• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 8, 2010

Though research suggests email is the preferred method of consumer communications with companies, click through rates continue to be a problem.

Judy Loschen, senior director of online analytics for Epsilon, in presenting research at the Email Insider Summit, says click-through rates declined to 5.4% in the third quarter 2010 from 6.2% in the third quarter 2009.

Why? Glut of digital messaging efforts. "The marketing landscape of channels have increased," reasons Loschen for some of the decline.

But for the future Loschen believes click through rates will stabilized -- just as email open rates have. She notes email open rate in the third quarter 2010 is 22% -- which has been roughly the same across the last several quarters.

Looking individual categories, Loschen says, consumer product, media, telecom, companies have seen a decrease in click-through rates -- while business products, financial services, general retail and travel is up.

She says improving companies are being more efficient -- holding back and decreasing email frequency -- which is resulting in higher click-through rates with these companies.

Also predicted frequency could be a problem for email marketers -- and why some click-through rates maybe suffering.

"Throw me a wild card," suggests Dylan Boyd, vp of sales & strategy for eROI, who was also on an Email Insider panel on email metrics. "Surprise me. Perhaps sending something on a Sunday night."