DMA: Retailers Pull Top E-mail Response

Retailers achieve the best response rates from e-mail campaigns — 1.8% — according to a report the Direct Marketing Association released at the net.marketing conference in Miami.

Following retail are travel marketers, with a 1.5% response rate, and financial services providers, with 1.1%.

Catalogs can expect 0.8% response from their customers, while publishing companies also get 0.8%. Computer and electronic marketers realize 0.4%.

Overall, the e-mail channel delivers about a 1% response rate.

“Increasingly, e-mail marketing campaigns are complementing other traditional direct marketing channels,” said DMA president H. Robert Wientzen in a statement.

The e-mail results are part of the DMA’s 2003 Response Rate Study: Direct and Interactive Marketing Campaign Metrics. Some 152 e-mail campaigns were studied.