Email click-through rates have dropped across all industries since 2022 amid the surge in machine-generated opens and lack of marketer maturity in marketing automation, according to a survey from self-service marketing automation provider, Deployteq.

With data parsed from four billion email messages sent in the Netherlands and the UK across 2022 and 2023, the firm’s Email Benchmarking Report 2024 revealed click-through rates have experienced a decline of 0.31% since 2022, reaching an average of 3.16%, compared to 2022, where click-through rates peaked at 3.38%.

The data revealed that the government and industrial and production industries have the highest success, with regards to click-through rate with government at 10.67% and industrial and production at 7.76%. Compared to click to open where the industrial and production industry is the most successful industry at 21.91%, with government significantly behind at 12%.

The difference between click-through rate (CTR) and click-to-open rate (CTOR) lies in their focus and calculation methods. CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on a specific link or ad out of the total number of people who saw it, providing insight into the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns. On the other hand, CTOR measures the percentage of people who clicked on a link out of the total number of people who opened an email, offering insight into the engagement level of email recipients.

Machine-generated opens refer to instances where an email is opened not by a human recipient, but by automated processes or bots. These openings can skew email engagement metrics, as they are not indicative of genuine human interest or interaction with the email content.

With this in mind, the report suggests that marketers need to work harder in order to improve click through rates and keep subscribers engaged. More emails means more competition and marketers should be turning to their technology to deliver better data-driven automation, personalisation and innovation to ensure their content is useful, relevant and timely

The report also showed a dip in the click to open rates over 2023, dipping from its highest point of 5.9% to 4.7% in August and restabilising at 5.7%. While these statistics show a dip, this is a rather large decrease from the average click to open rate of 2022 at 7.3%, with 2023 average reaching 5.3%, with Deployteq positing that this drop can be attributed to the surge in machine-generated opens since the end of 2021.

Recommended reading

• 72% of UK Marketers to Embrace AI Despite an Unpreparedness
• Exploitation of GenAI a Stark Concern for IT Experts
• AI Solutions are Driving the Growth of the FemTech Sector

Pauline Buil, marketing director for  Deployteq, part of Inspired Thinking Group said: “It’s great to see the continued growth of email as a key channel in the marketer’s armoire over the last year. With a huge uptick in the volume of messages sent we can see production is at an all time high.

“However, an increase in campaigns can sometimes go hand in hand with a drop in quality. The data this year shows us that marketers have to pay real attention to the personalisation and relevancy of their communications. It is also important for marketers to acknowledge the limitations of open rate and click to open rate as a sole metric of success and concentrate on creating comprehensive strategies.”

“Email marketing extends beyond sales. It’s about delivering value to customers and enhancing brand awareness. Marketers need to find precise methods to accurately measure the success of their outreach, ensuring consumers are catered to during the uncertain economic situation.”