The highest open and click-through rates for e-mail occur on one of the lightest, as well as the heaviest-volume days, according to a new study.
On Tuesdays, which saw the highest volume of e-mails sent, open rates stood at 26.4%, and click-throughs were at 6.2%. But Sundays, one of the lightest days of the week (second only to Saturday) saw open rates of 25.9%, and click-through levels of 6.6%. These figures largely held true regardless of the size of the e-mail blast.
What this means is that e-mail is date-agnostic: “Good subject lines and good creative get good results, bad creative and bad subject lines perform poorly,” concluded eROI, an e-mail analysis and marketing effectiveness firm which conducted the study.
The surge in weekend rates during first-quarter 2006 marks a significant change from fourth-quarter 2005, with open and click rates increasing by 40% and 60%, respectively.
Broken out by the size of the mailing, smaller campaigns tended to see slightly higher open rates during the weekend, and significantly higher click-through rates during the same time. Mid-sized blasts, especially those from B-to-B marketers, tend to have weaker open and click-through results Thursday through Saturday, with rebounds throughout much of the week.
Among the largest mailers, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays generated the highest open and click-through rates. These marketers also tended to see the worst results on weekends.
Marketers may be testing delivery days for their messages, but they are still hesitant to test other marketing strategies. Only 34% use behavioral data for segmenting and targeting, while 66% rely on demographic information. And a mere 4% track lifetime value of their e-mail subscribers and customers.
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