Average email campaign performance stats by industry

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There are a lot of numbers in our reports on email and marketing automation, but you might be wondering how your stats compare to others in the same industry. What kind of open rates should companies like yours expect? How many bounces are too many? What’s an acceptable abuse complaint rate? The more context, the better.

We sends millions of emails a month for millions of users. Needless to say, we track a lot of data. So we scanned hundreds of millions of emails delivered by our system (where campaign tracking was activated, and where users reported their industry) and calculated the average unique open rates, click rates, soft bounces, hard bounces, and abuse complaint rate by industry.

We only tracked campaigns that went to at least 1,000 subscribers, but these stats aren’t pulled from a survey of giant corporations with million-dollar marketing budgets and dedicated email marketing teams. Our customers range from 1-person startups to Fortune 500 companies, so the whole spectrum is represented in this data. Here’s your apples-to-apples comparison with others in your industry.

The data provided on this page was last updated in January 2020.

Industry	Average Open Rate	Average Click Rate	Hard Bounce	Soft Bounce	Unsubscribe Rate
All non-labeled accounts	22.71%	2.91%	0.40%	0.61%	0.25%
Agriculture and Food Services	23.31%	2.94%	0.32%	0.50%	0.28%
Architecture and Construction	22.51%	2.51%	0.73%	1.18%	0.32%
Arts and Artists	26.27%	2.95%	0.30%	0.51%	0.28%
Beauty and Personal Care	16.65%	1.92%	0.26%	0.33%	0.30%
Business and Finance	21.56%	2.72%	0.43%	0.55%	0.20%
Computers and Electronics	19.29%	2.08%	0.47%	0.79%	0.27%
Construction	21.77%	2.26%	0.86%	1.28%	0.39%
Consulting	20.13%	2.49%	0.50%	0.79%	0.27%
Creative Services/Agency	21.39%	2.66%	0.58%	0.93%	0.35%
Daily Deals/E-Coupons	15.06%	2.23%	0.07%	0.13%	0.10%
E-Commerce	15.68%	2.01%	0.19%	0.26%	0.27%
Education and Training	23.42%	2.90%	0.32%	0.51%	0.21%
Entertainment and Events	20.51%	2.36%	0.28%	0.43%	0.26%
Gambling	21.62%	3.30%	0.42%	0.38%	0.15%
Games	21.10%	3.66%	0.37%	0.44%	0.25%
Government	28.77%	3.99%	0.33%	0.50%	0.13%
Health and Fitness	21.48%	2.69%	0.30%	0.40%	0.40%
Hobbies	27.74%	5.01%	0.18%	0.31%	0.23%
Home and Garden	21.60%	3.03%	0.32%	0.52%	0.35%
Insurance	21.36%	2.13%	0.67%	0.71%	0.25%
Legal	22.00%	2.81%	0.52%	0.66%	0.22%
Manufacturing	19.82%	2.18%	0.72%	1.18%	0.31%
Marketing and Advertising	17.38%	2.04%	0.44%	0.68%	0.27%
Media and Publishing	22.15%	4.62%	0.14%	0.27%	0.12%
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare	21.72%	2.49%	0.51%	0.63%	0.28%
Mobile	19.29%	2.27%	0.48%	0.58%	0.37%
Music and Musicians	21.88%	2.94%	0.28%	0.48%	0.26%
Non-Profit	25.17%	2.79%	0.33%	0.49%	0.20%
Pharmaceuticals	18.58%	2.25%	0.39%	0.53%	0.17%
Photo and Video	23.24%	3.23%	0.43%	0.65%	0.40%
Politics	22.94%	2.37%	0.28%	0.41%	0.21%
Professional Services	21.94%	2.55%	0.56%	0.83%	0.31%
Public Relations	21.02%	1.98%	0.45%	0.71%	0.17%
Real Estate	19.17%	1.77%	0.38%	0.56%	0.27%
Recruitment and Staffing	21.14%	2.53%	0.45%	0.53%	0.30%
Religion	27.62%	3.16%	0.17%	0.25%	0.15%
Restaurant	19.77%	1.34%	0.37%	0.50%	0.28%
Restaurant and Venue	20.39%	1.40%	0.32%	0.45%	0.39%
Retail	18.39%	2.25%	0.22%	0.32%	0.25%
Social Networks and Online Communities	21.06%	3.32%	0.20%	0.34%	0.22%
Software and Web App	21.29%	2.45%	0.65%	0.97%	0.37%
Sports	24.57%	3.09%	0.26%	0.39%	0.28%
Telecommunications	20.92%	2.27%	0.63%	0.87%	0.23%
Travel and Transportation	20.44%	2.25%	0.31%	0.51%	0.24%
Vitamin Supplements	15.03%	1.62%	0.23%	0.36%	0.27%
Average Totals	21.33%	2.62%	0.40%	0.58%	0.26%

The average open rate for all industries we analyzed is 21.33%.

Open rates are one of the best ways to tell whether your email strategy is working. This number shows what percentage of your audience opens the emails you send them. If you have a great open rate, it usually means your subject lines resonate with your audience.

Here are a few examples of successful open rates:

The most opened emails are related to government, with an open rate of 28.77%.
Emails sent by hobbies entities come in second, with a 27.74% open rate.
With a 27.62% open rate, emails about religion came in third.
The average open rate for all industries we analyzed is 21.33%.

Another good way to check how well your emails are working is to take a look at the click rates. The click rate is a percentage that tells you how many successfully delivered emails got at least 1 click. This number shows whether or not your audience finds the emails you send relevant enough to click through for more.

Here’s what standard click rates look like:

Hobbies have the highest click rate, which is 5.01%.
Media and publishing emails see the second highest click rate, at 4.62%.
Government comes in third, with a 3.99% click rate.
The average click rate for all industries we looked at is 2.62%

The average click rate for all industries we analyzed is 2.62%

Tips for Improving Your Stats

When it comes to subject lines, being straightforward works best. So tell, don’t sell what’s inside.
If you want people to open your emails, you have to get past their spam filters first. And the best way to avoid spam filters is to learn how they work.
Too many hard bounces is a sign of an old, stale list. Make sure you email your subscribers regularly (at least once a quarter), so that your list stays up to date.
Soft bounces usually mean the recipient is “temporarily unavailable.” Maybe they’re on vacation, or their mailbox is full. You can keep those emails and try them again later.
Hard bounces mean an email address failed. Maybe it no longer exists, or maybe someone made a typo when they subscribed to a list. But hard bounces might also be spam filter—if you see an abnormally high number of bounces after a campaign, read your bounceback records for any messages or clues from spam filters.

Abuse complaints happen when recipients click the “This is spam” button in their email programs. That usually means they don’t remember you. Make sure your “From” and “Subject” lines contain your company name, so your subscribers will instantly recognize you.

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