Email Benchmarks, Writing Advice
The authority on mixternal comms
I’m back from a very restful week of visiting with family and exploring my new home state ☝️. Apparently everyone quietly quit while I was away…
Three Definitive(?) Comms Industry Email Benchmarks
Few topics generate more anxiety among us comms nerds than that of email open rates. Staring at our Excel sheets and fancy dashboards we can’t help but wonder, is that a good open rate? (It’s never good enough for the CEO who thinks everyone should read every email always.)
Contact Monkey, PoliteMail, and Poppulo have all published reports on email benchmarks this year. The companies use different methodologies and their own datasets, so reconciling their findings is as close as we can get to “industry benchmarks.”
Here are three high-level, reconciled stats. All numbers are averages and rounded:
Open rate: 65%
Click rate: 7%
Desktop v. mobile opens: 83% v 17%
Download the reports ☝️ if you want to go deeper into your industry or to glean extra insights into skimming vs reading or to bone up on best practices.
Truth is, the best email benchmarks are your own. Because of resources (people and technology) and company culture, no two companies are alike. Sofi and Credit Suisse may both be banks, but what goes on behind office walls and firewalls can be vastly different.
Measure your own open rates and engagement metrics, week after week after month after quarter after year. Rather than compare your output to your peers or industry, concentrate on improving your own metrics. That’s all that matters.
⚠️Remember: open and click rates are superficial metrics. Opening an email does not mean the employee absorbed the information or took the right action.
Combine the superficial metrics with better and deeper insights to get the clearest picture of whether your communications are having the intended effects.
👀 Why Superficial Statistics Are Important But Not Enough (Mister Editorial)
Quick Hits
🌙 “Let's say ‘good night’ both to ‘Quiet Quitting’ and ‘Disengagement.’” (Mike Klein, #WeLeadComms)
🔑 Making Internal Comms the Key Medium for PR (Adgully)
🎨 Seven Splendidly Creative Ideas to Pep Up Your Thinking [about internal comms] (H&H Comms)
📋 Apple employees are petitioning for flex work (Apple Together)
What They’re Saying
“I strongly recommend Innovation in Internal Communications! It leaves you with a head full of thoughts and ideas on how can you can introduce new ways of tackling innovations in your workplace.” — Internal comms pro and happy customer
Learn more about this mini-book … or 👇
Hiring
BNP Paribas - VP, Internal Comms and Content Sr. Mgr. for Global Markets Americas (phew!) (hybrid, NYC)
Habitat for Humanity - Director, Employee Comms (Georgia, U.S.A.)
Microsoft - Executive Communications & External Engagement Manager (hybrid, Dallas + 10 other locations)
Nike - Director, Global Employee Purpose Comms (Beaverton, OR)
Points to Nike for creating an innovative position
Advertising your open roles in Mister Editorial is free! Contact editorshaun@gmail.com to get started.
Writing Advice From the Founder of Politico and Axios
Jim VandeHei has founded two successful journalism companies and has crunched the numbers on reader habits, so you don’t have to. His TED talk is worth your time, even though you won’t learn the exact tactics his company Axios has trademarked. (You need to pay for that!)
In short, VandeHei says there are five things you need to do to be a writer who writes for the audience first:
Stop being selfish. That is, don’t be self-indulgent with your writing. (guilty! 🙋♂️)
Grab the reader’s attention. What’s the one thing you want the reader to take away?
Keep it simple.
Write like a human. Don’t show off. Write like you speak.
Use as few words and sentences as possible.
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I am the editor-in-chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research. The views in this newsletter are my own.