I am frequently asked about the expected open rate for email messages. According to the Technology Marketing Benchmark Survey, published by Marketing Sherpa, the average open rate for email blasts in 2008 was reported to be 22%. Overall the open rate has been declining steadily over the past five years from 39% in 2004.

Open rates are calculated by placing “beacon” images into HTML messages, with the source of those images on a remote web server. When these images are loaded into the recipient’s email reader and are requested from the remote web server, the “open” is registered.

The decline in open rate may be more attributed towards a greater number of email clients blocking images, rather than acceptance of email.

This information as well as many more useful marketing benchmarks can be found in Marketing Sherpa’s 2008-2009 Technology Marketing Benchmark Survey.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Deliverability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.