more detail on Q1 performance by downloading Q1 2018 Email Benchmark Report today.
