Q2 2014 email trends and benchmarks

Q2 2014 email trends and benchmarks September 2014

There is much to be said about the data deluge that

Executive summary

marketers face today. However when it comes to the email channel, data provides an opportunity for marketers to create their ideal engagements with customers. By leveraging the right marketing data, brands can create meaningful connections with customers at the moments they’re most likely to listen and respond. This in turn impacts other marketing channels, as email can serve as a bridge to connect other brand experiences, such as interactions on mobile, social and more. Epsilon compiles and analyzes aggregated data from billions of emails to provide brands with email benchmarks to evaluate their respective campaigns. We hope this data will allow you to assess your performance and help improve your email strategy moving forward. Please note that this benchmark data should only be used as a guideline. Specifics for each company will drive results.

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

Business as usual email trends The Q2 2014 Email Trends and Benchmarks analyzed performance trends by industry and message type. These metrics offer insight into how the average company performed across 13 industry categories. This study was compiled from 7.8 billion emails sent in Q2 (April-July) 2014 across more than 140 clients.

Q2 2014 OVERALL PERFORMANCE

– –

Open rates declined slightly since Q1 2014 (32.9%) to 30.8% in Q2. However, they are still up 8.0% over last year (Q2 2013).

Click rates declined modestly to 4.0% in Q2 from 4.3% in Q1. This is a standard seasonal decline, as by Q2 the holiday season has come to a full close.

Non-bounce rates remained the same in Q2 (96.4%).

Open rates continued to peform strongly

95.9%

96.1%

96.0% 96.4%

25.6%

27.2%

27.4%

4.4%

4.5%

Q212

Q312

96.1%

95.7% 96.1%

96.4% 96.4%

31.1%

28.5% 29.5% 30.9%

32.9% 30.8%

4.5%

5.1%

4.3%

4.5%

4.4%

4.3%

4.0%

Q412

Q113

Q213

Q313 Q413

Q114

Q214

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50%

Non-bounce

40% 30%

Open Click-through

20% 10% 0%

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

Industry performance Seven of the thirteen industries analyzed had an open rate increase of 5% or higher when compared to last year’s metrics: Business Publishing/Media General, Consumer Publishing/Media General, Consumer Services General, Financial Services CC/Banks, Financial Services General, Retail Apparel and Retail General. Four of the industries analyzed had a click rate increase of 5% or higher: Business Products and Services General, Business Publishing/Media General, Consumer Publishing/Media General and Consumer Services Telecom. Three experienced a click-to-open rate increase that was 5% or higher: Business Products and Services General, Business Publishing/Media General and Consumer Services Telecom. In Q2 2014, the highest open rates were in the Financial Services CC/Banks (44.1%), Retail General (43.2%) and Financial Services General (40.2%) categories. The highest click rates were in Business Publishing/Media General (6.8%), Retail Apparel (4.6%), Business Products and Services General (4.4%), Financial Services General (4.4%) and Retail General (4.4%). The highest click-to-open rates were in Business Publishing/Media General (29.1%), Consumer Products CPG (24.0%) and Consumer Publishing/Media General (20.2%). INDUSTRIES ANALYZED

Epsilon Q2 2014 North American Industry

Non-bounce rate

Open rate

Click rate

Click-toopen rate

Business Products and Services General

95.3%

26.2%

4.4%

16.8%

Business Publishing/Media General

97.8%

23.2%

6.8%

29.1%

Consumer Products CPG

94.3%

17.4%

4.2%

24.0%

Consumer Products Pharmaceutical

94.3%

30.8%

4.1%

13.5%

Consumer Publishing/Media General

98.9%

21.5%

4.3%

20.2%

Consumer Services General

93.8%

28.1%

3.8%

13.7%

Consumer Services Telecom

99.5%

18.9%

3.6%

19.2%

Financial Services CC/Banks

96.3%

44.1%

4.0%

9.0%

Financial Services General

96.2%

40.2%

4.4%

11.1%

Retail Apparel

94.9%

29.2%

4.6%

15.8%

Retail General

97.8%

43.2%

4.4%

10.3%

Retail Specialty

96.3%

22.9%

2.9%

12.9%

Travel/Hospitality Travel Services

96.9%

31.3%

3.5%

11.3%

*Green or yellow text indicates an increase (green) or decrease (yellow) over last year’s metrics that was over 5 %.

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

Campaign performance Research/Surveys 0.0% Newsletter 0.0% Acquisition 0.1% Editorial 2.1%

The Q2 2014 Email Trends and Benchmarks also analyzed the types of messages sent along with performance metrics. Up from Q1 2014 (53%), 59.3% of emails delivered by Epsilon were categorized as marketing messages in Q2 2014.

Service 6.5% Other 32.0% Marketing 59.3%

Q2 2014: % DELIVERED

Message type*

Open rate

Click rate

CTOR

% delivered in Q2 2014

Acquisition

22.0%

0.8%

3.7%

0.07%

Editorial

25.1%

5.1%

20.4%

21.0%

Marketing

26.0%

3.2%

12.4%

59.3%

Newsletter

36.7%

4.8%

13.0%

0.0%

Other

20.3%

2.5%

12.2%

32.0%

Research/Surveys

26.2%

2.8%

10.9%

0.05%

Service

58.6%

7.5%

12.9%

6.5%

*Message types are based on emails deployed out of Epsilon’s DREAM or Harmony

platform and are defined by the person(s) creating the campaigns, which may not reflect the same definitions as your company.

KEY METRICS ANALYZED BY MESSAGE TYPE ACROSS INDUSTRIES

Industry

Business Products and Services

Industry category General

Message type*

Open rate

Click rate

Marketing

17.8%

1.5%

Other

22.7% 5.1%

Research/Surveys

Click-toopen rate

% of total delivered in industry

8.6%

72.0%

3.5%

15.2%

27.9%

0.8%

16.5%

0.1%

Business Publishing/ Media

General

Marketing

26.9%

7.4%

27.5%

100.0%

Consumer Products

CPG

Acquisition

78.5%

13.9%

17.7%

0.0%

Marketing

16.2%

2.4%

15.0%

99.9%

Other

42.1%

9.1%

21.5%

0.1%

Marketing

15.5%

2.1%

13.8%

97.7%

Other

13.5%

3.1%

22.9%

2.3%

Service

44.9%

5.8%

13.0%

0.0%

Acquisition

24.7%

1.7%

6.8%

0.1%

Pharmaceutical

Consumer Publishing/ General Media

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Editorial

21.5%

5.4%

25.1%

14.1%

Marketing

19.2%

2.4%

12.3%

84.1%

Other

20.6%

3.2%

15.8%

1.7%

Research/Surveys

22.4%

0.0%

0.1%

0.0%

Service

76.1%

4.2%

5.6%

0.0%

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

KEY METRICS ANALYZED BY MESSAGE TYPE ACROSS INDUSTRIES (CONT.)

Industry

Consumer Services

Industry category General

Telecom Financial Services

CC/Banks

General

Retail

Apparel General

Specialty

Travel/Hospitality

Travel Services

Message type*

Open rate

Click rate

Clickto- open rate

% of total delivered in industry

Marketing Other

21.3% 20.1%

2.4% 4.6%

11.2% 22.9%

99.8% 0.0%

Service

81.5%

23.2%

28.5%

0.1%

Marketing

27.7%

2.6%

9.4%

90.6%

Service

57.2%

8.5%

14.9%

9.4%

Acquisition

30.6%

1.0%

3.4%

0.1%

Marketing

50.3%

4.2%

8.4%

47.1%

Other

71.1%

8.1%

11.4%

17.9%

Research/Surveys

51.2%

6.1%

11.9%

0.0%

Service

59.3%

7.6%

12.7%

35.0%

Acquisition

18.3%

0.5%

2.5%

1.3%

Marketing

25.5%

1.0%

3.9%

93.6%

Other

38.2%

5.3%

13.9%

0.4%

Service

78.7%

13.0%

16.5%

4.7%

Other

34.1%

8.0%

23.4%

8.4%

Service

47.1%

5.8%

12.4%

91.6%

Acquisition

63.4%

2.7%

4.2%

0.0%

Marketing

28.9%

6.6%

22.9%

24.4%

Other

15.0%

1.9%

12.3%

75.6%

Research/Surveys

44.3%

5.2%

11.7%

0.0%

Service

69.2%

7.8%

11.3%

0.0%

Acquisition

33.4%

4.7%

14.0%

0.0%

Editorial

31.9%

5.7%

18.0%

06%

Marketing

20.9%

2.0%

9.4%

97.4%

Newsletter

36.7%

4.8%

13.0%

0.0%

Other

27.8%

3.6%

12.9%

1.5%

Research/Surveys

24.4%

2.6%

10.8%

0.4%

Marketing

23.2%

2.8%

11.9%

100.0%

Service

90.2%

7.6%

8.4%

0.0%

*Message types are pulled from Epsilon’s DREAM and Harmony UI only and are defined by the person(s) creating the campaigns, which may not reflect the same definitions as your company.

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

Triggered email trends Epsilon’s triggered email metrics are compiled from nearly 300 million triggered emails sent from April 2014 to June 2014 across multiple industries. These messages were sent as the result of a consumer action, such as Welcome, Thank You, Abandon Shopping Cart or Confirmation. These metrics also highlight significant differences between triggered email performance and Business as Usual (BAU) email performance. OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Overall triggered message performance

100%

+

Triggered messages accounted for 3.8% of total email volume in Q2 2014, 9.2% higher than Q2 of last year (3.5%).

+

Non-bounce rates continued to drive strong results in Q2, just 1.9% lower than BAU.

+

Triggered open rates were 74.9% higher than BAU open rates, an increase over the 72.6% lift over BAU noted in Q2 2013.

+

Triggered click rates also continue to perform well, reporting 161.9% higher than BAU. This is higher than the lift noted in Q2 2013 of 152.3%.

95.2% 94.7% 95.6% 95.6% 95.0% 94.2% 94.5% 95.7% 94.5%

90% 5.0%

80% 70% 60%

% Total delivered

6.0%

Q214 BAU Difference -1.9%

50%

54.1% 53.9% 50.0% 49.2% 49.8% 49.0% 49.8% 47.7% 46.7%

4.0%

3.0%

+74.9%

40%

Non-bounce

20%

Open Click-through

2.0%

30%

9.8%

10%

9.0%

11.2% 10.7% 11.5% 10.0% 11.1% 10.5%

1.0%

+161.9%

0.0%

0%

Q212

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9.7%

Q312

Q412 Q113

Q213 Q313 Q413 Q114 Q214

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

Triggered email by industry The highest open rates for triggered messages were in the Financial Services/ CC Banks (66.8%), Travel/Hospitality Travel Services (66.6%) and Financial Services General (60.1%) categories. The highest triggered email click rates were reported in Consumer Products Pharmaceutical (18.0%), Retail Apparel (16.4%) and Consumer Publishing/ Media General (14.3%). Triggered emails tend to have higher open and click rates as they are deployed based on a consumer action. The categories with the most notable difference in triggered open rates compared to BAU open rates were in Consumer Products CPG (+222.4%), Consumer Services Telecom (+175.7%) and Consumer Publishing/Media General (+139.0%). The most notable click rate difference between triggered and BAU messages were reported in Consumer Products Pharmaceutical (+332.9), Retail Specialty (289.1%) and Retail Apparel (256.2%).

Q2 2014 North American Industry Business Products and Services General

Nonbounce rate

BAU nonbounce rate difference

Open rate

BAU open rate difference

Click rate

97.5%

+2.3%

49.3%

+88.3%

4.4%

Business Publishing/Media General

-100.0%

-100.0%

BAU click rate difference +1.4% -100.0%

Consumer Products CPG

97.3%

-0.5%

56.2%

+222.4%

14.0%

+234.8%

Consumer Products Pharmaceutical

91.5%

-3.0%

55.6%

+80.1%

18.0%

+332.9%

Consumer Publishing/Media General

97.7%

-1.2%

51.3%

+139.0%

14.3%

+228.6%

Consumer Services General

95.9%

+2.2%

36.2%

+29.0%

6.2%

+61.9%

Consumer Services Telecom

96.3%

-3.2%

52.0%

+175.7%

5.1%

+40.2%

Financial Services CC/Banks

95.2%

-1.2%

66.8%

+51.3%

8.8%

+121.7%

Financial Services General

97.4%

+1.2%

60.1%

+49.6%

7.1%

+60.6%

Retail Apparel

92.9%

-2.1%

46.6%

+59.6%

16.4%

+256.2%

Retail General

96.1%

-1.7%

55.9%

+29.4%

8.9%

+100.6%

Retail Specialty

86.9%

-9.7%

49.7%

+117.3%

11.5%

+289.1%

Travel/Hospitality Travel Services

89.9%

-7.2%

66.6%

+113.1%

11.7%

+232.1%

Yellow text indicates a 50% or higher lift over BAU.

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

Conclusion Brands today have a tremendous opportunity to create positive experiences with their customers via email. This opportunity stems from rich data about customers. Leverage marketing data and use it as the foundation of your email strategy. Let the data tell you how, when, what and who to communicate with to ignite customer connections and deliver exceptional brand experiences.

Methodology The performance metrics examined averages across all companies within the stated categories. The averages listed are unweighted and do not reflect mail volumes by any one company. This is done to provide a measure of average company performance in the category, removing the effect that large mailers can have on category averages. Unless otherwise stated, all results are aggregated. Metrics used in this report are defined as follows: • Open Rate: Total opens/Emails delivered •

Click-through Rate: Total clicks/Emails delivered

•

CTOR (Click to Open Rate): Total clicks/Total opens

•

Bounce Rate: (Bounce and/or Undelivered)/Emails sent

•

Non-Bounce Rate: 1 – bounce back rate. Calculation does not include ISP or inbox filtering

Industry categories used in the report are defined as follows: • Editorial: Content consists primarily of articles, critiques, commentary, news, or opinions •

Legal: Content contains legal information or notification for clients, e.g. product recall notice

•

Marketing: Content contains merchandise information and incentives for purchasing

•

Other: Contains content that does not fit other categories

•

Research/Surveys: Research Functions to conduct research on subscribers, e.g. the template contains a survey

•

Service: Provide subscriber-requested information, such as banking statements

Connect with Epsilon to receive the latest thought leadership and to discuss marketing trends and challenges. Twitter: @EpsilonMktg Facebook: www.facebook.com/epsilonmarketing Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/companies/epsilon Blog: www.abrandnewview.com

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Q2 2014 EMAIL TRENDS AND BENCHMARKS

About Epsilon Epsilon is the global leader in helping clients create customer connections that build brand and business equity. A new breed of agency for a consumer-empowered world, our unique approach harnesses the power of rich data, world-leading technologies, engaging creativity and transformative ideas to ignite connections between brands and customers, delivering dramatic results. Recognized by Ad Age as the #1 U.S. Agency from All Disciplines, #1 World Largest CRM/Direct Marketing Network and #3 Largest U.S. Digital-Agency Network, we employ over 5000 associates in 60 offices worldwide. Epsilon is an Alliance Data company. For more information, visit www.epsilon.com, follow us on Twitter @EpsilonMktg or call 1.800.309.0505.

About Email Institute Email Institute, powered by Epsilon, was founded with the purpose of educating marketers on email marketing best practices and how it intersects with other channels (Mobile, Social Media, Brick and-Mortar, Catalog, etc). The best practices site features articles from around the industry that focus on improving email marketing by pointing out how-to information on a specific subject and showcasing other company’s email marketing efforts. Email Institute also showcases premium webinars, events, white papers and Epsilon primary research and benchmarks to provide in-depth information strategically targeted to increase your email marketing acumen.

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