E-mail: volume up, open rates up, click rates down

As you fight to sell that E-mail sponsorship, some of the numbers might be against you. While every content publisher's newsletter is different, if the one you sell is tracking along with what is going on though out the web, your click throughs are down.

If this becomes an issue, I recommend you bring this just released study from Epsilon on your next call. The study is based on the performance of 7.7 billion promotional E-mails in Q4 2008. While we don't sell ads in the direct marketing campaigns these E-newsletters represent, we share the same Internet and readers. It is the behavior of both of these that should concern us. Survey results:

Bad news: Promotional direct mail volume is way up of year prior, 19% up! Our newsletters are competing with a lot more volume in the in box.

Good news: open rates are up. " Open rates increased for the third quarter in a
row."

Bad news: Click through rates dropped .1% over year prior to the lowest level Epsilon has recorded. 

Check your open and click rates. If open rates are up you need to use these numbers to counter the drop in click rates that clients could see as a sign of bad performance. This study can add a third part validation for the view that a drop in click throughs does not have to indicate a less effective campaign.

Download the free study

 

Comments

[Shazia]

I first time visit in this blog. I find this blog have relevant information.

[Jim Logan]

With deliver and open rates steady or increasing over the past several quarters,I'm surprised the report's recommendation is essentially to build a better list.

Certainly target audience and list qualiity can explain a low click-thru rate, but declining response - associated with consistent and growing open rates - indicates the basic audience and message is mostly right, but compelling reason to act isn't recognized...hence, look at the buildup to the call to action (make sure it's a sufficient argument and appropriate to the addressee) and check the reason you offer to believe in the benefit of heeding it. Essentially, we should investigate a more compelling reason to act before we blame the list.