• by Ray Schultz , August 25, 2017

Email marketing click-through rates fell in the UK last year — to an average of 1.6%, compared with 1.8% in 2015, according to a study by eMarketer.

Open rates remained constant at 14.2%. But “engagement metrics — click-through and click-to-open rates — were down by low double digits compared with 2015,” eMarketer writes.

Click-to-open rates fell to 11% compared with 13.3% in 2015.

The reason could be a lack of compelling content, eMarketer says.

Travel marketers and utilities had the highest click and click-to-open rates Travel’s click-through rate was 2.4%, and its click-to-open rate was 11.2%.

Utilities did even better, with a 2.5% average click-through rate and a 16.6% click-to-open rate. 

“To add context, a large percentage of utilities emails sent are statements or bills, [and] as a result they generate a high open and click rate as customers click to check them,” states Jenna Tiffany, a member of the DMA email council’s research hub, according to eMarketer.

Tiffany adds: “Talking more generally, offers do still play a key part in B2C [business-to-consumer] email content, which typically drives higher open and click rates. This is especially true with more frequent purchases, unlike in B2B [business-to-business] where the purchase cycle is longer.”

The lowest rates were scored by the publishing, nonprofit and finance sectors.