New research from cloud-based marketing experts Experian Marketing Services shows that during the third quarter of 2015 email volume rose 24.8 percent year over year, while engagement rates matched or exceeded those in the third quarter of 2014.
The research notes: 37 percent of brands had a significant year-over-year increase in transaction rates and revenues per email; unique open rates were 17.5 percent in Q3 2015, up from 16.7 percent in Q3 2014; unique click rates remained constant at 2.1 percent in Q3 of both 2014 and 2015
Smarter data-management practices are key to higher engagement; according to Experian´s analysis, email volume increased year over year across all industries except publishing.
“Scale can often be a marketer´s Achilles´ heel when it comes to email — increase your volume and expect to see a decrease in engagement and effectiveness. When we see the opposite — and our latest data shows that we´re seeing a shift — it´s a sign of data stewardship, leveraging data to drive smarter marketing decisions,” said Spencer Kollas, vice president of global deliverability services at Experian Marketing Services.
The peak days of the 2015 holiday season saw large year-over-year increases in volume, led by a 68 percent increase in travel emails and a 36.4 percent increase in emails from multichannel retailers. Email volume on Cyber Monday alone was 28 percent higher than in 2014. For the peak days from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the Tuesday after Cyber Monday, transactions were 22 percent higher than those seen last year.
The Q3 2015 Email Benchmark Report featured a trend-to-watch section on flash sales, targeted sales that last less than 24 hours and promise customers great value during a limited time period. The report found that in the third quarter of 2015, flash sales had 59 percent higher transaction rates than the third quarter multichannel retail benchmark. In addition, revenue per email for flash sales was 29 percent higher than the Q3 2015 multichannel retail benchmark.
Experian Marketing Services provides data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology. It offers a comprehensive Marketing Suite that unites customer insights, analytics, data quality and cross-channel marketing technology into a single platform.
