Average Email Click-to-Open Rate Twice as High on Desktops as on Mobiles

August 20, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

B2B | Connected Device Comparisons | Digital | Email | Financial Services | Mobile Phone | Pharma & Healthcare | Travel & Hospitality

Yesmail-Email-CTO-by-Industry-and-Device-in-Q2-Aug201349% of email opens happen on a mobile device, says Yesmail Interactive [download page] in a new study examining more than 5 billion emails it sent during Q2. But while mobile opens become increasingly widespread, interaction levels on mobile devices lag comparable rates on desktops by a considerable margin. In fact, across 11 industries analyzed, the click-to-open (CTO) rate for emails opened on desktops was roughly double the rate for those opened on mobile devices (22.6% vs. 11.1%).

The gap was particularly high for the financial services (10.8% desktop; 2% mobile), marketing and advertising (11.7% desktop; 3% mobile), B2B (21% desktop; 7% mobile), and technology (11.5% desktop; 4% mobile) verticals. By contrast, the consumer services industry saw more similar rates (30.4% desktop; 19% mobile). Healthcare marketers enjoyed the highest desktop CTO rate (41.6%), and were narrowly edged out for the highest mobile CTO rate (18%).

The gap in rates suggests that “marketers are missing an opportunity to effectively engage with customers who interact on a mobile device,” according to the researchers.

Looking at email viewership preferences by industry, healthcare saw the largest share (52%) of users relying solely on desktops for opening emails, with B2B (49%) next. Interestingly, B2B had the highest share of mobile-only users (48%), with only 3% classified as hybrid users (viewing emails on both desktop and mobile interchangeably without a commitment to one over the other).

Overall, roughly one-third of users could be classified as “hybrid.” That indicates that a significant pool of consumers are device-agnostic, choosing convenience over device preference for email responses.

Other Findings:

  • The hospitality and travel industry had the largest share of hybrid users, at 38%.
  • 82% of mobile email activity belongs to Apple devices, according to the report, a finding that demonstrates an even greater iOS tilt than does recent research from Movable Ink. Yesmail attributes that skew to Apple dominating the tablet market, as well as differences in how Apple and Android reporting for images-off mode.
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