According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB), which fielded a survey to compare e-mail marketing effectiveness in Canada with campaigns originating south of the border in the US, Canada is a leader in e-mail delivery, open and click-through rates.
Looking at averages over the three types of newsletter lists and over three years (2003-2005), the survey pegged Canadian delivery rates at nearly 93%, open rates at 55% and click-through rates over 8%.
"All firmly establish Canada as a leader in the industry," said Paula Gignac, president of the IAB Canada. "Individual results provide even stronger proof, and highlight Canada's heightened customer receptiveness and interaction — making e-mail an integral part of any smart marketer's overall strategy this year."
It is worth noting that nothing in the IAB release goes the next step, and really compares the Canadian rates to US numbers.
Data on e-mail delivery rates by industry in the US, presented by Bronto last fall, showed rates somewhat higher than the IAB 93% number. In fact, though it did not include general consumers, as the IAB numbers presumably did, the weighted average deliver rate across the industry categories was 95.5% — 2.5% higher than the Canadian rate.
On the other hand, though the data is not as fresh, from 2002 to 2004 DoubleClick found that US e-mail marketing delivery rates were usually only in the high-80% range.
Open rates were also below the IAB Canadian numbers, while click-through rates were about the same.
No matter what the average figures are, and whether marketing in Canada or the US — or anywhere else in the world, for that matter — the only delivery, open and click-through numbers that really matter are the ones for each individual campaign. And depending on such variables as list quality, target group, creative execution and offer — even time of day or day of week — the results can vary wildly.