Returnpath - Email Engagement
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Demand MetricReturnpath - Email Engagement
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Demand Metricthe state of
EMAIL
ENGAGEMENT
Benchmark Study Report
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Executive Summary 5
Where Email Stands 7
Engagement and Deliverability 10
Baseline Email Metrics 13
Email Engagement Factors 15
Permissions and Opt In Strategy 16
List Segmentation 18
Using Data Sources to Understand Subscribers 21
Personalization 22
Optimal Sending Frequency 24
Triggered Messaging 25
Competitive Engagement Monitoring 28
List Management 29
Device Optimization 32
Artificial Intelligence 36
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 38
The Bottom Line on Email Engagement 40
Acknowledgements 55
Appendix: Survey Background 45
the state of
EMAIL ENGAGEMENT
Introduction
INTRODUCTION THE STATE OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT 4
Introduction
Email is still the go-to marketing channel for many organizations—and
with good reason.
Studies show that a vast majority of consumers prefer email for brand
communications, and current projections indicate that by 2021, there
will be more than 4.1 billion email users worldwide. Clearly, organizations
must prioritize email to maintain its effectiveness.
In 2018, Return Path and Demand Metric partnered to study the state
of email marketing to equip marketers with data and best practices to
improve the use of email.
Engagement is the key to getting email into subscriber inboxes. This
relationship to deliverability made engagement a logical next candi-
date for study. Return Path and Demand Metric partnered again to study
engagement and its relationship to email deliverability.
THE STATE OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT 5
the state of
EMAIL ENGAGEMENT
Executive Summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE STATE OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT 6
Over 200 marketers contributed responses to the December 2018 email The data collected provides fresh insights into the importance of email
engagement study survey. as a marketing channel; looks at the use of various strategies, technol-
ogies, and approaches in use to improve engagement; and concludes
with advice about best practices for email engagement.
Key Findings
Overall email effectiveness is improving. As a Your opt-in strategy has less of an impact on
marketing channel, almost 80 percent of the study’s engagement than you think. There has been an
participants reported that email is holding steady or age-old debate over single versus double opt-in and
improving in terms of effectiveness. the impact on one’s list and subscriber engagement.
Marketers must do more than rely on one opt-in
strategy over another to improve deliverability,
engagement, and overall effectiveness.
Email remains important. Almost two-thirds of study
participants rate email as one of the most important
channels, or the most important channel, in use.
A surprising number of marketers don’t understand List segmentation is a major driver of deliverability.
that mailbox providers use engagement to filter The ability to segment lists and send different
email. Over half of this study’s participants were neutral messages to different types of subscribers is a key
or disagreed with the statement, “Mailbox providers indicator of capability, data quality, and compliance
use subscriber engagement to determine where to with best practices that improves inbox placement.
filter (e.g. inbox, spam, blocked) the email you send.”
THE STATE OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT 7
the state of
EMAIL ENGAGEMENT
Where Email Stands
WHERE EMAIL STANDS THE STATE OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT 8
Where Email Stands
Compared to Other Marketing Channels, How
Important is Email?
In the mix of channels on which marketers rely, Figure 1 shows that email
remains as important as, or more important than, most channels in use.
Nonprofit organizations attached the greatest importance to email, with
85 percent rating it one of the most important channels or the most FIGURE 1: RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE EMAIL
important marketing channel. CHANNEL
This rating was 65 percent for B2B organizations, and 54 percent for Almost two-thirds of study participants say email is one of the
B2C organizations. This email channel importance data correlates to most important channels or the most important marketing channel.
revenue growth.
Organizations that reported revenue growth were more likely to iden-
tify email as one of the most important channels or the most important
marketing channel (68 percent) compared to organizations that saw
2%
Least important
no growth or a decline (58 percent).
12% 10%
Most important
One of
the least
important
21% 55%
One of the most
Equally important
important
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