Every time we build a new email campaign, we hope that it will be our best ever. Such high expectations make sure we keep on improving and delivering for our clients.
Recently, Omnisend carried out a study based on its customer data. In addition to many interesting insights on email marketing behavior, we highlighted the email marketing campaigns that performed best in terms of open rate, click rate and conversion rate metrics. I bet you are interested in seeing them right away!
Before we start
All bulk email marketing campaigns have the same general metrics according to which we measure how successful they are. These metrics allow us to evaluate different aspects of a campaign. What does each metric indicate?
The open rate indicates several things. First, how engaged with a brand a customer is, do they wait for the newsletter, etc. In other words, how healthy a contact list is.
The second thing is how well we have picked the subject line for a particular email campaign. Has the subject line succeeded in getting the customer’s attention to open the email?
A good subject line is the key to improving email performance. It has a direct influence on the rest of the campaign. Companies with hundreds of thousands of subscribers use A/B testing to decide on the subject line. This method is not suitable for smaller contact lists. As an alternative, Omnisend’s clients often use Campaign Booster to improve the open rates of their campaigns.
The click rate shows how well your email has been built. The most important factors include a mobile-friendly email design, big and well-placed call-to-action buttons, nice visuals and catchy copywriting.
The conversion rate is perhaps the most interesting metric for businesses. It tells us whether the email was relevant, whether we chose the right incentives for customers to make purchases and what revenue we end up with. Also, the online store itself has a big influence on the conversion rate. If your offer in the email was great but the customer had technical issues at the checkout, it may affect your conversion rate.
You may also be interested in the email marketing benchmarks of ecommerce in the market.
The most recent Smart Insights report claims that the average open rate in ecommerce is 16.78%, the average click rate is 3.07%, and the average conversion rate is 0.17%. The data of individual email service providers differs slightly, but these numbers can be accepted as averages rates.
The 7 Best Email Marketing Campaigns*
* For this post I have selected email marketing campaigns that have performed the best over all the above criteria. This means that from the campaigns with the highest open rate, campaigns with the highest conversion rate were selected. I am also adding a few campaigns that performed well only in one single criterion.
The following are the seven best email marketing campaigns between March 2015 and April 2016. They are introduced in random order.
#1 Les Laines Biscotte
Products: knitted handicrafts Number of Subscribers: 5000-10000 Open Rate: 45.07% Click Rate: 20.28% Conversion Rate: 11.22% Subject Line: Gratuit: faites vite! (translation to EN: Free: hurry!) Sent: December 29, 2015 Email:
Unfortunately, my French is poor, but I hope I understand this email correctly. I find this email very positive because of its tone of voice and colors. The offer is “Free shipping on orders +$100”. You may also order a pair of knitted socks as a gift for your order. In the end, the Les Laines Biscotte team jokes about safe knitting and wishes a good year to all its customers. It seems that this is a good year for the online store as well.
#2 Little Lace Box
Products: Cosmetics, Small Design Pieces Number of Subscribers: 1000-5000 Open Rate: 44.51% Click Rate: 9.17% Conversion Rate: 4.49% Subject Line: Serendipity Is Now For Sale Sent: September 16, 2015 Email:
This online store sends text-heavy emails. Its subscribers know about it and read them with great pleasure. Otherwise, this email would not be among the best performing campaigns, right?
#3 Luxire for Men
Products: men’s clothing Number of Subscribers: 1000-5000 Open Rate: 50.57% Click Rate: 24.02% Conversion Rate: 3.39% Subject Line: Big Thanks Giving Sale 2015 Sent: November 21, 2015 Email:
This email was sent to coincide with the biggest sales of the year, when the interest of customers is extremely high. However, the competition in inboxes at these times is also tremendous. The high open rate indicates a fresh and healthy contact list. It seems that the Luxire for Men online store has highly engaged with its customers who notice its email even among all the others. The conversion rate shows that the many different discount offers found their audience. A great decision!
#4 Deny Designs by Little Lace Box
Products: Home Accessories, Household products Number of Subscribers: 1000-5000 Open Rate: 80.60% Click Rate: 82.60% Conversion Rate: 2.83% Subject Line: LLB Code For Deny Designs Sent: February 12, 2016 Email:
Little Lace Box baffles because it seems to have great luck with long emails. There is a tendency for short and visual emails to work best, but Little Lace Box bucks this trend. Customers read their text heavy emails! Perhaps it is worth trying if your contact list is very much engaged with you as in this case.
#5 Grey Haze
Products: e-liquids Number of Subscribers: 20000-30000 Open Rate: 59.3% Click Rate: 26.99% Conversion Rate: 2.55% Subject Line: A thank you from team GH! Sent: March 30, 2015 Email:
The open rate of this email is great. Showing gratitude for customers in the subject line has worked – almost 60% of recipients opened the email.
Inside the email, Grey Haze put the main offer at the top to catch the customer’s attention right away in order that he/she opens it. In general, this brand uses a lot of visuals in its email campaigns. However, some call-to-action buttons would make the email look more structured and free shipping would help achieve more conversions.
#6 Code-3 Vapor
Products: e-liquids Number of Subscribers: 1000-5000 Open Rate: 40.03% Click Rate: 35.85% Conversion Rate: 9.55% Subject Line: Code-3 Vapor Halloween Sale Going on Now!! Sent: October 29, 2015 Email:
This email performance is great. The email campaign itself is professional looking with a clear structure – the main offer at the top, clear call-to-action buttons, and a clear list of products. In comparison to the previous email, we see that free shipping really helps to increase the conversion rate.
#7 Your Email Campaign
I hope your email campaign will be among the best!
Conclusion
In the majority of the above email marketing campaigns we can see a clear human touch and feel a person behind the email – they do not seem like corporate campaigns.
Perhaps the main advantage of being a small business is that you can have highly engaged and “fresh” subscribers and immediately communicate with them.
Use Omnisend’s Features For Free and supercharge your next email campaign!
Karolina is a writer, content marketer, and email enthusiast at Omnisend. When she's not curating articles, you can find her in the woods challenging herself in hiking boots or off-roading her bike.
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