1. Lucy Fisher

    Researcher at Wheel

    27 January 2004 16:06pm

    Lucy Fisher

    Hello All

    The e-consultancy online marketing benchmarks document states that over 50% of recipients will delete an email without opening it.

    This drops to 3-10% if they know the company...

    So does this mean that the remaining 90% will open the mail? Or will it be ignored.

    I am trying to establish a reasonable expectation of open rates for an entertainment client using a targeted list

    Many thanks

  2. Ashley Friedlein Staff

    CEO at Econsultancy

    28 January 2004 06:30am

    Ashley Friedlein

    Hi Lucy

    According to our research around 30% of people will typically open an e-mail. This varies between 20%-50% but, it seems, rarely much higher than that. So, if you take off the % that delete the e-mail straight away then circa. 30% of the remainder then open the e-mail.

    Hard to say what % re-open the e-mail or how many just open with the preview pane rather than the full window but anecdotal evidence suggests that re-opens and pane-view-only opens can be quite high.

    Open rates vary of course according to lots of variables - the product/service, the subect line, being a recognised source, the frequency of e-mails, the timing of the e-mail etc.

    For an entertainment client I'd imagine there would be an eager response (i.e. high open rates) but I'd also imagine it to be quite a fickle audience who may well give an e-mail address that changes every 6 months. So the freshness of the e-mail data will have a big impact on open rates with very high open rates from recent sign-ups but possibly a steep fall off as the e-mail address ages.

    With an e-mail database containing a mixture of data, with some more than 1yr old, then you may well find yourself averaging the 5% delete and then 30% open - just under 1 in 3 will open.

    This year we're compiling those online marketing benchmarks (as per http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/marketing_benchmarks/) but sector-specific - the first being Retail. Hopefully this will shed further light on things.

  3. Alex Czajkowski

    CEO at egaming 2.0

    28 January 2004 08:06am

    Alex Czajkowski

    Quite agree with Ashley--esp. "Open rates vary of course according to lots of variables - the product/service, the subect line, being a recognised source, the frequency of e-mails, the timing of the e-mail etc. " The right ubject line WILL push up your open rates, especially if the recipient knows the firm and has not been over-communicated with...

    But what's surprised me somewhat was how different nationalities open and respond to emails... my client's Chinese and Thai emails, for example, get very high open rates but far lower response rates--perhaps they're less inundated with spam and any email is seen as possibly important...

    On 06:30:40 28 January 2004 Ashley wrote:
    >Hi Lucy
    >
    >According to our research around 30% of people will
    >typically open an e-mail. This varies between 20%-50% but,
    >it seems, rarely much higher than that. So, if you take
    >off the % that delete the e-mail straight away then circa.
    >30% of the remainder then open the e-mail.
    >
    >Hard to say what % re-open the e-mail or how many just
    >open with the preview pane rather than the full window but
    >anecdotal evidence suggests that re-opens and
    >pane-view-only opens can be quite high.
    >
    >Open rates vary of course according to lots of variables -
    >the product/service, the subect line, being a recognised
    >source, the frequency of e-mails, the timing of the e-mail
    >etc.
    >
    >For an entertainment client I'd imagine there would be an
    >eager response (i.e. high open rates) but I'd also imagine
    >it to be quite a fickle audience who may well give an
    >e-mail address that changes every 6 months. So the
    >freshness of the e-mail data will have a big impact on
    >open rates with very high open rates from recent sign-ups
    >but possibly a steep fall off as the e-mail address ages.
    >
    >With an e-mail database containing a mixture of data, with
    >some more than 1yr old, then you may well find yourself
    >averaging the 5% delete and then 30% open - just under 1
    >in 3 will open.
    >
    >This year we're compiling those online marketing
    >benchmarks (as per http://www.e-
    >consultancy.com/publications/marketing_benchmarks/) but
    >sector-specific - the first being Retail. Hopefully this
    >will shed further light on things.

  4. Lucy Fisher

    Researcher at Wheel

    28 January 2004 09:28am

    Lucy Fisher

    That's great Ashley, thanks

    I look forward to your sector benchmarks document.

    On 06:30:40 28 January 2004 Ashley wrote:
    >Hi Lucy
    >
    >According to our research around 30% of people will
    >typically open an e-mail. This varies between 20%-50% but,
    >it seems, rarely much higher than that. So, if you take
    >off the % that delete the e-mail straight away then circa.
    >30% of the remainder then open the e-mail.
    >
    >Hard to say what % re-open the e-mail or how many just
    >open with the preview pane rather than the full window but
    >anecdotal evidence suggests that re-opens and
    >pane-view-only opens can be quite high.
    >
    >Open rates vary of course according to lots of variables -
    >the product/service, the subect line, being a recognised
    >source, the frequency of e-mails, the timing of the e-mail
    >etc.
    >
    >For an entertainment client I'd imagine there would be an
    >eager response (i.e. high open rates) but I'd also imagine
    >it to be quite a fickle audience who may well give an
    >e-mail address that changes every 6 months. So the
    >freshness of the e-mail data will have a big impact on
    >open rates with very high open rates from recent sign-ups
    >but possibly a steep fall off as the e-mail address ages.
    >
    >With an e-mail database containing a mixture of data, with
    >some more than 1yr old, then you may well find yourself
    >averaging the 5% delete and then 30% open - just under 1
    >in 3 will open.
    >
    >This year we're compiling those online marketing
    >benchmarks (as per http://www.e-
    >consultancy.com/publications/marketing_benchmarks/) but
    >sector-specific - the first being Retail. Hopefully this
    >will shed further light on things.

Reply to this thread

Log in to reply to this thread or join Econsultancy for free so you can post to our forums along with other benefits.