Email marketing metrics improve post-pandemic | WARC | The Feed

Email marketing metrics improve post-pandemic

Key email metrics improved during 2021 as the UK returned to some normality post-pandemic, with click rates the most notable rise, according to the Email Benchmarking Report 2022 from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) 

Why it matters

Improving metrics, while encouraging, have to be considered in the context of Apple’s ‘Mail Privacy Protection’ (MPP) coming into force in September 2021. Tim Bond, Director of Insight at the DMA, notes that these changes may potentially be driving more marketers to “start optimising campaigns for clicks rather than opens”, which could explain a marked increase in clicks.

Takeaways 

• Click rates rose to just under 3% in 2021, up; from the 2-2.5% range observed from 2015-2020.
• After a slight decrease in 2020, delivery rates returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 at 98.1% on average.
• Open rates rose to 19.7%, up from 19% in 2020; click-to-open rates went from 11.7% to 13.2% (possibly a consequence of the MPP noted above).

• The best performing sector were Retail (with a click rate of 3.5%, up from 2.1% the year before) and Publishing (3.3%, up from 2.6%); there was also a slight increase at Finance (2.4%, up from 2.3%)
• Travel (2.3%, down from 3.2%) and Utilities (2.8%, down from 3.4%) saw declines in click rates; Not-for-Profit almost halved to 2.9%.

 Key quote

“Email marketing has seen huge changes over the past few years as a result of GDPR, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the introduction of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). Against such a dynamic backdrop, having a consistent answer to the question “What does good look like?” is essential” – Guy Hanson, Deputy Chair, DMA Email Council. 

Sourced from DMA