22% of Marketing E-Mails are Opened, 6 percent Are Clicked
According to a recent report released by Epsilon, 94.1 percent of marketing e-mails were delivered in Q1 2009. Additionally, the quarter saw an open rate of 22.1 percent and a click-through rate of 6.1 percent.
The delivery rate reflected a slight decline from 94.4 percent in the previous quarter, while the open rate reflected an increase from the 20.9 percent in the previous quarter, and the click-through rate saw an increase from the 5.8 percent in the previous quarter.
Open rates varied by industry in North America, according to Epsilon. General financial services e-mails saw an open rate of 31.4 percent in Q1 2009, a marked increase from 25.6 percent in the same quarter last year.
General business products and services saw the second highest open rate at 29.1 percent in the first quarter, followed by credit card and banks with an open rate of 27.4 percent. Pharmaceutical consumer products saw an open rate of 26.6 percent, while general nonprofit/education e-mails saw an open rate of 24.3 percent.
Click-through rates also varied depending on the industry. Consumer packaged goods saw the highest click-through rate at 9.7 percent in Q1 2009, an uptick from 9.3 percent in the same quarter last year.
General financial services saw a click-through rate of 7.8 percent, while pharmaceutical consumer products saw a click-through rate of 7.6 percent.
General consumer products saw a 7.5 percent click-through rate, followed by telecom consumer services with 6.8 percent, general consumer publishing/media with 6.5 percent and general business products and services with 6.4 percent.
“Consumers are savvier than ever and e-mail inboxes are often oversaturated,” the report noted.
Kevin Mabley, senior vice president of strategic services at Epsilon, added, “Coming off of the holiday season and facing a challenging economy at the start of the year, email marketing continues to perform well and provide stable results. The clients who continue to see strong results are those that segment their subscriber base and deliver timely, relevant information. Likewise, more companies are using triggers and transactions to drive highly targeted messages and these companies tend to outperform their peers.”
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