Email Marketing Benchmarks by Business Size
Average unique open, click, bounce and abuse complaint rates by company size
Last updated March 25, 2010
Ever wonder what the average open rate for email marketing campaigns is? What kind of click rates other people in your industry are getting? How many bounces are normal? How many spam complaints are too many?
At MailChimp, we scanned hundreds of millions of email campaigns. here’s what we learned.
Average Email Campaign Stats of MailChimp Customers by Company Size
|
Size
|
Open Rate
|
Click Rate
|
Soft Bounce Rate
|
Hard Bounce Rate
|
Abuse Complaint Rate
|
Unsubscribe Rate
|
| 1-10 |
18.18% |
3.38% |
0.84% |
1.22% |
0.06% |
0.21% |
| 11-25 |
15.69% |
2.93% |
0.94% |
1.14% |
0.06% |
0.21% |
| 26-50 |
16.78% |
2.97% |
1.60% |
1.65% |
0.07% |
0.23% |
| 50+ |
17.80% |
3.34% |
1.04% |
1.55% |
0.06% |
0.20% |
| 60 |
24.94% |
3.14% |
0.30% |
0.79% |
0.05% |
0.26% |
Tips for improving your stats
-
Boring works best. When you write your subject line, don't
sell
what’s inside—tell
what’s inside. Read our study on
writing effective subject lines.
-
If you want people to open your emails, you need to get past their spam filters first. Avoid using spammy keywords and phrases, and avoid using ALL CAPS or too many exclamation points. The best way to avoid spam filters is to
learn how they work.
- Too many hard bounces is a sign of an old, stale list. People change email addresses every few months. Make sure you keep in touch with your list regularly (at least once a quarter) so they can stay subscribed to your list.
- Soft bounces usually mean the recipient is "temporarily unavailable." Maybe they're on vacation or their mailbox is full. You can keep those emails and re-try them later (MailChimp auto-cleans soft bounces after 5 failed campaigns).
-
Hard bounces mean an email address failed. Maybe it no longer exists, or maybe someone typed their email wrong when they subscribed to a list. But hard bounces might also be spam filter rejections. If you see an abnormally high number of bounces after a campaign, you should read your bounce back records for any messages or "clues" from spam filters (here's how in MailChimp).
-
Abuse complaints happen when recipients click the "This is spam" button in their email programs. That usually means they don't remember you. Make sure your "From:" and "Subject" contain your company name (so they'll instantly recognize you). Here are more tips for preventing spam complaints.