Emails from associations are being opened less often even while experiencing higher click rates, according to a new report, suggesting that there are more opportunities for associations to improve personalization and calls to action.

The 2024 Association Email Benchmark Report, released last month by the technology firm Higher Logic, is based on data from more than two billion emails sent by more than 1,500 associations in 2023 and 2024. According to the report, average open rates fell to 35.6 percent last year, compared to 38.2 percent in 2023. Click rates, meanwhile, grew to 3.7 percent last year, up from 2.7 percent in 2023.

According to the study’s authors, the movement highlights associations’ needs to deliver more targeted and meaningful messages, especially as members say they receive too many emails. “With so many emails hitting your contacts’ inboxes, it’s important to approach your communication strategy with a mind toward avoiding email fatigue,” the report says. “Ensure you’re providing personalized value to your contacts when you hit send—blasting everything to everyone will make recipients check out (or worse, register a spam complaint).”

To avoid that fate, the report makes a number of suggestions about improving email engagement. For instance, the report found that email subject lines under 9 characters lead to the highest open rates, while subject lines under 50 characters enjoy above-average open rates. Similarly, emails between 400 and 2,000 words have the highest click rates.

Blasting everything to everyone will make recipients check out (or worse, register a spam complaint).

Segmenting and personalizing emails help, but according to the report, it may be time for email marketers to freshen up their approaches. “When personalizing subject lines, ‘First Name’ is old news (and now sometimes decreases open rates),” the report says. “Consider, instead, incorporating the recipient’s job title, company name, or industry.”

The report also emphasizes the value of “social proof” in messages—testimonials and endorsements that stress that fellow members and stakeholders are promoting an association as much as the association itself is. “Things like customer testimonials or user–generated content can help build trust and credibility,” the report says. “Seeing that others have benefited from your products or services can encourage clicks.”

The report notes that email marketers are making more use of generative AI in developing content for email campaigns, but suggests that its applications could be broader. For instance, it can help predict members’ future actions based on their previous activities; can automate “tasks such as segmentation, content creation, and A/B testing”; and provide real-time data analytics, allowing marketers to adjust campaigns as needed. 

Though getting recipients to click through to a website is often the goal, the report also suggests that markets look into “zero-click marketing,” delivering needed information and content directly to improve engagement.

“Incorporating some zero-click tactics into your email strategy can enhance engagement by delivering valuable insights and information directly within an email rather than requiring recipients to click away,” the report says. “That might look like periodically sending out a newsletter that includes just concise summaries or actionable tips within the email itself to build stronger relationships with your audience.”

[istock/Thawatchai Chawong]