Email open rates rose to 31.1% for the first quarter of 2013, a 13.5% increase over the same quarter last year, according to the Q1 2013 North America Email trends and Benchmarks report from Epsilon and the Email Institute.
“We expect to continue to see increased email open rates as more consumers check email and manage their inbox on-the-go via mobile phones and tablets,” said Judy Loschen, vice president of digital analytics at Epsilon, in a statement.
The quarterly analysis is compiled from 6.1 billion emails sent by Epsilon in January, February and March 2013 across multiple industries and approximately 150 participating clients.
Non-bounce rate remained strong at 96.4%, and click rates increased both quarter over quarter and year over year, reaching 5.1%, according to the report.
Triggered messages accounted for 3.3% of total email volume, according to the report, compared to 2.3% for the first quarter of 2012. Triggered message benchmarks in the analysis are are compiled from more than 360 million triggered emails sent by Epsilon in the first quarter across multiple industries. The results track campaigns deployed as a result of an action or trigger such as Welcome, Abandon Shopping Cart, Thank You and Anniversary.
In Q1 riggered open rates were 60.8% higher than “businesses as usual” (BAU) non-triggered emails, according to the analysis. Triggered click rates were 116.9% higher than BAU messages.
“Marketers leveraging triggered messages are taking advantage of a moment of engagement to create a stronger experience for a consumer,” Loschen said. “In Q1 we noted an even more significant increase in triggered email click rates when compared to BAU than previous studies. Nearly every industry category analyzed had a lift—from 70% up to 442%.”
Activity in various email segments was also tracked in the report, with metrics compiled from more than 696 million non-bounced and opted-in email addresses that were contacted from April 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013 across multiple industries and approximately 150 clients.
Half of an average email file had at least one open or click during the 12-month study period. On an average list, 61.5% of new subscribers, defined as addresses that have been on a marketer’s file for less than three months, had no opens or clicks. Approximately 19.1% of subscribers had opened or clicked in the most recent three months.
“Triggered emails often outperform their Business As Usual counterparts because they’re deployed based on an action the consumer has taken or milestone they’ve identified.
“Marketers leveraging triggered messages are taking advantage of a moment of engagement to create a stronger experience for a consumer,” Loschen said. “In Q1 we noted an even more significant increase in triggered email click rates when compared to BAU than previous studies. Nearly every industry category analyzed had a lift—from 70% up to 442%.”
The complete report is available at www.epsilon.com/pr/Q113emailbenchmarks.
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