1. Top Performers by Open Rate

The industry with the highest email marketing open rate is “Animal Care and Veterinary”, with an impressive average open rate of 45.79%. This value is 1.22x the average open rate of all industries (37.25%) and is 1.79x the average open rate of the Finance industry, which accounts for the lowest open rate value.
Among the top 10 industries by Average Open rate, with Animal Care and Veterinary there are:
**Animal Care and Veterinary: 45.79%**
**Faith and Religion:** 43.95%
**Government:** 43.75%
**Charities and Nonprofits:** 42.87%
**Agriculture and Food Services:** 41.16%
**Photography and Video:** 40.59%
**Restaurant:** 40.28%
**Sports:** 39.58%
**Medical, Dental, and Healthcare:** 39.57%
**Politics:** 39.35%
These industries account for the highest open rates in email marketing. All these industries are above all industries average of 37.25%, being the best performing sectors in email marketing campaigns.

**Factors Driving High Open Rates in Top Industries**
Open rates in email marketing are influenced by a mix of industry-specific dynamics, audience expectations, and content strategies. Here are some key drivers that may explain why certain industries, like Animal Care and Veterinary or Faith and Religion, achieve above-average open rates:
**1. Audience Engagement and Emotional Connection**
Industries like **Animal Care and Veterinary** and **Charities and Nonprofits** often tap into emotional connections. For example, animal lovers or donors to nonprofit causes are more likely to open emails if they believe the content resonates with their values and passions.
**2. Regular, Valuable Updates**
Sectors such as **Government** and **Politics** frequently communicate information that affects people’s lives or keeps them informed on crucial changes, from policy updates to new regulations. This perceived value can drive higher open rates as readers anticipate valuable information.
**3. Educational Content**
**Medical, Dental, and Healthcare** emails often provide essential health information, educational content, or appointment reminders, which are highly relevant to subscribers. When recipients expect timely, helpful tips or news, they’re more likely to engage with email content.
**4. Customer Loyalty and Frequency**
For industries like **Agriculture and Food Services** and **Restaurants**, loyal customers might be drawn to frequent promotions, recipes, or exclusive offers, maintaining high engagement. Similarly, **Photography and Video** emails may appeal to audiences looking for visual inspiration, tutorials, or new product launches.
**5. Seasonality and Special Occasions**
Industries such as **Faith and Religion** can capitalize on holiday seasons and other important dates to engage audiences. Special messages, greetings, or event reminders can drive a surge in open rates during certain times of the year.

2. Click Rate by Industry and Key Performance Drivers

The click rate is a critical measure of engagement in email marketing, representing the percentage of recipients who click on links within an email. The average click rate across industries is 2.7%, with Government leading at 4.23%, followed closely by Media at 4.07%.

Here’s why these industries may perform better than others and how certain strategies can increase click rates:

1. High Relevance and Timeliness

Government emails often contain essential updates, links to public services, or information on policy changes. Since these emails often provide crucial resources or next steps, recipients are more likely to click through for further details. People rely on these communications for important, timely information, driving up click rates.

2. Content Variety and Visual Appeal

Media industry emails frequently offer a variety of clickable content, from news articles to video links and live event promotions. This variety caters to different audience interests and encourages exploration. Additionally, media companies often excel at creating visually compelling emails that draw the eye toward clickable elements.

3. Action-Oriented Messaging

Government and Media emails often contain clear calls-to-action (CTAs) that encourage recipients to "Learn More," "Read the Full Story," or "Access Services." These CTAs make the next steps obvious and compelling, which helps improve click-through rates.

4. Audience Interest in In-Depth Information

Recipients of Government and Media emails are often actively seeking in-depth information. For example, individuals receiving government emails may be looking to understand policy impacts or find more detailed guidance. Likewise, media consumers may click through to dive deeper into stories, watch videos, or explore specialized content.

5. Engagement-Driven Content Types

Media outlets, in particular, leverage content types designed for high engagement, such as breaking news alerts, exclusive interviews, and interactive polls. These types of content naturally invite readers to take action, which can significantly boost click rates.

3. Unsubscribe Rate by Industry and Key Retention Drivers

The unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of email recipients who opt out of receiving further messages, indicating whether the content remains valuable and relevant to the audience. The average unsubscribed rate across industries is 0.24%, with Government leading as the best-performing sector at only 0.11%. Other low-unsubscribe sectors include Public Relations, Faith and Religion, and Media.

In the top 10 best performing industries by unsubscribe rate, over than government, there are:

Public relations: 0.123%
Faith and Religion: 0.15%
Media: 0.15%
Telecommunications: 0.153%
Business and Finance: 0.16%
Charities and Nonprofit: 0.167%
Politics: 0.18%
Games: 0.187%
Ecommerce: 0.188%

Here are some factors that contribute to these low unsubscribe rates and how other industries might achieve similar results:

1. High-Value, Relevant Content

Industries like Government and Public Relations often provide information that audiences find essential or professionally valuable, such as policy updates, news releases, and community information. Because these updates are highly relevant, recipients are less likely to unsubscribe.

2. Emotional and Community Connection

Faith and Religion and Charities and Nonprofit sectors benefit from a strong sense of community and shared purpose. Subscribers often feel a personal or moral commitment to these messages, leading to lower unsubscribe rates as they continue engaging with content that resonates with their beliefs or values.

3. Personalized and Targeted Content

Sectors like Media and Telecommunications often use data-driven strategies to deliver personalized content. When subscribers receive updates on topics of interest, they’re more likely to remain engaged, reducing unsubscribe rates. By continuously refining their targeting, these industries keep content relevant and valuable.

4. Professional Engagement and Career Relevance

Business and Finance and Public Relations emails often serve professional needs, providing updates, insights, and networking opportunities relevant to subscribers' careers. Because the information supports career growth or industry awareness, subscribers are less likely to unsubscribe.

5. Subscription Expectations and Transparency

Industries like Ecommerce and Games tend to set clear expectations about the types of content subscribers will receive, such as promotional offers, updates on new products, or special events. This transparency, along with targeted messaging based on past purchases or game preferences, contributes to low unsubscribe rates.

How Industries Can Minimize Unsubscribe Rates

To emulate the success of these top industries, businesses can focus on delivering highly relevant, value-driven content that resonates emotionally or professionally with their audiences. Additionally, transparency about email frequency and content types, along with personalization, can help maintain long-term subscriber engagement and reduce unsubscribe rates effectively.

4. Bounce Rate by Industry

The average bounce rate across all industries email marketing campaigns is 1%. The variance in this metric is high. The industry that faces the highest bounce rate in email marketing campaigns is Technology, with an average bounce rate of 6.1%, followed by Finance with 4.72% and Manufacturing with 2.17%.

On the other hand, the best-performing industry by bounce rate is Ecommerce, which makes sense given its strong focus on list hygiene and targeting. Ecommerce businesses frequently clean their email lists, removing inactive subscribers and invalid addresses to ensure messages reach active, engaged recipients. Additionally, Ecommerce companies often rely on transactional emails (like order confirmations and shipping updates), which are less likely to bounce due to the regular verification of customer contact information. This attention to detail in maintaining high-quality email lists helps Ecommerce businesses keep bounce rates exceptionally low compared to other industries.

5. Email marketing performance by Industry

In analyzing email marketing performance across industries, we can segment industries based on their average open and click rates, allowing us to identify which sectors excel and which face challenges. By plotting these metrics on a scatter plot—with the x-axis representing open rates and the y-axis representing click rates—we get a clear view of how each industry performs in terms of both attention capture and engagement. The chart divides into four key sections, each representing a different level of effectiveness in email marketing:

Upper Right (High Open Rate, High Click Rate): "High Engagement Leaders"
- These industries excel in both capturing attention and driving action, indicating strong email strategy and audience relevance.

Lower Right (High Open Rate, Low Click Rate): "Attention-Grabbers"
- These industries effectively get recipients to open emails but may need to improve content relevance or calls-to-action to increase click-throughs.

Upper Left (Low Open Rate, High Click Rate): "Niche Converters"
- Though they reach a smaller audience, these industries are highly effective in engaging and converting those who do open their emails.

Lower Left (Low Open Rate, Low Click Rate): "Engagement Challenged"
- (These industries may struggle with both capturing attention and driving action, indicating potential areas for improvement in both targeting and content strategy.)

6. Email Marketing Performance Index (EMPI)

The Email Marketing Performance Index (EMPI) is a comprehensive score designed to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of email marketing strategies across different industries. Built on four key metrics—open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounce rate—this index standardizes each metric to a 0-1 scale and combines them into a single, balanced score. An industry with an EMPI score close to 1 indicates strong email marketing performance, while scores closer to 0 highlight areas needing improvement.

How the EMPI is Constructed

Each of the four metrics in the EMPI reflects an important aspect of email marketing success:

Open Rate: Measures the percentage of recipients who open an email, indicating the email’s initial appeal and relevance to subscribers.
Click Rate: Tracks the percentage of recipients who click on links within an email, reflecting engagement and the email’s ability to drive action.
Unsubscribe Rate: Indicates the percentage of recipients opting out of the mailing list, with lower rates suggesting that subscribers find value in the content.
Bounce Rate: Measures the percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered, with lower rates indicating better list quality and deliverability.

Each metric is normalized to a 0-1 range for consistency:

Open Rate and Click Rate are normalized so that higher values score closer to 1.
Unsubscribe Rate and Bounce Rate are inverted, meaning lower values score closer to 1.

The EMPI is then calculated as the average of these normalized values, equally weighing each metric to ensure a balanced view.

Why the EMPI is Important

The EMPI provides a holistic view of email marketing effectiveness across industries, capturing multiple facets of performance. This standardized index allows businesses to benchmark their email marketing against industry averages, revealing strengths and areas needing improvement. By consolidating critical engagement and list quality indicators, the EMPI enables a clearer understanding of what makes a successful email marketing campaign.

What It Means to Outperform the Industry Average

For an industry that scores higher than the average EMPI across all industries, this indicates excellence in both list management and audience engagement:

High open and click rates suggest the industry is adept at capturing attention and driving action, possibly through relevant content, effective subject lines, and well-timed messages.
Low unsubscribed and bounce rates imply that the industry maintains high-quality email lists and delivers content that consistently meets subscriber expectations.

Outperforming the industry average means that an industry’s email strategies are highly effective at reaching and engaging audiences. This competitive edge in email marketing could lead to greater customer retention, higher conversion rates, and more successful overall campaigns. The EMPI, therefore, serves as both a performance benchmark and a roadmap for continuous improvement in email marketing strategies.

How 150 Growth Helps Companies Outperform the Industry Average

At 150 Growth, we build newsletter systems designed to outperform every benchmark in this report. Our clients consistently see open rates above 45%, click-through rates more than 2× the industry average, and unsubscribe rates below 0.1%. The reason is simple: we don’t just send newsletters — we engineer growth engines. From audience research and list development to deliverability optimization and performance tracking, every part of the system compounds toward scale.

If you want to see how your newsletter can reach and engage beyond your industry average, book a call with our team. We’ll walk you through the exact process we use to help leading companies grow faster, convert better, and build real authority through newsletters.

Inside the Inbox: How Leading Industries Win with Newsletters