Epsilon: Email open rates over 20%

New data from email marketing firm Epsilon indicates that email continues to grow in importance. The new report, ranking Q3 2009 numbers, found that open rates were up just over 3% year over year for the quarter with click rates increasing by just over 5% (year over year).

by Kristina Knight

"Timely, relevant offers that reflect customer preferences and behavior will drive the most opens, clicks and conversions," said Kevin Mabley, senior vice president of strategic and analytic consulting with Epsilon. "In addition, marketers should consider strategies that incorporate triggers and transactional messaging as part of the purchase cycle. Our clients who are focused on a data-driven email marketing strategy continue to outperform the rest of the pack."

More interesting findings include:

• The overall click rate was just over 6%
• The overall email open rate reached 22%
• Non-bounce rate also increased year over year

According to research from Return Path more than three-quarters (84%) of permission based emails from the US and Canada reached consumer inboxes during the first half of 2009.

Although these reports spell success for email marketing in 2010, Return Path's Matt Blumberg warns that marketers still need to be diligent about their email practices. Blumberg cites the trend that many ISPs will begin focusing on picking out legitimate email marketers rather than kicking out spammers or fraudulent emailers because there are so many of these 'bad guys' that it is fast for the ISP to identify legitimate emailers.

Tags: click through, email click through, email marketing, email open rate, Epsilon, open rates, Return Path