What are the benchmarks for web and email marketing?
/ 09 November 2009 - 11:36 am
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3 Comments
Are there any benchmarks out there that tell us whether our email and web stats are what we should expect? Anyone prepared to share theirs??
Comments
At this point in New Zealand there are no clear benchmarks within our industry. It’s something we need to work on as colleagues, so that we are able to compare like with like and understand if statistics such as our email open rates and website bounce rates are promising or concerning.
With the exception of the data that has been shared with me by a few industry peers, I am usually forced to refer to general benchmarking statistics I can find, such as these at MailChimp - http://www.mailchimp.com/articles/email_marketing_benchmarks_for_small_business/ or Google Analytics’ own Benchmarking reports where you can compare your own statistics against various industry verticals. (If you choose to share your data, you get access to the pool.)
The best thing is to start using web and email analytics as soon as possible, so that you have the best chance of tracking trends over time.
Vicki Allpress Hill
Connecting audiences to the arts va@vickiallpress.com
Yes, we're in the same boat here in Australia. We don't have any arts reference for email and online benchmarks. However, we do refer to some international studies...but have found the Australian benchmarks more useful that the US ones.
Vision 6 produces a 6 monthly metrics report. It's quite useful as the majority of their clients are mailing to small, targeted lists (unlike the US reports that are often based on very large corporate campaigning).
http://www.vision6.com.au/emailreport.html
Another company in Australia provides a benchmark report for small through to larger list sizes - Returnity. Their latest 2009 report can be found here:
http://images.optin.com.au/returnity/20090309/Benchmark_Report_2009.pdf
Regarding online statistics.....there really doesn't appear to be anything useful. I have heard that Audiences London were planning an online benchmarking study for the UK, but as yet it is still in planning. It is on my radar to set-up an Asia/Pacific study on admit2.0. So please head there and set-up a membership if you would like to be included.
What kinds of metrics would you like to benchmark?
Having just returned from an email marketing summit in Sydney, it was great to see Rae Bassett's comment on Vision 6, as they hosted this summit.
As earlier mentioned, Vision 6 provide a 6 monthly report on Australasian open rates, and as a supporter of this programme, our client percentages constitute much of the NZ component.
If you have specific details of a campaign, and snapshot of your company, then I would be happy to offer a benchmark rating for your sector.
Iain Bain
iain@evolvingnz.co.nz