Are you as fed up as us with studies that are released all the time on performance indicators for email marketing campaigns?
We think they:
- contradict each other.
- compare apples with oranges – meaning B2B and B2C.
- they’re often out of date.
- the stats change drastically depending on the source.
What you want as a marketer is simple: to be able to compare your performance with companies in the same sector, and when you do send email campaigns to know if your performance was good, bad, average, awful or excellent.
So, this is what we did…
- we didn’t scour all the studies on email campaigns. We want fresh, viable data: so we looked only at studies from 2018 – 2020 that have clear data.
- we only looked at studies that listed their sector, meaning we could closely study B2B. We then aggregated that data into 7 categories.
- we assumed a certain ‘statistical bias’, as we created an ‘average’, by which we could create a single B2B figure. By averaging 4 different sources, it meant.
- we could compare and reduce errors.
- for each statistic, you can refer to a table to better understand your own campaign’s performance.
In this article you’ll find:
- what is a good email open rate in B2B
- what is a good click through rate in B2B
- what is a good bounce rate in B2B
- the stats for spam and unsubscribe rates
- what is a good CTOR (click to open rate) in B2B
- a compilation of these figures by source and sector
Average Open Rate for B2B mailing
The average B2B email open rate is 22.22%
This figure is an average compiled from studies between 2018 and 2019 by Mailchimp, IBM, Campaign Monitor and GetReponse.
The B2B opening rate varies between sources and sectors from 14.5% and 29.64%.
Classification of B2B email open rate
| Poor open rate | less than 14.50% |
| Average open rate | 14.5% to 22.22% |
| Good open rate | 22.22% to 29.64% |
| Excellent open rate | more than 29.64% |
Here are the details of open rates by sector within B2B:
| Sectors | Open Rate |
|---|---|
| ALL SECTORS | 22.22% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | 20.69% |
| Events and Media | 22.75% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | 21.33% |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | 21.24% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | 23.59% |
| Education and Training | 25.06% |
| Others | 20.91% |
Average Click Through Rate in B2B mailing
The average click rate in B2B mailing is 3.06%.
This figure is an average of 4 studies published in 2018 and 2019 by Mailchimp, IBM, Campaign Monitor and GetResponse.
The click through rate in B2B varies according to the sources and the sectors from 1.6% to 6.46%.
Classification of B2B Click Through Rate:
| Bad CTR | less than 1.60% |
| Average CTR | 1.60% to 3.06% |
| Good CTR | 3.06% to 6.46% |
| Excellent CTR | more than 6.46% |
Here is the detail of Click Through Rate stats by B2B sector:
| Sectors | Click Through Rate |
|---|---|
| All Sectors | 3.06% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | 2.44% |
| Media and Events | 3.97% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | 3.22% |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | 2.93% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | 2.77% |
| Eduction and Training | 3.40% |
| Others | 2.66% |
Average Bounce Rate in B2B mailing
The average bounce rate in B2B emailing is 0.96%.
This figure is an average of 4 studies published in 2018 and 2019 by Mailchimp, IBM, Campaign Monitor and GetResponse.
The bounce rate in B2B varies according to sources and sectors from 0.35% to 1.62%.
Classification of a B2B email bounce rate:
| Bad bounce rate | more than 1.62% |
| Average bounce rate | 0.96% to 1.62% |
| Good bounce rate | 0.25% to 0.96% |
| Excellent bounce rte | less than 0.35% |
Here is the detail of the bounce rate statistics by B2B sector:
| Sector | Bounce Rate |
|---|---|
| All Sectors | 0/96% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | 0.96% |
| Media and Events | 0.56% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agences | 1.09% |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | 0.93% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | 1.15% |
| Education and Training | 0.97% |
| Others | 1.06% |
Unsubscribe and average spam rate in B2B emailing
The average unsubscribe rate in B2B emailing is 0.21%.
This figure is an average of 4 studies published in 2018 and 2019 by Mailchimp, IBM, Campaign Monitor and GetResponse.
The B2B unsubscribe rate varies according to sources and sectors from 0.10% to 0.31%.
Classification of a B2B email unsubscribe rate:
| Bad unsubscribe rate | more than 0.31% |
| Average unsubscribe rate | 0.21% to 0.31% |
| Good unsubscribe rate | 0.10% to 0.21% |
| Excellent unsubscribe rte | les then 0.10% |
The average spam rate in B2B emailing is 0.02%.
Ultimately, it’s better to have a high unsubscribe rate than a spam rate: having recipients who report you as spam can greatly affect your deliverability.
Here are the details of the unsubscribe and spam rate statistics by B2B sector:
| Sectors | Unsubscribe Rate |
|---|---|
| All Sectors | 0.21% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | 0.20% |
| Media and Events | 0.18% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | 0.21% |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | 0.21% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | 0.24% |
| Eductaion and Training | 0.21% |
| Others | 0.23% |
Average CTOR in B2B emailing rate
CTOR is the abbreviation for ‘Click to Open Rate’; so it compares the amount of click rates (unique clicks) and open rates (unique opens). It means that you can check the effectiveness of an overall email marketing campaign.Although it is used less, it is the one KPI to keep if you had to only keep one!
This is how it is calculated:
CTOR = (unique click rate / unique open rate) x 100
The average CTOR in B2B emailing is 13.24%.
This figure is an average of 4 studies published in 2018 and 2019 by Mailchimp, IBM, Campaign Monitor and GetResponse.
The B2B unsubscribe rate varies according to sources and sectors from 9.90% to 21.78%.
Classification of CTOR B2B emailing:
| Bad CTOR | less than 9.90% |
| Average CTOR | 9.90% to 13.24% |
| Good CTOR | 13.24% to 21.78% |
| Good CTOR | more than 21.78% |
Here are the details of CTOR statistics by B2B sector:
| Sector | CTOR |
|---|---|
| All Sectors | 13.24% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | 11.35% |
| Media and Events | 16.73% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agences | 13.84% |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | 12.94% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | 11.78% |
| Education and Training | 13.42% |
| Others | 12.61% |
Summary of the statistics of the 4 studies by source :
You can use the filter by source and sector in order to access the results that interest you:
| Sector | Source | Yer | Open Rate | Click Rate | Bounce rate | Unsubscribe rate | Spam Rate | CTOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALL SECTORS | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 22.22% | 3.06% | 0.96% | 0.21% | 0.02% | 13.24% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 20.69% | 2.44% | 0.96% | 0.20% | 0.02% | 11.35% |
| Media and Events | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 22.75% | 3.97% | 0.56% | 0.18% | 0.01% | 16.73% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 21.33% | 3.22% | 1.09% | 0.21% | 0.02% | 13.84% |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 21.24% | 2.93% | 0.93% | 0.21% | 0.01% | 12.94% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 23.59% | 2.77% | 1.15% | 0.24% | 0.02% | 11.78% |
| Education and Training | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 25.06% | 3.40% | 0.97% | 0.21% | 0.02% | 13.42% |
| Others | ALL SOURCES | 2018 - 2019 | 20.91% | 2.66% | 1.06% | 0.23% | 12.61% | |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | IBM | 2018 | 26.00% | 3.75% | 0.66% | 0.15% | 0.01% | 10.80% |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | IBM | 2018 | 18.80% | 2.80% | 0.92% | 0.18% | 0.01% | 12.90% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | IBM | 2018 | 24.20% | 3.80% | 0.84% | 0.17% | 0.02% | 13.10% |
| Real estate, construction, industry | IBM | 2018 | 28.10% | 2.90% | 0.35% | 0.19% | 0.02% | 10.20% |
| ALL SECTORS | IBM | 2018 | 24.62% | 3.40% | 0.68% | 0.17% | 0.01% | 11.56% |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | GetResponse | 2019 | 22.45% | 4.13% | 0.14% | 0.02% | 16.87% | |
| Education and Training | GetResponse | 2019 | 28.36% | 4.31% | 0.22% | 0.02% | 15.19% | |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | GetResponse | 2019 | 20.72% | 2.92% | 0.22% | 0.02% | 14.42% | |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | GetResponse | 2019 | 24.65% | 2.66% | 0.19% | 0.03% | 10.81% | |
| Media and Events | GetResponse | 2019 | 29.64% | 6.46% | 0.18% | 0.01% | 21.78% | |
| Real estate, construction, industry | GetResponse | 2019 | 25.48% | 3.07% | 0.20% | 0.02% | 12.05% | |
| ALL SECTORS | GetResponse | 2019 | 22.15% | 3.43% | 0.20% | 0.02% | 15.49% | |
| Others | Mailchimp | 2019 | 22.71% | 2.91% | 1.01% | 0.25% | 12.81% | |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | Mailchimp | 2019 | 21.30% | 2.51% | 1.16% | 0.25% | 11.79% | |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | Mailchimp | 2019 | 20.64% | 2.53% | 1.23% | 0.27% | 12.23% | |
| Real estate, construction, industry | Mailchimp | 2019 | 20.38% | 2.11% | 1.62% | 0.31% | 10.33% | |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | Mailchimp | 2019 | 19.39% | 2.35% | 1.32% | 0.31% | 12.09% | |
| Education and Training | Mailchimp | 2019 | 23.42% | 2.90% | 0.83% | 0.21% | 12.38% | |
| Media and Events | Mailchimp | 2019 | 20.51% | 2.36% | 0.71% | 0.26% | 11.51% | |
| ALL SECTORS | Mailchimp | 2019 | 21.33% | 2.62% | 1.23% | 0.26% | 12.28% | |
| Marketing, publicity, communication, agencies | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 19.30% | 2.60% | 1.10% | 0.20% | 13.30% | |
| Real estate, construction, industry | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 20.40% | 3.00% | 1.48% | 0.25% | 14.55% | |
| Education and Training | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 23.40% | 3.00% | 1.10% | 0.20% | 12.70% | |
| Software, telecom, online services, technology | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 17.60% | 2.50% | 0.90% | 0.20% | 14.30% | |
| Media and Events | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 18.10% | 3.10% | 0.40% | 0.10% | 16.90% | |
| Others | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 19.10% | 2.40% | 1.10% | 0.20% | 12.40% | |
| B2B services, human resources, finance, consulting | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 18.00% | 1.80% | 0.80% | 0.20% | 9.90% | |
| All Sectors | Campaign Monitor | 2019 | 17.80% | 2.60% | 0.70% | 0.10% | 14.30% |
If you want to compare with the full results (including B2C) or add to other statistics such as the detail by day or by hour, here are the links of the 4 studies:
However, when you analyze the figures, you quickly see: there isn’t a glaring difference in performance for a particular hour or day, except that in B2B, better results come with emails sent between 6 and 10 a.m. on weekdays.
So, have you compared this with your numbers? Where are you located? Tell us in the comments!
