Q1 2013 North America Email Trend Results: Open Rates Continue to Rise as Consumers Interact with Email via Mobile Devices

Triggered Email Click Rates Outperform Business As Usual Across Industry Categories

Dallas, TX — — Epsilon, the global leader in delivering direct-to-consumer connections that drive business performance, and Email Institute, the Epsilon-powered email marketing best practices destination, today released the Q1 2013 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks report. The report shows email open rates continue to increase quarter over quarter and year over year as consumers engage with email at any time and from any location via mobile devices.

Additionally, the report’s Triggered Email Trends found that triggered messages for 12 of the 13 industries analyzed had a click rate difference of 50% or greater when compared to Business As Usual, or BAU metrics. While both BAU and triggered messages are important, this finding emphasizes the need to send messages based on specific actions to drive deeper engagement.

“Email open rates rose to 31.1% in Q1. This is a notable increase over previous quarters and years,” said Judy Loschen, Vice President of Digital Analytics at Epsilon. “We expect to continue to see increased open rates as more consumers check email and manage their inbox on-the-go via mobile phones and tablets. We also found an increase in click rates, suggesting that more marketers are recognizing their consumers’ mobile behaviors and preferences and are focusing on optimizing their email creative and content for the mobile web.”

Business As Usual (BAU) Email Trends
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. The analysis combines data from Epsilon’s proprietary platforms.

BAU Highlights:

-Non-Bounce rate remained strong at 96.4%
-Open rates increased both quarter over quarter (+13.5%) and year over year (+18.6%), resulting in an overall open rate of 31.1%
-Click rates increased both quarter over quarter and year over year, reaching 5.1%

Triggered Message Email Trends
Triggered message benchmarks are compiled from more than 360 million triggered emails sent by Epsilon in Q1 2013 across multiple industries. Results track campaigns deployed as a result of an action or trigger such as Welcome, Abandon Shopping Cart, Thank You and Anniversary.

Triggered Highlights:

-Triggered messages accounted for 3.3% of total volume, an increase of 41.1% over Q1 2012 (2.3%)
-Triggered open rates were 60.8% higher in Q113 compared to BAU messages
-Triggered click rates continued to perform well, reporting 116.9% higher than BAU messages

Email Activity Segment Evaluation (EASE)
These metrics are 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. The EASE analysis, which includes behavioral segments, examined the overall performance of the average email file.

EASE Highlights:

-Half of an average email file had at least one open or click during the 12-month study period
-61.5% of new subscribers, defined as addresses that have been on a marketer’s file for less than three months, in an average list had no opens or clicks
-Approximately 19.1% of subscribers in an average email file 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%. Triggered emails are an optimal means to continuously connect with consumers where and when they are attentive and ready to hear from your brand.”

For more information and industry-specific benchmarks, the Q1 2013 Email Trends and Benchmark report is available at www.epsilon.com/pr/Q113emailbenchmarks.