Online Marketing Company

Online Marketing Company, eROI, Releases Q1 '06 Email Statistics

Weekends and Smaller More Segmented Lists Represent the Best Opportunity for eMarketers

Portland, Ore. – May 17, 2006 - Online marketing expert, eROI, Inc., today released the results of their quarterly email marketing study. Not only does the Q1 2006 study show some interesting statistics and shifts, it is also coupled with key information obtained from their April 2006 survey of email marketers. The eROI Q1 2006 email study shows that weekends, across the board, provide the best open rates and opportunities for marketers. Additionally, based on the statistics derived from the email marketer survey, most marketers are sending newsletters (45 percent) while only 26 percent send product promotions and another 24 percent send event announcements. Also, one-third of email marketers surveyed aren’t segmenting their lists; eROI has determined that smaller more segmented lists produce greater results.

The eROI Q4 2005 email study showed a drop in read and click rates (29 and 21 percent respectively) in Q4 over Q3 2005. Results for the Q1 2006 study show an interesting uptake trend with an increase in open and click rates (40 – 60 percent respectively) and a large uptake in weekend activity. “It is interesting to see the uptake in opens and clicks during the weekend,” said Jeff Mills, eROI Email Analyst and former Gartner researcher. “Much of this activity can be attributed to the massive drop off in activities after the holiday activities, people having more time to browse online, read email, and spend time as a family. One thing that stands out is that in lists larger than 25,000 recipients, sending is much more sporadic compared to smaller list sizes. This shows that larger mailers are not necessarily segmenting further, but are experimenting with their time and day of sending.”

From their April 2006 survey of email marketers - with a fairly even split between B2B, B2C and a hybrid approach (38, 28, 34 percent, respectively), eROI has discovered some major opportunities for marketers. While none of this information is new, it is unique in the way the information is presented. Email marketing lists are on the rise - 83 percent of marketers see a significant increase in their lists from this time last year. This is partially due to the list building strategies that eROI develops for clients, but is also showing that email is still on the rise.

As far as advanced email marketing tactics are concerned, only 34 percent of marketers use behavioral data for segmentation and targeting while 66 percent use demographic information to position their offers and newsletters. With just over one-third of marketers using behavioral data for targeting, only four percent track the lifetime value of an email subscriber/customer. As the email marketing field matures, we should see more and more marketers track lifetime value. This means that marketers are getting sophisticated enough to develop a series of email campaigns that “automatically” adjust to a subscribers online actions and will send different messages to a prospect vs. customer, cold lead vs. qualified lead, new visitor vs. frequent visitor.

“Managed email lists give you the ability to target your email campaigns based on demographics by which you can segment lists at the start of an email campaign and then refine your lists as you gain more and more information about your prospects and/or customers,” said Ryan Buchanan, President and CEO of eROI. “Overall, managed lists help build long-term customer value, increased loyalty, higher email response rates and more profitable communications.”

Other Key Findings – Q1 2006 eMail Statistics
Micro-Mailers, those less than 5,000 recipients, tend to perform similarly – with the highest activity taking place during the weekend. This activity is nearly the exact inverse of sending schedules – the majority of email was sent during the weekdays but most open and click data is gathered on the weekends.

Small senders, those between 5,000 and 24,999 senders do see some good Sunday statistics and consistent weekday numbers. There appears to be a Thursday drop off in the Small Mailer segment and rebounding during the rest of the week. This was seen particularly with the B2B marketers, concluding that the weekends are a great opportunity for this segment.

Mid-size (25,000-99,999) senders like to send email Wednesday and Thursday, but it looks like Friday is the day for response, with the highest percentage of clicks taking place for 25,000 - 49,999 mailers. The 50,000 – 99,999 mailer category holds truer to their send statistics with the highest number of sends and the highest percentage of clicks taking place on Wednesday.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the top performing days for Large Mailers with Monday and Tuesday registering the highest open rates and Tuesday being the headline day for click rates. The important take away here is not what day is best for both opens and reads but finding which day is best for the goal of your email. You see that for 100K – 250K mailer category Tuesday has the highest percentage of those who read and clicked on the email. Unlike their polar opposites (small mailers) large mailers see poor statistics on the weekend. To request a copy of the full study go to: Q1 2006 email statistics

About eROI
eROI, Inc. helps its clients generate and capture qualified leads online through email marketing, e-commerce, search engine marketing, and Web site development. eROI's unique approach transforms clients' Web sites into effective vehicles for capturing leads. The company's email campaign management services include planning, email design and email list management and their award-winning technology platform enables clients to build, send and track HTML emails. Clients include Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Harland Financial Solutions, The Henry Ford Museum, Hewlett-Packard, InFocus, Kettle Foods, Konami, Learning.com, Microsoft, New Edge Networks,NW Natural, OHSU, PGE, Planar, Papa Murphy’s Pizza, Providence Health Plan, Red Bull, Salomon and SEGA. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.eroi.com.