In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at Benchmark Email Marketing Software, the program that’s been helping businesses grow since the early 2000s.
We’ll start by taking you through the program’s features and functionality, then we’ll dive into some of the features that make it such an effective email marketing software system. Finally, we’ll wrap up by taking a look at some of the company’s other products and services.
Benchmark Email Marketing Software is a comprehensive application that allows you to manage your email marketing campaigns from start to finish. The system includes everything from campaign tracking tools to subscription management tools and even landing page builders.
Benchmark Email Marketing Software
Benchmark Email features include automation pro, an email designer, tracking, reporting, A/B testing and integrations. The email designer offers features such as drag-and-drop editing, live editing, responsive emails, email templates, code editor and customized colors. Its reports provide real-time insights into campaigns by comparing users’ campaign efficiency with market standards.
Benchmark Email integrates with WordPress, Shopify, PayPal, Gmail, Google Docs, Tumblr, Zoho, Zendesk, Magento, Digioh, Flick…
Read more
Benchmark Email Pricing
Free for unlimited subscribers and 250 emails per month. $13/month for 500 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $20/month for 1,000 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $30/month for 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $49/month for 5,000 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $76/month for 10,000 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $100/month for 15,000 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $117/month for 20,000 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. $144/month for 25,000 subscribers and unlimited sends per month. Need more subscribers or send-based pricing? Visit our pricing page for all of the details.
Starting price:
$13.00 per month
Free trial:
Not Available
Free version:
Available
Image 1 of 5
Showing 1 – 5 of 158 reviews
View all reviews
Lorraine
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
March 2021
Looks professional and easy to use
User Profile
Bob
Verified reviewer
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
My Review of Benchmark Email
Very good! Customer support responded quickly to my inquiries. For emailing your customer base easily and on a regular basis – this is good value for the money.
Pros
I loved the ability to design newsletters and email them directly to my subscribers. They have many different templates for you to choose from. The ease of use made my actual “writing time” for a newsletter minimal.
Cons
I used Benchmark when I first started in online business. It was very easy to use and the price was in my comfort zone. I then tried to set up a couple of “funnels” and could not do so (this was a couple of years ago – so time may have changed). I contacted Customer Support and was informed that the system I was trying to put in place was not available through Benchmark, that they were only for emailing directly. Unfortunately, I had to close my account and move on to a competitor that did allow me to build out my funnels for online marketing.
Andrew
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Market Research
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
Easy to use platform
Overall, I am satisfied and will continue to use Benchmark . I started on a Free Trial and upgraded to a paid service. I plan on sticking to Benchmark for a quarterly newsletter and using to send invitation or special emails.
Pros
This platform is very user-friendly. It doesn’t take much effort to get up to speed on how to use it, and there are many email templates to choose from so you don’t always have to create something from scratch! I think it’s good value for the money, and the support team has been very helpful in my experience.
Cons
There ares some features where I feel limited. I am not too experienced with softwares like this, so I don’t know what’s available….but I really wish there was a pop-up feature, where users could click on a button and it would connect to their email to forward a newsletter for example. I also have experienced some deliverability issues and have not been 100% satisfied with the response. I think with this and being a new user, it takes time to learn and develop the best strategy.
Reasons for choosing Benchmark Email
I also use type form, but I don’t use it for email. I have considered Mailchimp because it seems to be widely used (I see its logo often on emails/newsletters). I chose Benchmark because I like the look & feel of the website and some of the design elements.
Response from Benchmark
Hello Andrew, Thank you for the review and high rating. Regarding the feature you mentioned, we do have a forward option for the campaigns you send. When you have a moment, log in and chat with us, we’d love to show you how this feature works and also how to improve your deliverability. – Benchmark Team
Replied May 2019
Judith
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Health, Wellness and Fitness
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
4
Ease-of-use
out of 5
4
Value for money
out of 5
4
Customer support
out of 5
2
Functionality
out of 5
April 2017
Waiting For the Beta
I have used other email marketing programs. I chose Benchmark because I wanted an inexpensive option for a project for a client. I would say Benchmark is easy to use and easy to learn especially if you have ever used an email marketing program before. But like all software programs, it has its quirks and you learn to get around them. But Benchmark’s tutorials, FAQs and feature lists may not supply you with all the information you need. For instance, there are two email automation programs that each offer only one or two automated steps after the trigger. Nowhere in the documentation did it clearly state that only the Automation Pro, that is still in Beta, offers a customer’s journey that you can use to send out more than two emails in a sequence. On the other hand, don’t pay for more than you need. If you blast out emails to a list of established customers with only quarterly sales discounts, or discounts for birthdays and holidays, Benchmark is enough. And Benchmark is inexpensive. But if you want to onboard various segments of your customers, educating them and eliciting their engagement, this is not the email marketing program for you. There are two locations for live support, one is offshore and the other is domestic. The offshore folks are nice people but they mainly operate by rote. The domestic support gets it right, but I am still waiting to find out if a personalized greeting can be added to the Automation Beta. In my opinion, a personalized greeting should be a standard feature in a customer’s journey. I don’t know if it is or not and none of their stated info tells you.
Pros
Benchmark is easy to use. Easy to set up. Good for very simple customer outreach, i.e a storefront that collects emails and wants to alert customers to sales.
Cons
Very limited feature set. Not standard at this point.
Response from Benchmark Email
Hi Judith, We appreciate you using Benchmark Email and taking the time to provide some feedback. Thank you for your kind words in regards to our ease of use as well. We do, however, want to address some of your points in regards to our FAQs and tutorials as well as Automation Pro. Admittedly, our FAQs and tutorials are an area we¿d like to put more focus on. That¿s why we¿ve recently established a training department to help keep those areas better up-to-date and helpful to marketers. Our tools are constantly evolving and the support resources we provide must as well. We¿re confident this new department will succeed in this regard, as well as with keeping all support offices across the globe on the same page. Your feedback in regards to Automation Pro is an integral part of the beta process. We expect new features to continue to be added to the automation platform throughout the beta period and after. Again, thanks for the kind words and feedback
Easy to use email marketing software
Excellent customer service right from the get go
Pros
I like that Benchmark is clean looking and easy to navigate. You can create an email in no time. I like the email templates.
Cons
I don’t like that I have to create a segment to email a few people in my list. Also my current website doesn’t integrate with Benchmark to save emails. They said they were working on that feature, however. So not Benchmark issue.
Alternatives Considered
MailerLite
Reasons for choosing Benchmark Email
No fuss interfaces and easy to use for my small business. Plus I was connected with a very helpful sales rep
Reasons for switching to Benchmark Email
MailChimp isn’t easy to use and has virtually no customer service. I’m a yoga instructor, not an IT specialist
View all reviews
Popular Benchmark Email Comparisons
Benchmark Email
Benchmark Email
VS
Mailchimp
Benchmark Email
Benchmark Email
VS
Gmail
Benchmark Email
Benchmark Email
VS
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Benchmark Email
Benchmark Email
VS
Squarespace
Home
Email Marketing Software
Benchmark Email
Software Advice Logo
About Us
Careers
Vendors
Blog
View All Categories
© 2006-2022 Software Advice, Inc.
User Terms
Vendor Terms
Community Guidelines
GDM Content Policy
GDM Content Policy FAQs
Privacy Policy
TwitterFacebookLinkedInInstagram
b2b email marketing benchmarks
by Jacinda Santora
Last Updated: December 15th, 2021
9 min read
eMail Marketing
Is your email marketing as effective as you want it to be? One of the first things to do if you’re not getting the return you want on your email marketing investment is to check your open rates. Open rates are a great indicator of how engaged your email subscribers are in your content and your brand. A low open rate might mean that your segments are off, you’re reaching the wrong people, or that your content is lacking. But what even is a good email open rate for your industry? And, maybe most importantly, how can you fix low email open rates? Here we’ll answer all your questions about average email open rates by industry in 2022, why open rates are so important, and how you can fix yours if they’re low. Let’s get started!
Related Content:
The Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks You Need to Track Now
Top 40 Free Email Marketing Tools for 2022
23 Best Email Marketing Software Platforms for 2022
Email Personalization Best Practices that Get Results
Average Email Open Rates by Industry 2022:
Email Marketing? Still?
Email Marketing Benchmarks
What Is an Open Rate?
What Is a Good Email Open Rate?
Why Do Open Rates Matter?
Average Email Open Rates by Industry—Benchmarks for 2021
Improving Your Email Open Rates
Email Marketing? Still?
Year after year, many words are spilled over how “dead” email marketing is. And, year after year, email marketing proves that it’s still one of the strongest marketing channels around. Seriously. It has a 3800%–4400% return on investment (depending on the study). That means for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you have the potential to get back $38–$44! Sure, it’s one of the oldest digital marketing channels, but the fact that email is still going strong after all these years is a testament to its effectiveness.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that email marketing is so powerful. After all, more than 4 billion people worldwide use email (The Radicati Group)—nearly 52% of the entire world population. And, a whopping 61% of those email users say they enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly (Marketing Sherpa). What that means to you is that email marketing is probably important for your brand. If you’re not already, you should be using it. If you’re already using email marketing, you should be tracking your email marketing benchmarks to make sure you’re getting the most from your investment.
Email Marketing Benchmarks
Become a smarter influencer in 3 minutes, for free.
Subscribe to the world’s #1 influencer marketing newsletter, delivered biweekly on Thursday.
Email
Try it
Email marketing benchmarks are how you track the performance of your email marketing campaigns. While we’re focusing on email open rates here, there are several benchmarks and metrics that are important to follow. Tracking and measuring your benchmarks can help you build stronger strategies so you can continue to grow your business year after year.
What Is an Open Rate?
An open rate is a term used to describe the percentage of email recipients that opened an email after receiving it. It’s a pretty simple concept for something that can provide email marketers so much information about the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns or the viability of their email marketing list. Here’s how to calculate your email open rate:
Your email marketing service provider should be able to give you granular information about your email open rates, right down to email marketing metrics for individual subscribers on your list. Open rates are a great way to find the people on your list that aren’t engaged with your content so you can target them with a winback campaign (sometimes called a re-engagement campaign) with the goal of cleaning the inactive and disengaged subscribers from your list. We recommend cleaning your email list at least once each year.
What Is a Good Email Open Rate?
A good email open rate is one that meets the average across industries—right around 17%. Having said that, different industries have different average open rates. The best way to determine a good email open rate for your business is by tracking your actual open rates for a full quarter and averaging them. That gives you a benchmark against which you can measure your open rates over time to ensure that they keep improving.
Why Do Open Rates Matter?
Your open rate can tell you a number of things about a specific email or email marketing campaign:
If your email made it to the inbox and didn’t get caught up in increasingly powerful spam filters
If you targeted the right segment of your audience
If your subject line was compelling enough to get folks to open the email
If your preheader text was engaging
We don’t need to tell you that if nobody opens your emails, you’re not going to get a great return on your email marketing investment. That has a ripple effect—if nobody opens your emails, they’re not clicking through to your landing or sales pages, and if they’re not doing that, you’re not making sales. If you have low open rates, these are the things you can test.
Average Email Open Rates by Industry—Benchmarks for 2021
So, what are the average email open rates by industry? In this section, we’re going to share details from Constant Contact’s March 2021 research. As you’ll see, religious organizations enjoy the highest email open rates at 29.42% with primary and secondary education emails coming in second at 28.44% and government agencies and services rounding out the top three at 28.22%. Given the fact that 2020 was filled with uncertainty, it’s not really surprising that these three industries saw increases over previously reported numbers.
On the other side of things, the bottom three industries for email open rates are consulting and training (11.38%), retail (11.04%), and closing it down with automotive services getting an email open rate of just 9.72%.
All Industries—Overall Average: 16.97%
Accommodations (e.g., hotel, inn, B&B, campgrounds): 17.29%
Accountant: 16.94%
Animal Services: 21.23%
Art, Culture, Entertainment (e.g., galleries, museums, musicians, theatre, film, crafts): 17.79%
Automotive Services: 9.72%
Child Care Services: 22.99%
Civic/Social Membership (e.g., associations, chambers, clubs): 12.63%
Consultant, Training (e.g., marketing, management): 11.38%
Education – Primary/Secondary (e.g., elementary, middle, and high schools): 28.44%
Education – Higher Education (e.g., colleges, universities, trade schools): 19.55%
Financial Advisor: 12.26%
Fitness Center, Sports, Recreation (e.g., yoga studio, bowling alley, gym): 17.48%
Fitness/Nutritional Services (e.g., personal trainer, wellness coach): 12.73%
Government Agency or Services: 28.22%
Health & Social Services (e.g., hospital, elder care, adoption services): 21.84%
Health Professional (e.g., physician, dentist, chiropractor): 16.60%
Home & Building Services (e.g., construction, HVAC, landscaping, design): 19.59%
Insurance: 16.69%
Legal Services: 17.80%
Manufacturing and Distribution: 14.29%
Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations: 12.40%
Other: 12.13%
Nonprofit: 21.62%
Personal Services (e.g., dry cleaning, photography, housekeeping): 16.70%
Professional Services: 14.30%
Publishing: 15.51%
Real Estate: 13.42%
Religious Organization: 29.42%
Restaurant, Bar, Cafe, Caterer: 14.71%
Retail (e.g., brick and mortar, online): 11.04%
Salon, Spa, Barber (e.g., nails, tanning): 14.26%
Technology (e.g. web developer): 12.44%
Transportation: 13.97%
Travel and Tourism (e.g., limo driver, tour guide, reservations): 15.02%
The Difference Between B2B and B2C Emails
There’s a slight difference in email open rates between B2B and B2C industries. According to the Data & Marketing Association’s 2019 Email Benchmarking Report, B2C emails average a 21.9% open rate. B2B emails get a lower open rate of 20.8%.
Email Open Rates Depend on the Type of Email
Email type also has an impact on open rates. According to reports by Experian, welcome emails have a mind-blowing 57.8% open rate, and transactional emails are even higher, averaging between 80–85% (Mailgun). This is important to note because many brands miss out on prime marketing opportunities by not taking advantage of transactional and welcome emails.
Improving Your Email Open Rates
If you have low email open rates, there are a few things you can do to improve them. The best part? This will have an effect on other aspects of your marketing campaigns, too. Let’s take a look at some tips you can use to improve email open rates, no matter your industry.
Craft Compelling Subject Lines
Your subject line plays an enormous role in getting email recipients to open your emails. Subject lines should grab readers’ attention and entice them to click on your email. This usually means using subject lines that pique curiosity or evoke emotion. Here are a few quick tips to improving your subject lines:
Keep it short
Include emoji
Use personalization
Add numbers
A/B test
Use Pre-header Text Strategically
Pre-header text is 3–140 characters that show up on some email clients under the subject line. Some don’t show them at all, so make sure your subject line and email work just as well without them, too. Since they’re so short, you’ll want to start your pre-header text with the most interesting information. Here are some tips to create compelling pre-header text:
Make it unique (don’t just repeat the subject)
Build curiosity instead of summarizing what’s in the email
Add a call to action
Improve Your Deliverability
Email deliverability is super important to all email marketers. High deliverability means that your emails are more likely to get to your recipients’ inboxes instead of getting relegated to spam or bouncing back. Here are some things you can do to make sure that your emails make it to the inbox:
Keep your email list clean
Use proper spelling and grammar
Make sure you’re in compliance with email marketing regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR
Include Valuable Content
If the only thing you ever do with your emails is to try to sell to your subscribers, they’re eventually going to stop opening your emails. That’s why it’s so important to include a mix of email types in your email marketing strategy and include content that’s educational, entertaining, and engaging for your subscribers. The more valuable your emails are to your readers, the more likely they are to open your emails.
Create Mobile-First Emails
According to Constant Contact, mobile devices account for 60% of email opens as of 2020. That’s a huge chunk of recipients you’ll miss out on if your emails aren’t at least mobile-friendly. Here’s how to make sure that your emails work well for mobile email users:
Use a single-column email template
Keep design and content short, sweet, and concise
Use size-appropriate fonts that are easy to read
Cut down on images
Use a single call to action
Personalize Your Emails
Personalization has been trending in email marketing for years, and with good reason: roughly 88% of marketers in the United States see measurable improvement in campaign performance thanks to personalization (Instapage). Here are some ways you can increase personalization and improve your email open rates:
Segment subscribers right away
Use subscribers’ names
Use dynamic content
Send emails in recipients’ time zones
Pay attention to the email data you have to find out what emails resonate
Wrapping Up
Email marketers always want to know how their campaigns and individual emails are performing and open rates are the first and most obvious indication that your marketing messages are resonating with your target audience. You can use the email open rates by industry to see how your own emails are performing, but we strongly encourage you to use those numbers as a goal and check your own email marketing data to establish a benchmark against which to measure your performance.
SUGGESTED
eMail Marketing
How to Write an Email That Will Actually Get Opened
One of the major appeals of email is its versatility. You can use it to communicate with…
eCommerce Platforms • eMail Marketing
Mailchimp
Overview If you were a grown adult in the early 90s, you likely had your mind blown when…
eMail Marketing
Top 12 Cold Email Marketing Software Tools for 2022
According to statistics, billions of people around the world use email to share and…
influencers-marketing-logo.png
Cookie PolicyPrivacy PolicyTerms & ConditionsAffiliate DisclaimerAbout UsContact Us
TikTok Engagement CalculatorInstagram CalculatorYouTube CalculatorLive Subscriber Count – YouTubeWikiGlossaryImage Resizer
Influencer Marketing PlatformsInfluencer Marketing AgenciesSocial Media Marketing PlatformsSocial Media AgenciesEmail Marketing SoftwareeCommerce Platforms
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines