Visual email identification raises open rate by 67 percent

The study, conducted over a three month time period from January to March, 2007, involved Iconix customers that used best practices in email authentication coupled with visual email icons. While the study isn’t independent, the quality of Iconix’s customers, such as eBay, YouTube, CareerBuilder.com and Citibank, makes the figures worth a browse.

The study found that use of a visual “certified” logo, along with best practice email authentication, boosted open rates by 67 percent. This is put down to users being able to see, at a glance, that an email is from who it says it is from. In addition, it’s a particularly useful consumer tool to defend against phishing attacks.

“We are seeing a continuance of a strong trend,” said Jeff Wilbur, vice president of marketing for ICONIX. “Visual email icons are an extremely effective tool for companies to reach out to their customer base. The message is clear. Companies that implement solid authentication strategies and enhance them with other services such as visual icons see a much better return on their authentication efforts. Furthermore, marking the messages ensures not only that customers can trust the message, but find it through the clutter of everyday email.”

The increase in open rates, across nine email categories, breaks down as follows:

Online retail – 135.8%
News/Info – 130.7%
Job services – 93.4%
Social networks – 76.8%
Financial institutions – 68.4%
Online payment – 55.2%
Online auctions – 52.3%
E-cards – 49.1%
Travel – 23.5%

The Direct Marketing Association has recently launched an email authentication center to help marketers comply with the DMA Board of Directors’ mandate. The mandate requires DMA members to authenticate all outbound email.