Interesting Insights Are Inside Your Email Metrics

Data solutions provider Return Path recently released its annual email engagement benchmark report, The Hidden Metrics of Email Deliverability, and it provides some interesting sector-specific data that is worth a closer look (including metrics on read rate, reply rate, forward rate, and complaint rate).

One note of interest in the report is that ReturnPath found subscribers read email at a slightly lower rate than last year (21.5 percent in 2017, 22.2 percent in 2016), but mail that is ignored (or “deleted before reading”) was also slightly less common than a year ago (11.9 percent in 2017, 12.5 percent in 2016). That's good (and bad) news for senders in general.

The report is best used as a means to compare your performance against other senders in your sector. But let's take a closer look, however, because the deliverability data outlined in the report does not paint the rosiest of pictures. 

+ For the second consecutive year, overall spam placement increased, rising from 12 percent in 2015 to 12.5 percent in 2016, and now 13.5 percent in 2017.

+ Consumers were more likely than ever to “rescue” wanted mail from the spam folder, demonstrated by the year over year increase in the “this is not spam” rate (1.77 percent in 2017 versus 1.04 percent in 2016).

+ Industries with the lowest spam placement rate (banking & finance, distribution & manufacturing, and insurance) also outperformed nearly every benchmark for subscriber engagement.