• by Ross Fadner , March 10, 2004

Most email marketers saw delivery rates increase or remain stable during the fourth quarter of 2003, according to a recently released report by Bigfoot Interactive. This occurred despite the fact that many email marketers were attempting to align their operations according to the regulations in the newly passed federal Can-Spam Act. The Act was signed into law on Dec. 16, 2003; it went into effect on January 1, 2004.

Bigfoot noted that delivery monitoring, a top priority for email marketers, posted strong results for the media and financial services categories. The categories posted overall delivery rates of 92 percent and 90 percent, respectively. Unique click-through rates increased 27 percent for the media category, from 10.3 percent during the third quarter 2003 to 13.1 percent--due, in large part, to a constant flow of general and political news alerts.

The retail category posted a modest 5 percent gain over the third-quarter results: Click- throughs reached 8.6 percent, as e-coupons and holiday promotional efforts continued to perform well.

Like retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG) received a holiday boost; overall click-throughs gained 2.2 percent to 12.4 percent for the quarter, but the category posted a 22 percent increase in the overall performance of its email campaigns.

Automotive click-through rates hit 20.7 percent, up 10.7 percent over the third quarter. The Bigfoot report cites the performance of "Owner News" email newsletters as the main driver of the increase, which saw unique click-throughs of up to 27 percent.

While the fourth-quarter results were positive, Michael Mayor, CEO NetCreations, noted that "like any other channel, email is seasonal or subject to market catalysts of some sort." It remains to be seen how email marketing performance will be affected in the wake of the Can-Spam law. According to Mayor, "the data proves that email performance was strong as we headed into the year of Can-Spam and upcoming anti-spam technology solutions, so one can assume that things will gradually improve as more and more anti-spam tactics are introduced and their effects are felt."

Reacting to Wednesday's news that the four largest Internet Service Providers filed combined lawsuits against alleged spammers, Al DiGuido, CEO-Bigfoot Interactive, said: "We are thrilled to see the big players flex their muscles in an unprecedented movement to defend the user in-box from those that continue to use evasion and fraud as a way to market to consumers." DiGuido added: "Bottom line--there has to be financial friction to stop spammers. This economic barrier already exists in print, television, and the Web."