Email marketing is based on statistics, and whether it is the figures contained in the all-important primary metrics such as open and click through rates or the ones which are derived through market research, every online marketer had better be very number conscious or they won’t be able to see the market forest for all of those nasty digital trees getting in the way. Rarely does a week go by without some major research company producing a study or report based on statistics derived from surveys and polls relevant to the email marketing industry, and many of these facts and figures compendiums can shed considerable light on the state of the art in emails.

Email’s most commonly applied digital metrics

When it comes to the most commonly used digital metrics, the latest CMO Council report shows that clicks, response and conversion rates are still the number one preferred method, with 51 percent adhering. This is followed by page views, the dwell time on the page, and registrations with 50 percent, website performance at 47 percent, volume, quality, and origin of the traffic at 42 percent and cost of lead or cost per click at 38 percent. Search prominence comes next at 36 percent, then social media metrics such as tweets and posts at 32 percent. From there on, the percentages drop considerably as the next one is acquisition of new customers or accounts at 24 percent, brand awareness and recognition levels tied with content downloads at 19 percent, and then a three way tie at 15 percent for selling or acquisition costs, numbers of transactions or subscriptions, and the level of engagement and conversation with prospects and customers.

Entertainment emails have the highest click to open metric

One of the most significant email metrics is click to open and Marketing Charts features a recent set of results which are definitely eye-opening for online marketers in various industries. If you’re in the entertainment business you can count on a desktop click to open of a staggering 38 percent which is certainly a clear indicator that truly “there’s no business like show business.” This stellar result is followed by healthcare at 34 percent, insurance at 32 percent, tech at 30 percent, consumer services at 28 percent, publishing and CPG tied at 26 percent, then falling by one percent at a time from hospitality and travel’s 19 percent to retail and wholesale’s 18 percent, then marketing and advertising at 17 percent. However, when mobile click to open rates are considered, the numbers are quite different, with the top performing industry being insurance at 21 percent, healthcare at 14 percent, publishing at 13 percent, and CPG, hospitality and travel, and retail and wholesale tied at 8 percent.

Email is unparalleled for retention at 52 percent

However, we’ve saved the best for last as a recent report by Econsultancy and Oracle Marketing Cloud shows some absolutely amazing results for email marketing when it comes to customer retention. In a survey of top global company marketers fully 52 percent stated that email was best for retention, as compared to 44 percent for mobile apps, 39 percent for mobile and web push notifications, 28 percent for social media marketing, 22 percent for web retargeting, 18 percent for mobile web, 16 percent for conventional websites, and just 6 percent for SEO, 4 percent for online display ads, and 2% for paid search! With the retention aspects of email well over a thousand percent greater than online display ads and over two thousand percent greater than paid search, it certainly is no surprise that year after year, the Digital Marketing Association states that the return on investment for email marketing is over $40 for every $1 invested!

It’s an old saying that you have to keep your eye on the prize, and that is always the result that your email marketing campaign is achieving from a statistical perspective. The more you know about how the email industry as a whole is performing, the better you will be able to craft an online marketing strategy which will take into consideration the “sweet spot” where your marketing should be focused.