E-mail metrics are often difficult for many online marketers to track. Often the results of an e-mail newsletter marketing campaign are left to chance. The marketer sends out the e-mail, crosses some fingers and toes, and hopes for the best. With few industry guidelines and benchmarks as references, many marketers are left int the dark. Thanks to a new study by eROI E-Mail Marketing, that is about to change.
According to public relations professional Rachel Weikum of Weikum Communications, the results are very important to the internet marketing industry.
Rachel says:
Email marketing expert, eROI, surveyed over 300 B2B and B2C customers and here's some of what they found:
Highlights –
1. The Q2 06 email study, as did Q1 2006, show that weekends, across the board, provide the best opportunities for emarketers.
2. We saw in Q1 2006, that newsletters were sent out by marketers more than any other form of marketing collateral. This quarter we also find that 24% of those surveyed use false email addresses for consumer newsletters.
3. Other key findings include – the best time to send email (noon and evening), frequency and what causes folks to unsubscribe.
eRoi have been publishing a quarterly email report since 2004. These studies show interesting trends in terms of best day to send email (B2B & B2C), the best time to send, what causes people to opt-out of emails and other interesting statistical data.
I was noticing an interesting trend when reviewing the last two years of the study – in 2004 the best day to send was Thursday’s, in 2005 it was Friday’s, now for 2006 we are seeing the board, provide the best opportunities for emarketers. This goes to show that the "best" day is a moving target, validating our hypothesis that best days are a fluctuating and ever-changing element and that testing is vital. While this seems like common sense it does show that patterns exist on a macro and micro level and you need to identify those by performing, at minimum, a quarterly audit of the emails sent.
The entire report is available for download and it contains some not to be missed information and statistics. These benchmark numbers can be put to use in your own e-mail marketing campaigns. Of course, be certain to run tests against your own already existing in-house data, as results of e-mail marketing projects can vary significantly.
The importance of the eROI study is the establishment of some industry baselines. Your results could exceed their survey standards, or they could fall short.
As always, never stop testing and recording the results of your e-mail marketing campaign. Study those metrics and put them to use on your next successful sales venture.
In the meantime, download, study, and put to use the eROI e-mail marketing idustry survey.
