Netcore Cloud’s Study of 100 billion emails reveal AI-powered personalisation and delivery increased email reach by 35% in 2021.
Email marketing has prevailed to be one of the most trusted channels for marketing departments to connect and convert customers into loyalists. However, the pandemic and its subsequent challenges have ushered in a new era of email marketing with giant leaps into interactivity, privacy, and multimedia.
In Southeast Asia, many companies have adopted AI in email delivery and are strict on their permission marketing policies, which has significantly contributed to their inbox placements and making it the region with the highest email deliverability at 97%.
This according to Netcore Cloud, a SaaS company and global leader in customer communication, engagement, and retention, which announced the release of its Email Benchmark Report 2022 on 27 June.
The report analyses over 100 billion emails and showcases findings across 22 major industries, including BFSI, Retail and eCommerce, Beauty, Food, Entertainment, and Media. It covers the shifts in email marketing and benchmark metrics since the global pandemic and aims to help marketers strengthen their email strategy in 2022.
Key Insights from Email Benchmark Report 2022
Key insights from the report include best and worst days to send emails, industries most guilty of sending consumers spam mails, the average email open rate across industries, and email deliverability rates among industries.
Though differing from industry to industry, Fridays seem to be the best day of the week for getting high engagement on campaigns, while the worst day of the week to send a campaign is Sunday. For instance, Sunday is the perfect day to send an email across for MedTech, while Monday works best for eCommerce (kickstarting the week with shopping aspirations) and Fridays for travel companies (deals for weekend getaway or short trips).
Highest spam complaints were attributed to online dating and the media over-the-top (OTT) industry, with almost 30 complaints for every 10,000 emails sent. Job portals and the travel industry are placed third, with an average 14 complaints on Gmail for every 10,000 emails sent.
The average open rate for emails across industries diminished to 8.7%. According to Netcore Cloud’s 2020 COVID survey report, 40% of users had stopped checking their emails during the first lockdown. Some sectors like insurance (the highest open rate at 16.2%) and online pharmacy (15.1%) saw strong open rates during the pandemic. Ecommerce (11.5%) too saw better open rates as volumes of online shopping surged.
Email deliverability rate was the highest for the retail industry at 98.6% followed by food tech/ food delivery industry at 98%. Foodtech grew positively during 2021 due to intermittent lockdowns and restrictions on social mobility. Entertainment/ media over-the-top (OTT) companies have the lowest deliverability with an average of 77%.
The report also highlights the growing adoption of technologies like AI and ML as brands try to enhance their email marketing strategies. It was observed that 49% of Netcore Cloud’s 5000+ clients have adopted AI across audience selection, content optimisation, channel preference, and email delivery. Moreover, the report also includes expert opinions on how marketers can tackle the diverse challenges faced. Therefore this report serves as a complete playbook for marketers’ every need with regard to Email Marketing and will enable them to maximise the power of emails.
Sharing his views on the study, Rajesh Jain, Founder and MD, Netcore Cloud, said, “Today email has evolved from a personal tool to one that helps businesses connect more meaningfully with their customers. As it offers immense value for solving the attention recession problem, eliminating data poverty, reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and providing a pathway to profitable growth, we believe marketers need to prioritise email in the days to come.”
