Open rates for marketing emails are up 18.2% over open rates for 2Q08, according to Epsilon's Q2 2009 U.S. Email Trends and Benchmarks Results report:

Key findings:

• The second quarter of 2009 is the fourth quarter in a row in which open rates increased.
• Click-through rates (5.9%) remained stable from 2Q08 (5.9%), after rising slightly in 1Q09 to 6.1%.
• At 94.1%, 2Q09's non-bounce rate is the same as in the previous quarter, and up slightly from 2Q08, when Epsilon measured it at 93.2%.

Industry Performance

Among the 16 industries Epsilon tracks, 14 experienced a rise in open rates from 2Q08 to 2Q09:

Key findings:

• Average volume per client increased 10% from last quarter and 20% from 2Q08.
• The two industries that experienced a decline in open rates YOY were non-profit/education general and consumer publishing/media general.

"Our research has shown that while email marketing volumes have increased substantially, email remains a highly effective channel for communication," says Kevin Mabley, senior vice president of strategic and analytic consulting for Epsilon. "The top performers are those taking advantage of lifecycle triggers to send timely, relevant emails. These marketers are capturing preferences, both explicit through preference centers and opt-in pages and implicit such as web activity, response and engagement activity. With this data, they are able to deliver targeted, relevant content to each individual consumer.”

From 2Q08 to 2Q09, click-through rates for 11 industries increased or remained stable, and for 5 industries declined:

Key finding:

• Industries experiencing a decline were business products and services general, consumer products CPG, consumer services general, non-profit/education general, and retail apparel.
• Click-through rates remained stable from 2Q08 to 2Q09 for consumer publishing/media general.
  

Combined Performance on Three Major Metrics

Business publishing/media general, consumer products general, pharmaceutical, telecom, general retail, specialty retail, and travel/hospitality travel services all saw an increase in all three major metrics—deliverability, open rates, and click-through rates—compared with last year.

None of the industries measured saw a decline across all three metrics.

About the data: The data cited here comes from Epsilon's Q2 2009 Email Trends and Benchmark study, compiled from 6.5 billion emails sent by Epsilon in April, May, and June 2009 across multiple industries and approximately 200 clients. The analysis combines data from two Epsilon proprietary platforms, DREAM and DREAMmail. The report is available at www.epsilon.com/pr/Q209emailbenchmarks.