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The UK email marketing benchmarkreport 2013
When youre running a small business in Britain, it can be difficult to find meaningful comparisons
to measure your marketing against. We know, we tried. Reports on big businesses and US firms
just arent that useful for a UK SME. Thats why we created our UK email marketing benchmark.
This report is the result of an analysis of over 1.1 billion email messages sent through the Sign-
Up.to online marketing platform in the 12 months from 1st January - 31st December 2012. These
email campaigns are all from small-medium sized UK organisations. All of these messages were
permission-based and sent to opted-in lists (never to 3rd party or purchased lists).
The 22 sectors listed here have been self-selected by the senders. For details of the calculation
methods and additional graphs and tables, please see the appendix at the end of this document.
These averages are a good place to start when benchmarking your performance, but remember
that there are many factors which will influence your own results. When judging the success of
your campaigns make sure you select relevant criteria for you and then look for incremental
improvements by benchmarking against your own average results. For more on this, check out
http://www.sign-up.to/resources/
Please feel free to pass this document around and post excerpts and links - all we ask it that you
include a link and attribution to www.sign-up.to when you do.
You can find the latest online version of this report, and interactive versions of the charts at
www.sign-up.to/email-marketing-benchmarks/email-benchmark-2013/
Overall averages
Across all industries the average results for UK SME email marketing campaigns were:
Open rate: 21.47%
Click-through rate: 3.16%
Unsubscription rate: 0.47%
Click-to-open rate: 14.72%
Unsubscribe-to-open rate: 2.29%
The Sign-Up.to 2013 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report Page 1/12
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How do open and click-through rates compare across sectors?
The Sign-Up.to 2013 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report Page 2/12
Sign-Up Technologies Ltd. 2013 Visit us at www.sign-up.to
Opens Clicks
B2B Sales
B2B Services
B2C Retail
Charity
Education/Training
Events
Fashion
Finance
Health/Beauty
HR/Recruitment
Industrial/Manufacturing
IT
Legal
Music
New Media
PR
Property
Publishing
Restaurants
Sales/Marketing
Sport/Leisure
Travel
0% 7.5% 15.0% 22.5% 30.0%
3.98%
2.87%
3.03%
2.53%
4.26%
2.36%
2.33%
5.81%
2.20%
1.57%
1.69%
2.16%
2.52%
2.77%
2.02%
3.15%
1.52%
1.74%
3.22%
3.22%
2.19%
4.55%
22.29%
25.57%
22.90%
22.29%
21.52%
22.08%
20.35%
21.74%
21.47%
17.01%
16.41%
20.67%
19.74%
21.72%
19.02%
17.51%
17.00%
17.63%
23.58%
20.58%
20.63%
27.97%
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Which sectors have the best campaign engagement?
(Higher is better)
Clicks to Opens
New Media
Publishing
Fashion
Travel
B2B Sales
B2C Retail
Charity
Sales/Marketing
HR/Recruitment
Health/Beauty
PR
Restaurants
Sport/Leisure
Property
Finance
B2B Services
Industrial/Manufacturing
IT
Music
Education/Training
Legal
Events
0% 7.5% 15.0% 22.5% 30.0%
8.97%
9.24%
9.87%
10.26%
10.30%
10.44%
10.61%
10.62%
10.69%
11.22%
11.37%
11.46%
12.75%
12.78%
13.23%
13.66%
15.64%
16.28%
17.85%
18.00%
19.78%
26.75%
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Click-to-open rates give a deeper insight into campaign performance by looking at actions
performed after a campaign has been opened. This puts the focus on the actual email content - its
design and relevance to the recipients - and removes factors which influence open rate, like
subject line and sender details.
When comparing click-to-open rates it's important to remember that different types of email
campaigns will have different objectives - driving a click-through may not always be the goal of a
campaign.
This year sees Business to Business Sales take the lead with a click-to-open rate of 27.97%. By
comparison, in the Events category (the worst performer) many of the emails are flyers which
contain all of the relevant content within the email itself rather than linking away, and so they resultin a fraction of the number of clicks.
The Sign-Up.to 2013 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report Page 4/12
Sign-Up Technologies Ltd. 2013 Visit us at www.sign-up.to
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Which sectors have the highest reader loyalty?
(Lower is better)
Unsubscriptions to Opens
IT
HR/Recruitment
Sales/Marketing
Restaurants
B2B Services
Property
Education/Training
Finance
B2B Sales
B2C Retail
PR
Publishing
Health/Beauty
Events
Legal
Fashion
Industrial/Manufacturing
Travel
New Media
Charity
Sport/Leisure
Music
0% 1.25% 2.50% 3.75% 5.00%
1.24%
1.51%
1.56%
1.62%
1.82%
1.94%
1.96%
2.05%
2.10%
2.15%
2.31%
2.42%
2.46%
2.53%
2.70%
2.76%
2.84%
2.85%
2.87%
3.02%
3.40%
4.14%
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To measure reader loyalty, we look at the ratio of unsubscriptions to opens - a good indicator of the
relevance of a campaign to the audience. The unsubscription rate alone is a useful measure but
doesnt take into account people who simply discard messages without ever opening them - which
is the worst possible result for an email marketeer.
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Sign-Up Technologies Ltd. 2013 Visit us at www.sign-up.to
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Appendix - more charts and tables
In this appendix weve included charts breaking down these statistics further, as well as details of
how we calculate the numbers and tables of the raw percentages, in case youre curious!
A little bit about Sign-Up.to
We develop software and provide services and support to thousands of businesses to help them
communicate better with their customers using email marketing, SMS and social media. Weve
been in business for 10 years, are still owned by the original founders, and have offices in the UK
and Australia.
To find out more about what we do visit us at www.sign-up.to drop us an email at solutions@sign-
up.to or give us a call on 020 3355 2631 - wed love to hear from you.
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mailto:[email protected]://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.sign-up.to/http://www.sign-up.to/7/27/2019 2013 Email Marketing Mailers CTR in UK
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Which sector has the best open rate?
(Higher is better)
B2B Sales
Sport/Leisure
Charity
Sales/Marketing
Travel
Restaurants
Property
New Media
Health/Beauty
Publishing
Music
Industrial/Manufacturing
B2B Services
B2C Retail
PR
HR/Recruitment
Finance
Education/Training
Fashion
Legal
Events
IT
0% 7.5% 15.0% 22.5% 30.0%
16.41%
17.00%
17.01%
17.51%
17.63%
19.02%
19.74%
20.35%
20.58%
20.63%
20.67%
21.47%
21.52%
21.72%
21.74%
22.08%
22.29%
22.29%
22.90%
23.58%
25.57%
27.97%
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Sign-Up Technologies Ltd. 2013 Visit us at www.sign-up.to
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9/12
Which sector has the best click-through rate?
(Higher is better)
New Media
B2B Sales
Publishing
Travel
B2C Retail
Charity
Fashion
Sales/Marketing
Sport/Leisure
Health/Beauty
Restaurants
HR/Recruitment
Property
PR
Music
B2B Services
Industrial/Manufacturing
Finance
Education/Training
IT
Legal
Events
0% 1.50% 3.00% 4.50% 6.00%
1.52%
1.57%
1.69%
1.74%
2.02%
2.16%
2.19%
2.20%
2.33%
2.36%
2.52%
2.53%
2.77%
2.87%
3.03%
3.15%
3.22%
3.22%
3.98%
4.26%
4.55%
5.81%
The Sign-Up.to 2013 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report Page 9/12
Sign-Up Technologies Ltd. 2013 Visit us at www.sign-up.to
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Which sectors get the most unsubscriptions?
(Lower is better)
B2B Sales
Sales/Marketing
IT
HR/Recruitment
Restaurants
Property
B2B Services
B2C Retail
Finance
Publishing
Education/Training
PR
Health/Beauty
Travel
Industrial/Manufacturing
Sport/Leisure
Charity
Events
Legal
New Media
Fashion
Music
0% 0.20% 0.40% 0.60% 0.80%
0.27%
0.34%
0.35%
0.35%
0.36%
0.37%
0.39%
0.40%
0.41%
0.47%
0.49%
0.49%
0.50%
0.51%
0.51%
0.59%
0.63%
0.64%
0.67%
0.68%
0.69%
0.71%
The Sign-Up.to 2013 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report Page 10/12
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Raw data
For the numerically inclined, here are the raw percentages in table format.
Opens Clicks UnsubsClick toOpen
Open toUnsub
B2B Sales
B2B Services
B2C Retail
Charity
Education/Training
Events
Fashion
Finance
Health/Beauty
HR/Recruitment
Industrial/Manufacturing
IT
Legal
Music
New Media
PR
Property
Publishing
Restaurants
Sales/Marketing
Sport/Leisure
Travel
27.97% 4.55% 0.71% 16.28% 2.53%
20.63% 2.19% 0.59% 10.61% 2.85%
20.58% 3.22% 0.51% 15.64% 2.46%
23.58% 3.22% 0.37% 13.66% 1.56%
17.63% 1.74% 0.49% 9.87% 2.76%
17.00% 1.52% 0.36% 8.97% 2.10%
17.51% 3.15% 0.34% 18.00% 1.96%
19.02% 2.02% 0.51% 10.62% 2.70%
21.72% 2.77% 0.47% 12.75% 2.15%
19.74% 2.52% 0.67% 12.78% 3.40%
20.67% 2.16% 0.40% 10.44% 1.94%
16.41% 1.69% 0.68% 10.30% 4.14%
17.01% 1.57% 0.35% 9.24% 2.05%
21.47% 2.20% 0.27% 10.26% 1.24%
21.74% 5.81% 0.35% 26.75% 1.62%
20.35% 2.33% 0.49% 11.46% 2.42%
22.08% 2.36% 0.63% 10.69% 2.84%
21.52% 4.26% 0.50% 19.78% 2.31%
22.29% 2.53% 0.64% 11.37% 2.87%
22.90% 3.03% 0.69% 13.23% 3.02%
25.57% 2.87% 0.39% 11.22% 1.51%
22.29% 3.98% 0.41% 17.85% 1.82%
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Defining terms
Lets define some of the terms we're using as several of these figures can be (and often are!)
calculated in different ways.
All figures we use are based on unique user actions - for example we only count the same
recipient opening a campaign once, if they open that campaign again we don't count that asanother open.
Bounced: messages returned by the receiving mail server as undeliverable
Delivered: messages accepted for delivery by the receiving mail server (total sent -
bounced)
Open Rate: the proportion of delivered emails that were opened (measured by an image
load or link click); i.e. number opened / delivered
Clicks: the proportion of delivered emails that had a link clicked; i.e. unique clicks /
delivered Unsubscribes: the proportion of delivered emails that result in an unsubscription; i.e.
unsubscribes / delivered
For some of the reports we use different ratios, as these are a better way to compare some
aspects of campaign performance - these are:
Clicks to Opens: the proportion of opened emails that had a link clicked; i.e. unique
clicks / opens
Unsubscribes to Opens: the proportion of opened emails that result in an unsubscription;i.e. unsubscribes / opens
We use these 'x to Open' figures as ways to compare the performance of the actual campaign
content because these look at what happens after the first objective of someone actually opening
the campaign has been achieved.
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