The Q3 2003 Email Trend Shows Strong Email Performance Despite Difficult Delivery Environment.

DoubleClick Inc. released its Q3 Email Trend Report, which shows that despite an increasingly difficult email delivery environment, delivery rates for legitimate marketers are up in almost all categories. While open rates have declined in certain categories, click rates have increased significantly year-over-year. In addition, a year-over-year improvement in conversions bodes well for the current holiday season.

Delivery Rates Improve for Legitimate Marketers

Despite several changes to popular email services and the continuing increase in levels of spam, overall delivery rates (emails sent minus the hard and soft bounce-back rate) in Q3 2003 were 88.2%, an improvement of 1.7% over the same period last year.

Business Publishers have the highest delivery rate at 92.9% (a 4.4% increase from Q3 2002), followed by Retail and Catalog at 90.6% (up 2.8% from Q3 2002).

Click-Through Rates Continue to Improve

Average click-through rates in Q3 2003 were 9.2%, an increase of 8.2% versus Q3 2002 (8.5%). Despite a drop in open rates in a number of categories, click-through rates increased year-over-year in the Consumer Products and Services (up 12.0% to 11.2%), Retail and Catalog (up 27.5% to 8.8%), Travel (up 2.4% to 8.5%) and Business Publisher (up 15.9% to 8.0%)
categories. The click-through rate remained at 7.8% in the Business Products and Services category, while it fell 17.7% to 9.3% in the Consumer Publisher category.

“DoubleClick clients are adapting their email practices to deal with the increasingly complex email environment,” said Eric Kirby, Vice President and General Manager of DoubleClick’s Strategic Services Division. “The Q3 results seem to show that clients’ improved practices and smarter marketing habits are helping them keep ahead of these increasing complexities, a positive sign as we enter the crucial holiday season.”

Email Continues to Drive Purchases

For Retail and Catalog customers that track purchase activity through DARTmail, overall conversion metrics for the third quarter improved year-over-year. Revenue per email delivered was $0.26, up 24% versus Q3 2002 ($0.21). Although click-to-purchase conversions dipped 2.9% year-over-year (3.4% in Q3 2003 versus 3.5% in Q3 2002), orders per email delivered rose 4.3% (from 0.23% to 0.24%) in the same period. Average order size rose 4% versus Q3 2002 ($97) to $101.

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