• by Masha Geller , September 23, 2002

Here’s a shocker: DoubleClick Inc. yesterday announced results of its second quarter Email Marketing Trend Report, which indicates that marketers “need to continue to effectively target offers and carefully clean their lists to maintain performance.” (I think I speak for everyone when I say we didn’t need a survey to tell us that!)

All my crankiness aside, however, DoubleClick did offer some sobering numbers. The report says that email bounce back rates are at a historic average high of 12.6% compared to 7.7% in Q3 2001.

Additionally, HTML emails generate response rates that are 1.2-1.7 times higher than text emails for all industry categories. The overall click-through rate for industry text emails was 7%, while Html emails was 10%. Html emails increased performance particularly for Travel (1.7 times more effective than text emails), and Retail & Catalog and Publisher -- Business Audience companies (both 1.6 times more effective than text emails).

The good news is that consumers open more emails from Consumer Products and Services marketers than any other source. DoubleClick’s data indicates that Business Products & Services companies had the highest open rates at over 47%, followed by Travel at 42.5%, which compares favorably to the total average open-rate of nearly 38%. Furthermore, the Business Products & Services segment had the highest bounce back rates at 19%, while Publisher-Business Audience companies had the lowest at 8.6%.

In addition, emails sent by Consumer Products & Services companies were the most likely to be clicked through at 9.4%, followed by emails sent by the Publisher-Consumer Audience at 9.1% and Travel at 8.4%. These rates were higher than the total average click-though rate of 7.5%.

Interestingly enough, based on volume of mail sent, marketers favor sending email during the week, with Tuesday being the most common day of the week for emails to be sent, with nearly 24% of all email sent that day. This day is followed closely by Wednesday at nearly 23%, Thursday at 18% and Monday at nearly 17%. Mail volumes are light on the weekends, with 1.5% of emails sent on Saturdays and 1.7% on Sundays.

Select Industries                       Click-through % 
Consumer Products & Services                 9.4 
Publisher - Consumer Audience                9.1

Travel                                       8.4 
Business Products & Services                 7.5 
Retail & Catalog                             6.1 
Publisher - Business Audience
5.2