Email marketing open rates 'on the up'

New research has highlighted the extent to which email marketing proves to be an effective channel that can provide firms with a good return on investment.

The Epsilon Q1 Email Trends and Benchmarks study found that deliverability and open rates for email marketing both grew in the first three months of the year when compared with the same period in 2008, rising to 94.1 per cent and 22.1 per cent respectively.

Open rates showed a significant improvement year-on-year, rising 11.2 per cent.

It was also noted that click rates were slightly down, dropping by 0.3 per cent year-on-year, however they were up 0.3 per cent compared to the final quarter of 2008.

The study concluded that in order for email marketing to remain successful, firms must execute their strategies carefully and ensure that they are not sending irrelevant messages.

"Targeted campaigns are clearly more successful than the batch-and-blast approach," it added.

A recent report from StrongMail Systems highlighted that the integration of social media and video in email marketing are two trends which people in the industry should keep an eye on in the future.

Written by Mark Hainsby