Email Open Rates Down, Click Rates Flat

Email open rates fell to 17% on average in 2010, down 9 percentage points from 26% in 2009, according to a report by Harte-Hanks.The pharmaceutical and government sectors recorded the highest open rates during the year, whereas the tech sector recorded the lowest. 

Below, other findings from the Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index 2009-2010, which examined metrics for roughly 3 billion email messages sent by 100 companies in nine vertical industries. 

The declines in open rates are likely due to changing patterns in the use of text and imagery that records open activity, according to the report. Meanwhile, email click-through rates stayed flat (at 3%) over the period.

Delivery rates were up slightly, reaching 95% on average in 2010, up 2 percentage points from 93% a year earlier, while unsubscribe rates fell to an average of 0.16%, one-half the 2009 average of 0.32%. 

A few key industries outperformed others in click- and open-rate performance during the year:

• The highest click rates were recorded in the insurance sector (8%), well above the average click rate of 3%, while the lowest click rates recorded were in the tech sector (less than 1%).
• The pharmaceutical and government sectors recorded the highest open rates in 2010, 26% and 25%, respectively, whereas the tech sector recorded the lowest open rates (6%). 

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