SendGrid's 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report Addresses the Most Pressing Issues in Email Today

DENVER, Sept. 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SendGrid, the leading delivery platform for customer communication that drives engagement and growth, today announced the findings of its first Global Email Benchmark Report. SendGrid collected data from over 30 billion emails to measure and publish email-related metrics to be used as benchmarks for email senders globally and across 10 industries. The 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report includes findings to help email senders evaluate the effectiveness of their email programs and establish concrete goals. The report equips email senders with insights and actionable steps to improve their marketing initiatives.

The 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report shows engagement numbers for the average percentage of male and female recipients, percentage of emails that are opened on mobile and non-mobile devices, open rate, click rate, click-to-open rate and monthly send rate corresponding to each industry. The report combines engagement statistics across all senders, establishing the benchmarks for the average monthly send rate of 9.8 emails with a unique open rate of 14.2 percent, open rate of 27.3 percent, unique click rate of 1.9 percent, click rate of 2.8 percent and unique click / open rate of 13.6 percent. 

The 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report Highlights Include:

• Despite high sending frequency, Health and Fitness, Real Estate and Mobile Applications all have high open and click rates.
• Career / Job Search, Daily Deals / eCoupons, Dating Sites and eCommerce have the highest monthly send rate.
• eCommerce has the highest average monthly send rate of 18.3, as well as a low click rate of 4.3 percent. This could be attributed to over-sending and recipient email fatigue.
• Retail has the highest click-to-open rate. This may signal that recipients are interested in seeing more products, or they could be interested in new product releases and offers.
• Travel / Hospitality, Social Media / Networking, eCommerce, Dating Sites and Daily Deals / eCoupons have more than 50 percent of emails viewed on a mobile device, suggesting emails are using a responsive design and render correctly on the most common devices used.
• Political and Advocacy emails are opened 59 percent of the time on desktop devices and have an open rate of 30.2 percent, but are seldom clicked on with a click rate of 10.5 percent.

The 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report Also Reveals Demographic / Geographic / Device Highlights:

• Depending on the location where the email is sent, Gmail may not be the most common email provider. For instance, if emails are sent to Russian addresses, senders need to ensure it appears correctly in Mail.ru inboxes.
• While Windows-based products are common in most geographies, some countries have high usage of other devices, including Samsung, Motorola and Linux.
• Japan is the only country in the top 25 where the iPhone has surpassed Windows devices for the number of recipients engaging with emails.
• Hotmail is the third largest inbox provider in the United States, but is the preferred inbox in the United Kingdom, Mexico and Sweden.

"According to the Direct Marketing Association, email remains one of the most cost effective ways for businesses to communicate with customers and prospects, with an estimated ROI of $38 for every $1 spent, yet 20 percent of legitimate emails never reach the inbox," said Scott Heimes, CMO of SendGrid. "The 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report provides organizations with an industry benchmark that highlights successes, trends and establishes the best practices to deliver successful email marketing campaigns."

The Key Recommendations to Empower Email Senders:

• Opens and clicks should remain a critical focus for organizations to ensure they address any unengaged recipients, content disconnect and unresponsive emails.
• Personalizing messages will allow businesses to target specific audiences. For example, if a given email across a particular industry is read by males (as in Finance) or by females (as in Health / Fitness), there is an opportunity to take necessary steps to cater to that audience.
• Define concrete goals for improving email marketing initiatives to beat the industry average in certain areas.
• With increased smart device adoption, recipients view messages on the go on multiple screen sizes. It's crucial that emails are responsive and actionable for recipients looking at them on their smartphones or tablets.
• For global reach, email senders need to tailor their campaigns to the different types of recipients across multiple countries. Mail.ru, Live and GMX may not be common inbox providers in the United States, but they are much more common in places like Russia, Germany and Canada.
• Analyze monthly send rate benchmarks to optimize the number of messages sent to customers each month. If sending frequency is low, there could be an opportunity to message customers more often. Conversely, if frequency is above average, dial back the number of messages sent to increase engagement.
• Monitor where users are collected, especially whether recipients arrive through an app-based / mobile sign up versus a website. Establishing an email-based relationship with a user who signed up within an app takes careful attention because the email address associated with their account linked to the app could no longer be valid. The user should also be aware of what types and frequency of messages that will come through after they "sign up."

The full 2016 Global Email Benchmark Report is available for download here.

About SendGrid:
SendGrid is a proven, cloud-based customer communication platform that drives engagement and business growth. A leader in email deliverability, SendGrid successfully delivers over 30 billion emails each month for Internet and mobile-based customers like Airbnb, Pandora, HubSpot, Spotify, Uber and FourSquare as well as more traditional enterprises like Intuit and Costco. For more information, visit www.sendgrid.com.

Media Contact:
David Friedman
SendGrid
303-868-9641
[email protected]

SOURCE SendGrid

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