Email Engagement Report - Q1 2024

Every quarter, we compile email engagement stats from Omeda clients into one report so you can confidently evaluate your email strategy and plan next quarter’s new campaigns. This report analyzes data from about 1.7 billion emails sent through our platform during Q1 2024, honing in on open, click and click-through rates. 

Read on to see what’s driving engagement and conversions: 

Overall quarterly performance change  

• # of deployments: 1,710,396,652 (-7.87%) 
• Delivery rate: 98.77%, up from 98.72% in Q4 ‘23 (+0.05%) 
• Total open rate: 49.57%, up from 48.30% (+2.63%, +1.27%) 
• Unique open rate: 33.44%, up from 32.70% (+2.26% relative) 
• Total click rate:  2.57%, up from 2.19% (+17.25% relative) 
• Unique click rate: 1.65%, up from 1.41% (+17.02%) 
• Total CTR: 5.18%, up from 4.54% (+14.10% relative) 
• Unique CTR: 4.92%, up from 4.31% (+14.15% relative) 
• Unsubscribe rate: 0.112%, up from 0.106% (+5.66%) 
• Complaint rate:  0.005%, up from 0.002% (+150%) 

(Some methodology notes: All references to “click rate” and “click-through rate” in this report refer to the average unique click rate and CTR among all Omeda clients.) 

Last quarter, email engagement picked up in a big way — the average unique click rate increased by 6% and the unique open rate, with the unique open rate rising by 2.35% and unique CTR rising by 3.36%. 

Typically, a global rise in engagement one quarter is followed by a decrease the next. But we saw an even bigger increase in Q1 — the unique click rate went up by a notable 17% and the CTR rose by almost 15%. 

On its own, this isn’t surprising: For the last few years, we’ve seen email engagement drop in Q4 only to rebound in the following Q1. But we don’t usually see quarterly increases of this magnitude. So what’s behind this quarter’s rise? We think there are a few different factors at hand:

1. In February, Google and Yahoo began enforcing stricter anti-spam requirements that penalize bulk senders for sending unwanted emails and not honoring unsubscribe requests quickly enough. The new rules sparked concern among many senders and may have inspired our clients to clean their lists more often or aggressively than in previous quarters. 

   Our data bears this out: Our clients sent 7.7% fewer deployments in Q1 than Q4 ‘23. Sending volume decreased, but engagement increased, which makes us think that many of our clients cleaned their databases at the start of the New Year. Removing your least active subscribers naturally increases your engagement stats, which could explain some of this dramatic improvement.(Editor’s note: Google and Yahoo’s new requirements are actually less stringent than the guidelines we already provide to our clients. So in our initial coverage, we didn’t think the new rules would impact our clients’ deliverability in a meaningful way. And that’s borne out, as our clients’ delivery rates actually rose slightly quarter over quarter.)

2. In previous quarters, we’ve seen an inverse relationship between promotional email and newsletter performance: When the click rate for one category rises, the other falls, and vice versa. But this quarter, we saw big increases in both categories.The click rate for promotions rose by about 25% (from 0.71% to 0.89%) while the click rate for newsletters went up by about 10% (from 2.05% to 2.26%). Since these two categories make up the vast majority of deployments sent through Omeda, this alone had an outsize impact on our engagement rates.
3. There was renewed interest in webinars and virtual conferences in Q1 — the click rates for these subcategories rose by more than 30% each. Combined, their overperformance raised the category’s click and click-through rates by more than 30% each.

We’ll delve deeper into each category below. 

Performance by deployment type  

Events  

(Includes events, live conferences, virtual conferences and webinars)

• Unique open rate: 29.00% (+3.63%, up from 28.52% in Q4 2023)
• Unique click rate: 0.84% (+35.48%, up from 0.62%)
• Unique CTR: 2.90% (+32.42%, up from 2.19%)

In Q4, event-related email engagement dropped by about 10% (as measured by click rate and CTR). We attributed this to seasonality, as well as regression to the mean following a large increase the previous quarter. 

But performance picked up in Q1 2023, as the click rate and CTR each increased by more than 30%. At first, we attributed this to the promotion of spring conferences. But engagement for the events and live conference subcategories actually dropped quarter over quarter. 

Instead, we saw higher engagement for emails related to online events — clicks and click-throughs in the webinar and virtual conference subcategories each rose by more than 28% each. 

As always, this comes with a disclaimer: When you’re working with small numbers, relatively small increases and decreases will yield larger percentage changes than they would otherwise. But the sheer magnitude of this change still tells us that people are getting more interested in virtual events and webinars again — and that our clients are getting better at promoting and maintaining engagement with these kinds of events.

Events subcategory

• Unique open rate: 29.97% (-2.92%, down from 30.87%)
• Unique click rate: 0.80% (+8.11%, up from 0.74%) 
• Unique CTR: 2.67% (+11.25%, up from 2.40%)

Live conferences subcategory

• Unique open rate: 21.23% (-8.37%, down from 23.17%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.26% (+8.33%, up from 0.24%) 
• Unique CTR: 1.24% (+18.10%, up from 1.05%) 

Virtual conferences subcategory

• Unique open rate: 27.40% (+64.27%, up from 16.68%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.61% (+29.79%, up from 0.47%) 
• Unique CTR: 2.22% (-20.71%, down from 2.80%)

Webinar subcategory 

• Unique open rate: 29.23% (+4.73%, up from 27.91%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.99% (+65%, up from 0.60%) 
• Unique CTR: 3.38% (57.21%, up from 2.15%)

Misc Comms  

(Includes any communications that don’t fit into the other deployment categories) 

• Unique open rate: 32.71% (+1.24%, up from 32.31%) 
• Unique click rate: 1.06% (+20.45%, up from 0.88%)  
• Unique CTR: 3.24% (+18.25%, up from 2.74%) 

Surveys & Research  

(Includes reader service, research and surveys)  

• Unique open rate: 31.89% (+9.21%, up from 29.20%)  
• Unique click rate: 0.78% (-35%, down from 1.20%) 
• Unique CTR: 2.44% (-40.63%, down from 4.11%) 

In Q4, survey and research emails had a serious moment: The click rate and CTR for the category rose by 76% quarter over quarter, which we attributed to improved targeting, survey design, and timely seasonal content such as year-end reports and year-end recaps (inspired by Spotify Wrapped). 

We saw some regression to the mean in Q1 as the unique click and click-through rates dropped 35 and 40%, respectively. 

Newsletters 

(Includes digital magazines and newsletters)    

• Unique open rate: 34.83% (+2.86%, up from 33.86%)  
• Unique click rate: 2.26% (+10.24%, up from 2.05%) 
• Unique CTR: 6.50% (+7.62%, up from 6.04%) 

Newsletter click and click-through rates rose by 11.41% and 8.63%, respectively, in Q4 2023. We saw an even bigger spike this quarter as the click and click-through rates for this category rose by more than 7%. 

If you’ve been with us for a while, you’re probably not surprised: For the last three years, newsletter performance has peaked in Q1 before tapering throughout the next two quarters. So if your newsletter’s getting traction, don’t take your foot off the gas. Keep your audience engaged year-round with these tips: 

• Implement progressive profiling in your overall audience development strategy so you can gradually learn more about your audience as they continue to engage with you. So for example, you’d ask someone for their name and email on your email sign up form. Then when you send a gated ebook in your newsletter, you might include optional questions about job title and industry on the form. Repeat as needed so you can get the information you need to improve their experience — and keep them engaged long-term.
• Use your new email engagement data to create more precise audience segments. For more precise and personalized targeting, consider adding more dimensions to your segments (i.e., if you’re targeting all junior-level professionals who are interested in politics, consider using your click data to identify each individual’s interests, then create separate interest-based segments for public policy, law, etc., and combine them with your seniority segments.)
• Add polls to your sign-up flow to identify topics of interest, then create separate campaigns or newsletter editions for each interest. (That’s why we partner with CredSpark — learn more about our integration with CredSpark here!).
• Clean your list at least quarterly (if not monthly) to ensure you’re only messaging people that are likely to click, read, and continue to engage long term.
• If you’re an Omeda client, consider using content recommendations in email to automatically generate recommended articles to each reader based on their past engagement and browsing history (as well as behavior from similar audience members). Learn more about content recommendations here! 

Promotions 

(Includes advertiser promotion, audience promotion, marketing, third party and white papers)  

• Total deployments: 509,384,394 (-15.1%) 
• Unique open rate: 32.70% (+0.68%, up from 32.48%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.89% (+25.35%, up from 0.71%)
• Unique CTR: 2.73% (+24.09%, down from 2.20%)

The click rate and CTR for promotional emails each decreased by more than 10% in Q4 ‘23, which we attributed to the holiday lull and increased sending volume. 

But performance returned to the mean — and then some — in Q1. The click rate and CTR for this category each increased by about 25%. That’s particularly impressive given that our clients sent 15% fewer promotional emails in Q1 and the open rate stayed steady at about 32.7%. 

This is due to a few factors: 

• Improved targeting: Less is often more when it comes to email engagement. That was certainly the case in the promotional category this quarter, as sending volume was down 15%. We think that for the new year, in addition to cleaning their lists, many of our clients adjusted their targeting, reevaluated their offers, and created new audience segments. And as a result, they were able to run more successful campaigns while sending less emails. 
  

• Improved marketing performance: This quarter’s overperformance was driven by improvements in the “other promotional categories” subcategory, which includes advertiser promotion, audience promotion, and marketing emails. Last quarter, engagement for this subcategory went down by 15%, likely due to the holiday lull. This quarter, the click and click-through rates for this subcategory rose by almost 30%, which pulled up the overall average.
• Individual success factors: So why did these marketing emails bounce back in such a big way? Some of our most prolific senders saw major improvements this quarter: Four of our top senders (by volume) each increased their average click rate for promotional emails by anywhere from 8 to 51% percent. And together, their emails make up one-third of all promotional deployments sent on Omeda in Q1. It’s possible their overperformance pulled up the average for the entire category.
• Improved whitepaper performance: For the last few quarters, we’ve seen more and more engagement with whitepapers. That trend continued in Q1 — the click rate for this subcategory rose by another 32%, from 0.55% to 0.73%. Original, research-led content is one of the most sustainable ways to serve your audience and establish your credibility — and these findings continue to bear that out.
• Regression to the mean: Click rates and CTR for promotional emails each dropped by more than 10% in Q4 ‘23. An increase of this size can’t be explained entirely by regression to the mean. But taken in combination with list cleaning, improved targeting and segmentation, it could help explain why engagement rose so drastically quarter over quarter.  

All other promotional subcategories (advertiser promotion, audience promotion and marketing subcategories)

• Unique open rate: 32.84% (+0.58%, up from 32.63%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.94% (+30.56%, up from 0.72%) 
• Unique CTR: 2.85% (+28.96%, up from 2.21%) 

Whitepapers

• Unique open rate: 34.06% (+1.76%, up from 33.47%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.73% (+32.73%, up from 0.55%) 
• Unique CTR: 2.13% (+29.09%, up from 1.65%)

Third party 

• Unique open rate: 31.88% (+0.92%, up from 31.59%) 
• Unique click rate: 0.79% (+6.76%, up from 0.74%) 
• Unique CTR: 2.48% (+6.44%, up from 2.33%) 

Behind the scenes with Dan Oshinsky of Inbox Collective 

We can only tell you to use your first-party data and A/B test your subject lines so many times. So we turned to an expert: Dan Oshinsky, a consultant at Inbox Collective, who’s previously served as Director of Newsletters for Buzzfeed and The New Yorker. 

Since 2019, he’s been helping leading newspapers, non-profits and indie newsletters drive results through email. 

So we wanted to get his take on tactical tips on building strategy and maximizing engagement and what media operators might be missing. Here are some of the highlights and key takeaways from that conversation: 

You oversaw the newsletter division at Buzzfeed from 2014 to 2017. Obviously consumer media’s evolved a lot since then — and newsletters have become a lot more visible. How has the role of email changed since then? How have you adjusted your strategy and the way you work with clients in response? 

Ten years ago, publishers saw email as just another traffic source. 

“A dozen years ago, when I had conversations with folks at other orgs, they would say, ‘We need to grow, so maybe we should create a newsletter, as if a newsletter would magically make traffic appear. Now they’re more sophisticated. They know that we have to know our audience, we have to build a strong list and if we deliver for our audience, the monetization will follow.”  

But now, publishers are approaching email as a revenue driver in its own right. And they’re building their strategies more intentionally as a result.

“So many more publishers have invested in some sort of revenue model, whether it’s subscriptions strategies, memberships and donations,” Oshinsky says. “And I’ve realized that email is a core component, even the main component, to driving reader revenue for many orgs. They know that having a strong list will help them get revenue and growth.” 

In your consulting business, you stress the importance of knowing your audience. But tactically, how are you suggesting people do that? How did you approach this in your previous roles? 

“Usually, I tell teams that they’re trying to triangulate the right strategy between three different perspectives,” he says. That includes: 

• Internal team insights: “What does your team know about your audience? What are they seeing from their own experiences?” 
• Audience research: What does your audience say they want? Oshinsky recommends using surveys, direct conversions and other research tools to identify those topics. 
• Audience behavior: There’s a gulf between what people say they want and what they actually engage with and respond to, Oshinsky says. So combine direct audience feedback with empirical engagement data. 

There’s no single formula to create the perfect email strategy. But by combining these three elements, you can identify key topics, develop a voice and engage your audience.  

“We’re trying to pair what we know about what the audience does and what they say with internal insights. Somewhere in the middle is the right place for us to build engagement and launch products.”

It’s easy enough to get some one-time opens off a good A/B test. But sustainable, consistent engagement is the real challenge for a lot of operators. What are some engagement tactics that senders might overlook or not think to incorporate in their strategy? 

Oshinsky has a few suggestions, including:  

“Small things like polls within a newsletter are actually really effective.” he says. “It can be as simple as a thumbs up or thumbs down that leads to a simple survey.” 

He also recommends crowdsourcing content by asking questions in your emails and taking replies from readers. (Example: “What’s your favorite tool to use an email marketer? Reply to let us know!”)

But that comes with a caveat: “My rule is if you’re going to ask something, you should ask to learn,” Oshinsky says. “I’ve seen a number of individuals in an organization that ask questions [of readers] purely for deliverability purposes. They think that if we ask people to hit reply and they answer, that will magically fix our deliverability issues. But if you’re starting a conversation with people, and regularly replying to them, that’ll have an impact.” 

The most important thing is to start an open, two-way dialogue. “More and more organizations can get value from asking something to their audience,” Oshinsky says. “What do they trust? What do they care about? What do they know that you don’t? Ask the question and see if there’ll be some additional value for you.” 

What missed opportunities do you see in the email space?

Take advantage of your automations. Oshinsky recommends taking a closer look at your automations — your welcome emails, renewal emails, post-purchase emails, etc. They’re a key touchpoint for every organization, but most organizations overlook them in favor of subscription or lead generation campaigns. And they miss out on important engagement, activation opportunities as a result.”

“[Organizations] are sending out a great subscription strategy and then the automations are kind of an afterthought,” he says. “They’re put together at the last second and we have to send it when someone makes a purchase. But it’s a really important touchpoint for your audience.”

Run surveys to learn more about your audience. “Every org I talk to could do more to figure out what their audience cares about and build newsletters and products around that,” Oshinsky says.  

Don’t be afraid to add some personality. Oshinsky recommends taking a note from independent newsletter operators, who have been able to build, engage and monetize huge audiences on the strength of their personality.  “We’re seeing so many newsletters from the independent space where writers are putting their voice right there at the front,” he says. “So many legacy publishers could lean more into adding voice and personality into their newsletters and automations.”

 

Double down on personalization. Create curated, individualized experiences for your audience, whether it’s creating niched newsletters for specific audiences or target audience members one to one. 

“Launching products at specific audiences is a form of personalization, even if it’s not recommending five products based specifically on something you’ve told us,” he says. “Or you can drill down and say, we want to customize specifically for you. Either approach is OK. But I’d love to see more teams figure out their personalization strategy.” 

What does the outlook for newsletters look like for you? 

As you might expect, Oshinsky’s bullish on newsletters, especially for younger audiences. Referencing a session he teaches at City University of New York (CUNY), he says, “One student told me, ‘I’m 23 and what I realized was, when I went to college, I had to pay attention to my inbox because all my communications from my classmates and teachers were there. So I started signing up for newsletters since I was already there. My inbox became a really central space in my digital life.’” 

“Email has a ton of value and frankly across the news and media landscape, I don’t think we’ve come anywhere close to unlocking all the value we can get from email. There are more opportunities to optimize and improve newsletter products to whatever reader revenue model you have, drive subscriptions, and convert ads, etc.”