Earlier this year, SurveyMonkey posted email marketing benchmarks based on individual industries as visible below:
The question is, should you use these numbers for benchmark within your organization? Probably not.
There are many factors that influence these rates, starting from the unique audience, to the time of the day you send out your emails. Here are some of the factors that could affect your campaigns;
Know your audience - Who are your ideal customers? How segmented are your campaigns? Can your prospects resonate with your message?
Know their schedule - When is the busiest time in your customers day? When will they most likely have the time and desire to think about your product?
Know their pain points - What challenges are you helping your customer solve? Why is your product is a 'must have' for them?
Know your competition - It is very likely that your prospects are receiving offers from your competitors every day. Don't forget to make your competitive advantage very obvious to your prospects right away.
Keep it short - Focus on the main points and solutions that your prospects can resonate with right away, rather than focusing on all of the features. They can always learn more later.
Keep it interesting - It's easy to get lost in the noise, consider how you can make your messages more interactive, just don't lose the focus. All the material you add has to enhance your message, not distract from it.
How do you create your company's individual Benchmarks?
Start with PersistIQ's Reporting. Take a look at how your colleagues campaigns perform. Learn from them and use best practices to improve your campaign/ Remember that there is always room to improve, even if you've already exceeded industry benchmarks :)