• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 29, 2020

Promotional email open rates have jumped during the COVID-19 pandemic, averaging 18.2% in March and 19.4% in April and then sliding to 18% in May, according to the 2020 Covid-19 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, a study by Acoustic, a marketing cloud platform.   

In contrast, the average open rate was 14.8% in January. 

Globally, there was a 4.7% increase in rates from February to April and a 5.4% increase in North America. 

Acoustic analyzed email marketing messages sent by its clients from January 1 through May 31. These included promotional messages but not transactional or triggered emails.  

Among verticals, 58.3% of transportation companies pulled an almost 60% hike in open rates — to 30% — from February to March.

Financial services firms were next, generating a 35.4% increase to 18% during that one-month period. Hospitals and healthcare providers rose by 3.7% to 34.5%. But the energy and environment field pulled the highest open rate: 48.4%, with a 32.1% boost. 

Open rates also varied by region from January to May, averaging 16.8% overall:  

• Continental Europe — 23.8%
• United Kingdom & Ireland — 23.4% 
• Australia & New Zealand — 21.9%
• Latin America & Caribbean — 17.3%
• North America — 16.5%
• Middle East & Africa — 15.9%
• Asia-Pacific — 15.2%
• India — 7.3% 

Overall, click-through rates fell to 7.5% in March, them jumped back to 9.3%, the average for January.

The study attributes the March plummet to the fact that brand were brands were communicating their COVID-19 policies with lengthy emails from their CEOs. These contained few links and no CTAs, the study states.

The big change came in April, when companies moved to more action-oriented emails.

Click-through rates averaged 1.47% overall, with these regional differences:

• Continental Europe — 2.94% 
• United Kingdom & Ireland — 2.56%
• Australia & New Zealand — 1.84%
• North America — 1.42% 
• Middle East & Africa — 1.29%
• Asia-Pacific — 1.17%
• Latin America & Caribbean — 1.03%
• India — 0.15% 

Europe also had the highest click-to-open rate ratio, surpassing the overall 8.74% average:  

• Continental Europe — 12.36% 
• United Kingdom & Ireland — 10.94%
• North America — 8.59% 
• Australia & New Zealand  —8.38%
• Middle East & Africa — 8.10%
• Asia-Pacific—7.67%
• Latin America & Caribbean — 5.97%
• India — 2.10% 

And despite claims on social media that they are opting out of emails, the unsubscribe rates were relatively low during April and May, averaging 0.064% overall:  

• Middle East & Africa — 0.075%
• North America — 0.073%
• Australia & New Zealand — 0.068%
• Continental Europe — 0.059% 
• Latin America & Caribbean — 0.044% 
• Asia-Pacific — 0.035% 
• India — 0.031%

The report speculates that reduced volume may account for lower unsubscribe rates.