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Email marketing has proved itself as one of the most effective marketing strategies time and time again. But creating a winning email campaign depends on several factors. Like other digital marketing techniques, email marketing also keeps evolving.

However, email marketing metrics can differ greatly from other marketing techniques. As every brand or company has a different size mailing list, the progress of any given brand cannot be measured against others. As a marketer, you can only measure the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns by comparing their metrics against certain industry benchmarks. While several metrics are associated with each email marketing campaign, only a few are considered benchmarks.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the latest email marketing benchmarks 2022 and why they’re important so that you can compare your campaign metrics against your industry.

1. Email Open Rate

Formula: Opens / Emails Sent

Email open rate is the primary among the email marketing benchmarks 2022. It refers to the percentage of marketing emails the audience or subscribers opened. In simple words, if your email open rate is 32%, it means that every 32 of 100 emails you sent out were opened.

Email open rate is important as it identifies duplicate email addresses and dead leads. It also helps measure the correct frequency. It is the most important metric as the purpose of email marketing cannot be achieved if the audience never opens the emails. Hence, marketers are always looking to improve the email open rate for their marketing campaigns.

As of 2022, the email open rate in various industries ranges from 16.9 to 25.8 percent.

2. Click-to-Open Rate

Formula: Clicks / Emails Opened

Click-to-open rate is only measured for marketing emails in long format. These marketing emails do not show the entire message at once. Instead, they require the receiver to click to look at the complete marketing email.

Marketing emails in long formats are few and far. Most marketers prefer short and to-the-point marketing emails. They try to avoid requiring the audience to make an effort since marketing emails are primarily used to establish and maintain a relationship with the audience. However, long-format emails can be helpful in certain industries. They can also help marketers identify the efficiency of their email designs.

It must be noted that the click-to-open rate is measured by dividing the click-to-open number against the email open rate and not against the emails delivered. As per email marketing benchmarks 2022, the click-to-open rate for email marketing campaigns for various industries ranges between 10.1 to 14.1 percent.

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3. Click-Through Rate

Formula: Clicks / Emails Sent

The click-through rate refers to the percentage of clicks on at least one of the links within the marketing email. Unlike the click-to-open rate, which shows the audience the complete message of the marketing email, the click-through rate takes the audience to the brand or company’s website. However, similar to the click-to-open rate, the click-through rate is also measured against the email open rate.

Most marketers hide the website links in images. Therefore, the click-through rate can depend highly on the audience segment receiving the emails. The right target audience can click through multiple images and links on the marketing email, while the wrong one won’t click on a single one. Measuring the click-through metrics can allow marketers to identify the right audiences for their campaign and provide them the conversion rate insights.

The latest email marketing benchmarks 2022 for click-through rate stand between 2.6 to 10.2 percent.

4. Email Bounce Rate

Formula: Bounces / Emails Sent

As the name suggests, email bounce rate refers to emails bounced back from the recipient to the sender, meaning the receiver never receives them. There are several reasons for an email to bounce. Some of these reasons occur due to issues on the recipient’s end, such as full inbox, email address ceasing to exist, or restricted email privacy. However, marketing emails with untrustworthy domains, offensive content, and SPAM complaints can also get bounced.

The email marketing benchmarks 2022 dictate a maximum 2 percent bounce rate. A bounce rate of over 2 percent requires marketers to thoroughly analyze their mailing lists. Over five percent of bounce rate suggests serious mistakes on the company and marketers’ end. Registering a domain with a trusted provider, carefully crafting email content, and sending emails only to subscribers helps lower the bounce rate drastically.

If there are no issues with your marketing campaign from your end, you can benefit from a high bounce rate by removing dead leads. Email marketing is cheap, but it doesn’t mean you should keep sending emails to receivers who never intend to act on them.

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5. Unsubscribe Rate

Formula: Unsubscribes / Emails Sent

The unsubscribe rate is the rate of the audience that opts out of receiving the marketing emails. While this metric may appear the most disappointing to marketers, it shouldn’t be the case. An unsubscribe rate can often help marketers get rid of dead leads, provide insight into audience segments, and analyze the marketing campaign content. It can also boost other metrics by reducing the overall number of receivers. However, a high unsubscribe rate is clearly bad news.

As of 2022, the unsubscribe rate for marketing campaigns across various industries ranges between 0.5 to 1 percent.

6. Email Deliverability

Formula: Emails Delivered / Emails Sent

Email deliverability is another important email marketing benchmarks 2022. An email deliverability rate of 95 percent indicates that your marketing emails were sent to 95 of every 100 subscribers.

A low email deliverability rate can indicate several issues with the campaign. These can include email bounces and throttling. Email throttling is an automated system that limits emails from a particular sender. Hence, low email deliverability can mean you’re sending too many emails to your subscribers.

As email marketing benchmarks 2022, the ideal email deliverability rate ranges between 95 and 97 percent. A combined rate of bounce and throttle for email campaigns should always be lower than 3 percent.

An ideal email deliverability rate allows you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign thoroughly. It yields a higher email open rate and also improves other metrics.

8. SPAM Complaint Rate

Formula: SPAM Complaints / Emails Sent

When a receiver marks your marketing email as SPAM, they don’t like seeing it in their mailbox. Emails marked SPAM from the same sender time and again will send all incoming emails from that sender into the junk or SPAM folder. Though a part of the receiver’s inbox, these folders are not visible at first sight.

Receivers can only view and access emails in SPAM and junk folders by going to these folders or searching for the sender’s name in their email search bar. Hence, the SPAM complaint rate can dramatically reduce email open rate and other metrics.

Emails continuing to make their journeys to SPAM and junk folders can also get bounced or blocked. This happens since email providers are always working to protect their users’ inboxes and enhance their security. If a high percentage of receivers continue to mark your marketing emails as SPAM, it can hurt your overall deliverability rate and seriously impact your campaign metrics.

Hence, it may benefit marketers to thoroughly review their email content before sending it out. Besides reviewing, writing the email content with thorough care is also beneficial. Inclusive and well-designed content always has lesser chances of being marked SPAM than carelessly written or designed emails. On the other hand, urgent responses that help reduce the SPAM complaint rate are reducing the email frequency and targeting smaller segments simultaneously. Having the right email tool (here’s our guide for choosing the right software for sending emails) can help you avoid getting SPAM complaints.

The SPAM complaint rate for email marketing campaigns has a benchmark of 0.1 to 1 percent.

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9. Email Open Rate According to Delivery Timings

As mentioned earlier, the email open rate is the primary among the email marketing benchmarks 2022. Hence, marketers need to measure its rate according to the delivery timings.

While the goals of email marketing campaigns can vary, marketers always aim to achieve as high an email open rate as possible. Hence, measuring the email open rate according to the timings can immensely help with brainstorming and designing future email marketing campaigns. According to one study, most smartphone users check their emails on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The same study suggests that the best times on these days are 10 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm.

As a marketer, you must target your audience at the right time to enhance your email open rate. For example, a marketing email about skill-building software targeted toward professionals and students can be highly effective early in the morning. On the other hand, emails marketing beauty products or luxury goods gain more attention at night.

While the range of open email rate among email marketing benchmarks 2022 remains the same as mentioned above, you can easily reach the upper limit when targeting the right audience at the right time.

Summary of Benchmarks

Here’s a summary of the benchmarks from around the web for the top email marketing metrics.

Benchmark	Good	Average
Open rate	17-28%	15%
Click-to-open rate	20-30%	10-15%
Click-through rate	2-5%	2.3%
Email bounce rate	< 0.7%	0.7%
Unsubscribe rate	< 0.5%	0.2%
Email deliverability	> 95%	80%
SPAM compliant rate	< 0.1%	< 0.2%

Final Thoughts

The email marketing benchmarks 2022 provide greater insight into your email campaign metrics and allow you to measure where you, i.e., your or your client’s brand, stand. Email marketing benchmarks 2022 must be measured before and after a new marketing campaign is executed. They allow you to target your audience more efficiently, whether there are only two hundred or two hundred thousand.

Email marketing is efficient, but it requires constant evolution and optimization to keep it so. If you aren’t quite hitting these benchmarks, check out our golden rules of email marketing to help get those numbers up!