Michelle Dassen
For the third consecutive year, we at Flexmail participated in the Email Benchmark, published by the Global Data & Marketing Alliance (GDMA) and the Dutch Data & Marketing Association (DDMA).
This edition is not only more extensive but also more international than ever, showcasing impressive statistics that highlight the growing professionalism of the email marketing sector.
This edition is not only more extensive but also more international than ever, showcasing impressive statistics that highlight the growing professionalism of the email marketing sector.
Impressive figures and international coverage
What scale of data are we talking about? This year's research encompasses no less than 5 million email campaigns, compared to 3 million in 2023. A total of 203 billion emails were sent (2023: 122 billion), spread across 42,000 organizations (2023: 28,000), and the geographical coverage has nearly doubled, with data from 125 countries (2023: 69). For the second time, the benchmark has been published via an interactive dashboard, offering cross-border insights based on email campaign data.How can you use the Benchmark?
The dashboard provides insights into all statistics, allows you to compare past years, and lets you zoom in on data by country and sector.Highlights from the Benchmark
- Higher open and acceptance rates, lower bounce rates: The delivery rate increased for the third consecutive year from 98.24% to 99.22%. The hard bounce rate dropped to 0.44% and the soft bounce rate to 0.33%. These improvements are due to stricter compliance with laws and regulations and improved list hygiene by marketers.
- Rising open and click rates: The open rate improved to 34.12%, partly due to Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (AMPP). The click-through rate (CTR) slightly increased to 3.56%, although the click-to-open rate (CTO) slightly decreased to 8.82%.
New statistics: low unsubscribe and spam complaint rates
This year, two new statistics have been added to the benchmark: the unsubscribe rate and the spam complaint rate. The unsubscribe rate is only 0.14%, and the spam complaint rate is even lower, with only 0.01% of accepted emails marked as spam. These low rates indicate that email as a channel is becoming more professional, with marketers increasingly taking care of the quality of their mailing lists and content.Of course, GDPR also plays a role here: consumers expect their privacy to be respected, and the sector has adapted to this expectation.
Professionalism and responsibility
The results show that email marketing continues to grow and mature. Email Service Providers (ESPs) play a crucial role by taking spam more seriously and providing methods to make unsubscribes and spam complaints more transparent at the campaign level. This confirms that email, a long-standing marketing channel, continues to evolve and that marketers are responsibly handling compliance with legislation and security.This is also reflected in the adjusted guidelines of Gmail and Yahoo. You can expect other ESPs to increasingly enforce these industry standards.
About the GDMA International Email Benchmark 2024
The benchmark results are based on anonymised campaign data from 2021, 2022, and 2023, provided by 13 participating ESPs and covering 125 countries across the Americas, Europe, and APAC. Organisations worldwide are invited to participate and contribute to the further expansion of this study.
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