Marketing Metrics Report: H2 2005

Transcription

1 MailerMailer LLC 5 Choke Cherry Road Rockville, MD Marketing Metrics Report: H Copyright 2006 by MailerMailer LLC

2 Table of Contents About This Report...3 Summary of Trends in H Unique Open Rates...4 Unique Open Rates by Industry...5 Unique Open Rate Comparison...6 Click Rates...7 Click Rates by Industry...8 Click Rate Comparison...9 Trends in Open and Click Rates by Day of Week...10 Open Rates by Personalization...13 Click Rates by Personalization...13 Click Rates by Text versus HTML Format...14 Click Rates by Number of Links...14 Bounce Rates...15 Bounce Rates by Industry...15 Bounce Percentage per Frequency of Mailing...16 Stabilization of Open Rates...17 Average Number of Words and Links...19 Methodology...19 About MailerMailer...19 MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 2 of 19

3 About This Report MailerMailer provides web-based list management services that allow organizations to create and track opt-in newsletters and marketing campaigns. We regularly analyze and report aggregate industry data based on our customers use. This report is based on over 200 million messages that were sent in the second half (H2) of 2005 by a sampling of over 3,500 MailerMailer customers. The data in this document may be republished only with our written permission. Please send requests to reprint all or part of it to: Summary of Trends in H Overall open and click rates declined slightly. campaigns sent in H resulted in slightly lower open and click rates than campaigns sent in the first half of (H1) of Unique open rates decreased for all industries. In addition to a decline in the average open rate for all s sent, every industry included in this report saw slightly lower open rates in H2. Open rates for Real Estate, Religious, and Retail industries declined the least from H Many industries received higher click rates in H2 than in H Although average click rates declined; several industries including Medical, Religious, and Real Estate received higher click rates than they did in H Subscribers were slightly more likely to open and click on s sent earlier in the week. s sent on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays earned slightly higher open and click rates than average in H Personalized s continued to receive higher open and click rates. As in H1 2005, recipients were more likely to open and click on s that used personalized subject lines and message bodies. s with 20 or more hyperlinks received far more clicks than average. Consistent with campaigns sent in H1 2005, subscribers were much more likely to click on s that contained 20 or more links. MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 3 of 19

4 Unique Open Rates The average unique open rate for all messages sent continued to decline in the last six months (H2) of 2005 to 19.81%. As with H1 2005, the decline was most likely due to more recipients installing and using newer releases of programs such as AOL 9.0, Google Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook 2003 that disable automatic image downloading by default. When images are not downloaded in an HTML message, the tracking image, which acts as a counter, cannot report when and if the was opened. The result is fewer messages are reported as being opened, even though the recipient may have actually opened and read the message, albeit without viewing the images. 25% 22.92% Unique Open Rates 21.77% H H H % 19.81% Unique Open Rates 15% 10% 5% 0% H H H All Industries MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 4 of 19

5 Unique Open Rates by Industry Industries in this study that earned the highest unique open rates in H were Government (39.07%), Religious (37.15%), and Banking (33.21%). Entertainment (11.88%), Education (14.22%), and Wholesale (15.70%) had the lowest unique open rates. All Industries Banking Computer Consulting Consumer Education Entertainment Government Large Business Manufacturing Marketing Media Medical Nonprofit Real Estate Religious Restaurant Retail Small Business Telecom Transportation Wholesale Unique Open Rates by Industry: H % 33.21% 19.24% 22.50% 21.19% 14.22% 11.88% 39.07% 23.02% 20.33% 24.42% 22.88% 30.52% 21.32% 27.74% 37.15% 25.06% 29.00% 24.31% 31.65% 31.91% 15.70% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 5 of 19

6 Unique Open Rate Comparison The following chart shows unique open rates by industry for the first half (H1) of 2005 compared to the last half (H2). Every industry included in this report experienced a decline in unique open rates in the second half of Real Estate, Religious, and Retail industries experienced the smallest declines in unique open rates from the first half of 2005 to the second. Industries that saw the greatest decline in unique open rates were Government, Manufacturing, and Wholesale. Unique Open Rates by Industry: H1 and H All Industries Banking Computer Consulting Consumer H H Education Entertainment Government Large Business Manufacturing Marketing Media Medical Nonprofit Real Estate Religious Restaurant Retail Small Business Telecom Transportation Wholesale 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 6 of 19

7 Click Rates Click, or click-through rates, record how many times the links included in an message were clicked. For this report, a click was counted if a recipient clicked on any link within the message. s containing no links were excluded from this statistic. The average click rate for all industries fell slightly from 3.59% in H to 3.33% in H2. 4.0% Average Click Rates 3.64% 3.59% 3.30% 3.0% 2.0% 1.0% 0.0% H H H Click Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 7 of 19

8 Click Rates by Industry Industries that earned the highest click rates in H were Retail (8.05%), Banking (7.79%), and Computing (7.79%). Industries that received the lowest click rates were Entertainment (1.29%), Telecommunications (1.48%), and Real Estate (1.75%). Click Rates by Industry: H All Industries Banking Computing Consulting Consumer Education Entertainment Government Large Business Manufacturing Marketing Media Medical Nonprofits Real Estate Religious Restaurant Retail Small Business Telecom Transportation Wholesale 2.59% 1.29% 2.10% 2.64% 2.63% 1.75% 2.34% 1.48% 2.36% 3.30% 3.45% 3.26% 5.01% 4.45% 5.37% 5.64% 5.44% 6.22% 7.79% 7.79% 7.73% 8.05% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% Click Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 8 of 19

9 Click Rate Comparison Although the average click rate fell from H1, several industries saw their rates rise in H Those with the greatest increases in click rates from the first half of 2005 to the last half were Medical, Religious, and Real Estate. Industries sustaining the largest declines in click rates from H were Government, Small Business, and Manufacturing. All Industries Banking Computing Consulting Consumer Education Entertainment Government Large Business Manufacturing Marketing Media Medical Nonprofits Real Estate Religious Restaurant Retail Small Business Telecom Transportation Wholesale Click Rate Comparison H H % 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% Click Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 9 of 19

10 Trends in Open and Click Rates by Day of Week In H2, subscribers were slightly more likely to open s sent on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. They were slightly less likely to open them on Thursdays and Fridays. They were slightly more likely to click on s sent on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, too. s sent on Thursdays and Wednesdays received the smallest percent of clicks. Open and Click Rates by Day of Week H Opens H Opens 30% 25% H Clicks H Clicks 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% All Mailings Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 10 of 19

11 Unique Open Rates by Day of Week H H All Mailings Sunday Monday 19.81% 21.77% 21.39% 21.96% 25.13% 24.71% Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 19.08% 19.97% 18.74% 19.69% 21.19% 22.61% Friday 18.50% 22.11% Saturday 20.56% 25.85% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% Unique Open Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 11 of 19

12 All Click Rates by Day of Week 3.30% 3.59% H H Sunday 4.17% 4.86% Monday 3.47% 4.46% Tuesday 3.89% 4.16% Wednesday 3.14% 3.10% Thursday 2.85% 2.75% Friday 3.15% 3.63% Saturday 3.16% 3.94% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% Click Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 12 of 19

13 Open Rates by Personalization s with personalized subject lines or message bodies received slightly better open rates than average. In addition, when both subject line and message body were personalized, the open rate jumped to nearly 36%. Effect of Personalization on Open Rates All Messages 19.81% Personalized Subject Line Personalized Messages 21.92% 23.97% Personalized Subject Line and Message 35.73% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% Open Rates Click Rates by Personalization s sent in H with personalized subject lines or message bodies received higher than average click rates. Surprisingly, when both of them were personalized the click rate fell to 3.88% - just over the average for all s sent. Effect of Personalization on Click Rates All Mailings 3.30% Personalized Subject Line 4.22% Personalized Message 5.15% Personalized Subject and Message 3.88% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% Click Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 13 of 19

14 Click Rates by Text versus HTML Format HTML subscribers clicked slightly more than average. The following chart shows click rates for subscribers who received HTML formatted messages verses those who received textbased messages in H Click Rates by Format All Messages 3.30% HTML Format 3.33% Text Format 2.80% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% Click Rates Click Rates by Number of Links In H2 2005, click rates jumped from 3.30% for all mailings to 6.45% for those with over 20 links. However, s with 6-10 links received the lowest click rate in H (1.87%). All Mailings 1-5 Links 6-10 Links Links Over 20 Links Click Rates by Number of Links 3.30% 3.59% 2.10% 2.50% 1.87% 1.94% 3.74% 3.81% H H % 6.87% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% Click Rates MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 14 of 19

15 Bounce Rates All campaigns result in a percent of messages that are undeliverable or bounce back. An typically fails to be delivered due to a subscriber changing his or her address without notifying you, a receiving server being temporarily unavailable, or your message becoming inadvertently flagged as spam. MailerMailer automatically records and purges addresses that result in bounces from our customers lists after their fifth mailing using our system. Due to this feature, our customers bounce rates generally decrease noticeably after their fifth delivery. While overall bounce rates fell to 5.32% for the first five mailings in H2 2005, they remained virtually unchanged for the sixth and subsequent mailings (1.91%). The following chart shows bounce rates for all industries in H1 and H % 7% 7.55% Bounce Rates for All Industries H H Bounce Rates 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 5.32% 1.90% 1.91% 1% 0% First Five Mailings Sixth and Subsequent Mailings Bounce rates for the first five mailings depend largely on how well an existing list was managed prior to using MailerMailer. We use several screening procedures for our new customers and for new lists that minimize inclusion of older or unreliable addresses. The average bounce rates for the sixth and subsequent mailings are affected by several factors including the frequency in which a customer sends messages to a particular list. See the Bounce Percentage per Mailings section in this report for more information. Bounce Rates by Industry Industries that earned the lowest bounce rates in H2 2005, and therefore the best delivery rates, for their first five mailings were Religious (3.90%), Transportation (4.19%), and Entertainment (4.44%). Those with the highest bounce rates for their first five messages were Government, Real Estate, and Medical. MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 15 of 19

16 Industries earning the smallest bounce rates, and therefore the best delivery rates, for their sixth and subsequent s in H were Medical (.99%), Entertainment (1.27%) and Marketing (1.42%). Industries that experienced the highest bounce rates for their sixth and subsequent s were Telecom (1.94%), Education (3.63%), and Consulting (3.62%). All Banking Computing Consulting Consumer Education Entertainment Government Large Business Manufacturing Marketing Media Medical Nonprofit Real Estate Religious Restaurant Retail Small Business Telecom Transportation Wholesale Bounce Rates by Industry H % 5.32% 2.83% 5.67% 2.75% 5.31% 3.62% 7.98% 2.60% 5.47% 3.63% 6.76% 1.27% 4.44% 3.25% 2.32% 6.98% 3.35% 7.44% 1.42% 4.75% 1.48% 5.70% 0.99% 8.03% 2.89% 5.05% 2.46% 8.27% 1.69% 3.90% 3.11% 6.02% 2.47% 4.76% 2.26% 5.52% 4.31% 6.42% 1.94% 4.19% 3.11% 5.23% Sixth and Subsequent Mailings First Five Mailings 13.25% 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% Bounce Percentage per Frequency of Mailing A percent of subscribers change jobs and addresses at any given time which results in natural attrition or churn for any list. In addition to natural list attrition, how frequently a customer sends messages to his or her list affects the percent that bounce for any given mailing. Bounce percentages per mailing for more frequent senders are most likely lower because the addresses that result in bounces are purged more regularly. In H2 2005, customers who sent s once a day or more earned bounce rates of just 1.11%. Bounce rates rose to 2.31% for those who delivered messages a few times a week. But, they climbed to 12.50% for those sending less than once a month. MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 16 of 19

17 Bounce Percentage per Mailing 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% Bounce Percentage per Mailing Frequency: H % 6.28% 4.97% 2.31% 2.47% 1.11% 0% Once a Day or More Few Times a Week Once a Week Few Times a Month Once a Month Less than Once a Month Frequency of Mailing Stabilization of Open Rates Stabilization of open rates reveals how soon subscribers opened a message after it was delivered. To measure stabilization of open rates, we monitored the number of subscribers who opened a message for up to two weeks after it was delivered. The following two charts show how soon after delivery a percent of those subscribers who would eventually open a message actually opened it. This data is based on unique open rates and does not include forwarded s or those opened multiple times by a recipient. In H2 2005, unique open rates peaked one hour after delivery with 10.8% of the recipients who would eventually open an opening it by then. MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 17 of 19

18 12% Stablilization of Open Rates 10.8% 10% Messages Opened in the Hour 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% Hours After Delivery The following chart shows that in H2 2005, 50% of subscribers who would eventually open an message did so within 8 hours of delivery. However, 75% of those who would open a message opened it within 27 hours after it was sent. 100% Total Messages Opened by the Hour (Cumulative) Cumulative Percent Opened 75% 50% 25% 0% Hours After Delivery MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 18 of 19

19 Average Number of Words and Links On average in H2 2005, s sent in text format included more words than those sent in HTML-format. While the average HTML message sent through MailerMailer included 526 words, the average text contained 816 words. There were over 14,000 words used in the largest HTML message sent and over 13,000 in the longest text-formatted . The average number of links included in an message in H2 was Methodology The data for this report is based on messages with 25 or more recipients sent by MailerMailer customers between July 1 and December 31, Only industries that were represented by a significant number of unique customers and/or subscribers were reported independently in this report. Aggregate statistics from over 200 million messages that were sent by a sampling of over 3,500 permission-based senders were analyzed for this report. However, due to the fact that senders self-reported their industry affiliation and other factors beyond our control, this document does not represent a scientific study. It is an approximation of actual statistics only. About MailerMailer MailerMailer is a web-based list management service for creating and tracking opt-in newsletters and campaigns. You can create and send personalized, targeted s based on your subscribers' interests and demographics. This low-cost, do-it-yourself service automates list set up and maintenance and includes newsletter templates for easy management. Visit for more information and a free trial. MailerMailer Marketing Metrics Report: H Page 19 of 19