Open rates. Click-throughs. Qualified leads delivered. There’s no question it’s important for CMOs and other marketing leaders to measure the performance of their campaigns. Not only is measurement a reflection of business impact, but it is also the only way you can gain the insight you need to continually optimize your campaigns. How else would you know if that new great idea is a success? Measurement also paves the way to additional resources and marketing spend down the line.

And when it comes to 2020 budgets and planning, benchmark data can also be very valuable. The latest Acoustic Marketing Benchmark Report examined email and mobile marketing messages from thousands of brands to provide insight into what’s trending now and what’s having the most impact on customer engagement, email delivery and marketing performance. I’ve put together these 6 insights and takeaways from the report as well as my own experiences to fast-track your 2020 marketing planning efforts:

• Privacy regulations support marketers: While the mention of privacy regulations (e.g. GDPR and CASL) may cause anxiety for email marketers, it turns out these regulations are a good thing: they have forced companies to maintain email hygiene and focus on quality over quantity. This has generated greater trust in brand marketing: customers and prospects are starting to see that marketers provide real value and want to keep their personal data safe.

• Make data cleansing a priority: With people constantly on the move, our data shows that business contact data decays at a rate of about 3 - 5% every month -- I’ve written previously about the importance of deep database cleansing to remove old, bad or erroneous records, significantly improve data quality and bolster email performance. Today, backed by the power of automation, data cleansing – when done right – enhances and maintains data accuracy, protects the provider’s email sender reputation and ensures a more effective way to reach prospects and customers.

• Open and click-through rates increasing: With established email trust and a stronger focus on data quality, email open rates have increased 19% and click-through rates have grown 14% over the last five years. While all major global regions experienced increased click-through rates from 2017 to 2018, the U.S. saw an impressive 20% year-over-year increase from 3.0% to 3.6%. Looking deeper into the data, some industries performed better than others: the automotive, energy and environmental industries enjoyed the highest average mean email open rates, with a range between 41% and 48%.

• Transactional messages remain top performers: Emails triggered by your customer’s behavior enjoy average (mean) open rates 20% above non-transactional emails (e.g. standard promotions, newsletters, etc.). Other studies show that 320% more revenue is driven from automated emails than non-automated emails, pointing to why it’s important to have these emails automated and ready in your email system and use them as an opportunity to cross-promote your other products and services, or encourage your customers to share their experiences with colleagues.

• Mobile email engagement decline: The Acoustic report surprisingly found that the percentage of consumers opening emails on mobile devices declined from 49% in 2017 to 44% in 2018. This decline may be due to the predominance of texting to communicate simpler, immediate messages, with a focus on more detailed, complicated or transactional email communications for the home laptop. Regardless, designing your campaigns with mobile devices in mind remains essential.

• Email ROI still crushing it: The ROI data for email campaigns continues to be spectacular: Email marketing produces $44 for every $1 spent (Campaign Monitor), is 40X more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined (McKinsey), and shoppers spend 138% more when marketed to through email, compared to those who do not receive email offers (Disruptive Advertising). Are you measuring the ROI of your email marketing campaigns and making comparisons to other marketing channels and initiatives you have in play? If so, you’ll likely see that email remains a dominant force.

I hope you find this information valuable as you look ahead to the coming year. Happy planning!

Outward Media’s proven data cleansing services and targeted, accurate email data can enable you to achieve better email marketing ROI and, ultimately, convert more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.