The B2B email benchmark report includes numerical data such as Open Rates, Clickthrough Rates and Unsubscribe Rates for each industry to help you gauge your own email activity and identify potential areas for improvement.

1. EMAIL BENCHMARK
REPORT 2013

2. Kenneth has enjoyed a marketing
career both agency and client side.
With over seven years experience
writing B2B and B2C copy, Kenneth
has created content for a wide
variety of industries.
Enthusiastic about all things copy, he
has a proven track record of creating
content capable of generating leads,
sales and revenue.
In the role of Head of Content at
Really B2B (a SundayTimes Top 100
firm and ranked agency in B2B
Marketing’s Agency League), Kenneth
is responsible for creating a strong
brand personality and crafting
content for our B2B clients which
generates action and solid ROI.
Kenneth is passionate about writing
that gets results.
THE AUTHOR
Kenneth Connolly

3. It’s now time to benchmark your B2B lead generation
email activity
In this Email Benchmark Report we’ll discuss email metrics such as Open
Rates, Clickthrough Rates and Unsubscribe Rates. But, more importantly,we’ll
look at the numerical data of each particular industry to enable you to
benchmark your own email activity and identify potential areas for
improvement.
Why is it so important to address the industry?Well, to put it simply, what
works for some, appears not to work so well for others.
We all know that email marketing works best as part of an integrated
campaign, but in some industries, is this marketing channel more or less
powerful?
At Really B2B, we regularly find that as a lead generation tool, email is an
excellent choice of communication channel - hence its inclusion in 98% of all
our lead generation campaigns for our clients.
However, let’s look at some data...
www.reallyb2b.com

4. Open rates are the first hurdle in any email marketing campaign.You’ve done
the difficult part of researching the best sending days and times; you’ve used a
‘from’ name which you know your reader will recognise and you’ve written an
eye-catching and interesting subject line. But, what if you’ve got all these
elements right and your open rates are still low? Is it simply your industry?
Using the table above (from 2012 Silverpop Email Metrics Study) you can see
that the average open rate can differ hugely from one industry to the next. For
example, the Computer Software industry has an average open rate of 24.7%
while Education only has an average open rate of 15%. So does this mean that
email as a communication channel is pointless in certain industries? Certainly
not.
Look closer and you’ll see that the top quarter figures in industries such as
Financial Services and Media & Publishing reached a whopping 48% while their
average was only in the low twenties.
EMAIL OPEN RATES
www.reallyb2b.com

5. Once your email has been opened, how many people read your copy and
clicked on your well written CallTo Action (CTA)?
As with the open rates, the average clickthrough rates are rather widespread –
ranging from a low of 2.3% to a high of 8.9%.TheTravel & Leisure industry is
suffering particularly badly with low numbers across the board.
With open rates, the only things which can effectively change the result are the
send day/time, the ‘from’ address and the subject line. But, with clickthrough
rates, your copy, content and CTA are all under scrutiny.
So, granted the table above would suggest that email marketing in particular
industries is not worth the time, effort and money. However, this data is also
dependant on the quality and relevance of the email content. By using persona
documents (to create a ‘picture’ of your prospects), integrated Social Media
and real-time data you can create content that is personalised, targeted and
relevant to your particular reader. By providing your prospect with the content
they want, when they want it, you will surely see an increase in clickthrough
rates.
EMAIL CLICKTHROUGH RATES
www.reallyb2b.com

6. It is also important to consider whether a clickthrough is your main CTA. If
your business is looking to generate leads or appointments for your sales team,
then the call to action may simply be ‘reply’.The purpose of this type of
communication is to encourage your prospects to engage with you, therefore
providing you with insight and an appointment to convert. In this instance, the
clickthrough rate would not be a key performance indicator.
EMAIL CLICKTHROUGH RATES
www.reallyb2b.com

7. Unsubscribe rates are generally low, howeverTravel & Leisure has again
suffered with an average unsubscribe of 1.64% and a bottom quarter of 6.77%.
In the last section of this report, I discussed the need for prospect insight in
order to create personalised, targeted and relevant copy/content.These
unsubscribe rates are basically a reflection of people not engaging with the
emails they are receiving and therefore unsubscribing from the mailing list.
That is not to say that unsubscribe rates can be eradicated entirely, but they
can certainly be reduced by sending the right content to the right people at the
right time. For example, if you know that your prospect is tied into a 12 month
contract with one of your competitors, you can use email in a more timely
manner and strike when you know they are entering the buying cycle.
Obviously you won’t ignore them until that point, but there are other
marketing strategies (content and inbound marketing) which you can use in the
meantime to help nurture them until they are ‘sales ready’.
EMAIL UNSUBSCRIBE RATES
www.reallyb2b.com

8. So, is email a waste of time in certain industries?The
answer is no.
As mentioned in our B2B Marketing Survival Guide for 2013, email as a
communication channel has a part to play in every integrated marketing
campaign regardless of industry. However, the only way to see good results
from emails is to use them correctly.
Know your prospects better than they know themselves.What they like, what
they dislike, what their pain points are and what they are looking for.With this
information utilised in the correct way, you should see an increase in both open
and clickthrough rates and a reduction in unsubscribe rates. But most
importantly,you’ll be delivering leads, appointments and sales for your
organisation.
www.reallyb2b.com

9. LOOKING FOR
BUSINESS GROWTH?
At Really B2B, our campaign research has show that we
regularly exceed average industry open rates by almost
4%. How do we do it...?
Get in touch and we’ll show you how.
We’d love to discuss your objectives for 2013 and how
our B2B lead generation services can help support
your business growth.
If you’re interested in improving your lead generation
processes, request a meeting.
© Really B2B, 1000 Lakeside, Western Road, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hants, PO6 3EN
www.reallyb2b.com