Email Marketing Statistics

09. Jul, 2007 View Comments

Here is some helpful info on email marketing statistics. (see more at Email Labs)

Most Popular Days to Send

For the second consecutive quarter, Tuesday (25.4%) is the most popular day of the week to send email messages, followed by Wednesday at 23.3% and Thursday at 18.3%. Bringing up the rear is Saturday at 0.9% and Sunday at 1.4%.

	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Q3 2003	1.4%	15.1%	25.4%	23.3%	18.3%	15.6%	0.9%
Q2 2003	1.5%	14.1%	26.7%	23.7%	22.4%	10.6%	1.0%
Q1 2003	1.8%	14.1%	22.4%	23.2%	22.8%	15.2%	0.5%

Email Send Times

Time Sent	9 a.m.	10 a.m.	8 a.m. – Noon	7 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Q3 2003	17.8%	12.6%	51.0%	76.4%
Q2 2003	14.2%	11.1%	47.1%	76.9%
Q1 2003	19.1%	11.3%	55.2%	81.7%

Open Times

Time Sent	11 a.m.	8 a.m – 4 p.m.	6 a.m – 6 p.m
Q3 2003	6.8%	53.7%	74.5%
Q2 2003	6.6%	52.5%	73.4%
Q1 2003	7.3%	58.8%	77.7%

Sample Click-To-Open Rates

Email Sample	B2B Newsletter	Ecommerce Email
ISP/Domain	Open	CTR	CTOR	Open	CTR	CTOR
AOL	12.0%	3.2%	26.7%	14.4%	8.2%	56.9%
Earthlink	42.1%	2.6%	6.2%	47.4%	14.6%	30.8%
Hotmail	30.0%	7.5%	25.0%	24.8%	8.9%	35.9%
Yahoo!	21.2%	5.8%	27.4%	23.5%	9.2%	39.1%
All Other Domains	42.5%	10.6%	24.9%	40.9%	11.2%	27.4%
Total	39.6%	9.9%	25.0%	33.6%	10.9%	32.4%
Variance: Low-High	30.5%	8.0%	21.2%	33.0%	6.4%	29.5%
Source: EmailLabs

Poor Rendering Creates ‘Disappointing Dialogue’

A sizable percentage of business and consumer email marketers fail to connect with their readers because they still send out email messages that do not render correctly, either because of blocked images or nonfunctioning links, according to an Email Experience Council study of 1,000 business and consumer mailings sent in the fourth quarter of 2006. Poor rendering hurts relevance and brand identity and creates a “dialogue that disappoints,” according to Andy Goldman, OgilvyOne.

21%: Percentage of business and consumer email messages that showed up completely blank when images were turned off in email clients; most of these emails were promotional in nature and sent to drive sales

28%: Percentage of email messages sent with nonfunctioning links; spread equally over business and consumer mailings and prevalent within product-related, event and acquisition-based emails

Source: “The 2007 Rendering Report,” published January 2007, the Email Experience Council

How Relevance Boosts Campaign Performance

Campaigns that target based on Web-site user clickstream data generate conversion rates that outperform untargeted broadcast campaigns by nearly 4 to 1, according to a recent Jupiter Research report promoting use of targeting devices beyond basic personalization and segmentation.

How targeting affects campaign performance:

Untargeted broadcast emails
Open rate: 20%
Avg. CTR: 9.5%
Avg. conversion rate: 1.1%

User-triggered campaigns
Open rate: 27%
Avg. CTR: 9.3%
Avg. conversion rate: 2.3%

Lifecycle messaging campaigns
Open rate: 26%
Avg. CTR: 9.3%
Avg. conversion rate: 2.3%

Clickstream-based campaigns
Open rate: 33%
Avg. CTR: 14%
Avg. conversion rate: 3.9%

Source: David Daniels, Jupiter Research.

Text Drives More Email Click-Throughs Than Images

A new report, “Email Marketing Content Best Practices: Identifying the Impact of Content on Response Behavior,” based on a Jupiter Research/IPSOS survey of 1,166 consumer recipients on what prompted them to open and respond to email marketing messages revealed the following:

54%: Products or services featured
40%: Written copy
35%: Subject line
33%: Compelling offers (e.g. discounts, free shipping)
12%: A single large image
9%: Multiple smaller images
6%: Search box within the email
3%: Recipients get text-only email

Personalization

In a recent Jupiter Research Webinar, analyst David Daniels presented statistics that show personalization is in its infancy:

Only 4 percent of marketers personalized messages.
Of marketers who do personalize, 76 percent use five data points or less in the personalization process.

Delivery Rates Still Vex Marketers

% Marketers	% Email Delivered
40.2%	90.1% to 100%
19.1%	80.1% to 90%
14.8%	70.1% to 80%
9.6%	55.1% to 70%
16.3%	55% and below

Source: Internet Retailer Survey Report on Email Marketing, 2007

Email Deliverability Inches Up in 2006

1. Overall block rates:

January-June	July-December	January-June
2005	2006	2005
19.2%	20.5%	21%

2. Which ISP blocks the most email?

ISP	Block Rate
Excite	50.7%
Adelphia	35.5%
Gmail	34.3%
Road Runner	30.6%
Hotmail	22.7%
MSN	22.4%
Verizon	18.0%
Yahoo	15.2%
AOL	14.1%
Compuserve	11.8%

Source: Return Path Email Blocking and Filtering Report

Time of Day Online Users Check Personal Emails at Work

Time of Day	% of Users
Sporadically Throughout The Day	47%
First Thing When They Arrive	25%
At Lunchtime	18%
During Afternoon Break	8%
Right Before They Head Home	2%
Source: eMarketer

When and Where Online Users Check Their Email

Time of Day	% of Users
First thing in the morning	41%
Right after dinner	18%
Right when they get home from work	14%
Right before they go to bed	14%
In the middle of the night	40%
Source: eMarketer

Location	% of Users
In Bed	23%
In Class	12%
In a Business Meeting	8%
At a Wi-Fi Hotspot	6%
At the Beach or Pool	6%
In the Bathroom	4%
While Driving	4%
In Church	1%
Source: eMarketer

Online Users Who Check Email While On Vacation

The number of online users who check email while on vacation, as reported by eMarketer:

Age	Check Personal Email	Check Work Email
22-34	77%	39%
35-45	64%	50%
46-59	58%	40%
60-70	60%	29%

Why Email Is Still No. 1 with Marketers

1. Most Important Advertising Tactics for 2007

Advertising Tactic	Percentage
Email Marketing	83.2%
Search Marketing	61.7%
Display Ads	36.2%
Ad Networks	31.9%
Contextual Targeting	27.7%
Traditional Direct Marketing	27.7%

2. Most Important Reasons Why Marketers Will Use Email in 2007

Reason	Percentage
Drive incremental revenue	55.3%
Reinforce brand position	19.1%
Improve customer loyalty	10.6%
Reactivate customers	8.5%
Drive more frequent purchases	6.4%

Source: Datran Media, February 2007

Email is Alive, Well and Improving

	Increasing Significantly	Increasing Slowly	Not Changing Noticeably	Slowly Declining	Declining Significantly
B-to-B Marketers	35.6%	42.4%	6.8%	13.6%	1.7%
B-to-C Marketers	40.0%	29.1%	18.2%	10.9%	1.9%
Source: MarketingSherpa Email Benchmark Survey, November 2006.