• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 28, 2019

Law firms have improved their email deliverability in the wake of GDPR. So have financial services providers and consultancies.

But overall email results depend on the country and business sector, according to A Deep Dive Into Email Marketing Performance in Legal and Processional Services Organisations, a global study by Concep. 

Concep analyzed 186 million emails sent over 144,000 campaigns delivered throughout 2018. It saw an increase in volume — from 122 million emails in 83,000 campaigns to 186 million emails sent in 144,000 campaigns.

Post-GDPR, email deliverability rose by 0.58% to an average of 97.04%. Open rates rose by 2.93% to 35.25% and click rates improved by 0.04% to 4.26%.

However, click rates fell by 0.24% to 4.25%, and there was a 1.49% drop in the click-to-open rates to 12.16%. The average opt-out rate fell to 0.16%. 

In Europe, GDPR led to a 1.14% increase in deliverability to 97.62% and a 1.42% rise in open rates to 30.77%.

European firms are sending 16% less email.

In North America, deliverability increased by 1.18%, yet there were declines in the open rate, click rate and click-to open rate -- the latter by 2.11%. Still, North American firms in this space are sending 70% more email post-GDPR, and opt-out rates have declined by 0.06% to 0.08%.

The Asia-Pacific region saw a 0.38% post-GDPR decline in average deliverability to 0.38%. Its open rate jumped, but other metrics went down. 

The financial services sector takes the gold this year with the best deliverability rate (97.78%), open rate (51.875), and click rate (5.77%). However, it saw a 3.68% falloff in its click-to-open rate to 11.12%. 

The consulting sector, which enjoys a 40.85% open rate, is “bucking the trend of a downward shit in click to Open Rate,” with a 1.3% hike to 12.86%, the report states.

Meanwhile, the legal field has seen increases in all metrics, including a 1.29 hike in the open rate to 29.16% an a 1.09 improvement in the click-to-open rate to 14.23%. The latter is the high for this year.

The report attributes such increases to "the effort being made in law firms and financial services firms to improve data quality."

The “Other” category, firms that do not fit into the other sectors, also enjoys a 14.23% click to open rate. And it has seen increases across the board.

The real estate industry fares the worst. Although its deliverability rose by 2.01% to 97.11% and its opt-out rate has fallen by 0.19% to 0.10%, it has suffered a 3.81% hit in its open rate, a .95% drop in click rate and a 2.06% decline in click-to-opens.

Concep speculates that “perhaps their decentralized structure means they have a wider variety of email practices combined with a focus on business development rather than on content or creating trusted advisors.”

What’s working in email?

The study found that personalized fields in the subject line produce much lower open rates than non-personalized lines: 40.56% versus 98.56%. But they generate higher click-to-open rates (15.61% versus 11.68%).

Question marks in the subject lines pull lower open rates but higher click-to-open rates.

In another finding, Concep reports that 16.53% of firms divided their subject lines with a | or pike. The pike produces lower open and click rates but a higher click-to-open (12.21%) rate compared with 11.69%). 

When’s the best day to send? Here are the open rate stats: 

Oddly for B2B, Sunday produces the highest open rates: 

• Sunday — 3 7.64% 
• Monday — 35.01%
• Tuesday — 30.24% 
• Wednesday — 31.01% 
• Thursday — 31.09% 
• Friday — 29.21%
• Saturday — 28.75%