Email Marketing Metrics 2008h2

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report
Most Popular Words in Subject Lines
New Design
Tip Case Study
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11
Which Industries Get the Best Response Rates

Even In This Recession
Designing Mobile Friendly Emails

®
®
©©
2009
2009by
byMailerMailer. AllAllRights
MailerMailer LLC. RightsReserved.
Reserved.
EMAIL MARKETING METRICS REPORT JULY - DECEMBER (H2) 2008
Table of Contents
Introduction
Why Do We Do This? 1
State of the Industry: Effects of the Recession and Technology Trends 2
Email Rocks, Even in a Recession 2
Executive Summary 3
Open Rates

Unique Open Rates 4
Why have open rates declined in the past? 4
Open Rates by Industry 5
Open Rate Comparison 6
Click Rates
Click Rates 7
Click Rates by Industry 8
Click Rate Comparison 9
Open and Click Rates

By Day 10
Design Tips Case Study

Maximizing Opens, Clicks and Sales in Terrible Times 11
Subject Line Length

Opens by Subject Line Length 14
Clicks by Subject Line Length 15
Subject Line Content

Subject Line Trends: Most Popular Words 16
Personalization
How Personalization Affects Open and Click Rates 17
Message Format and Links

Click Rates by Format 18
Clicks by Number of Links 18
Designing mobile-friendly emails 19
Copyright
2009 by MailerMailer LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page I
Table of Contents
Bounces
Deliverability and Bounces 20
Bounce Rates by Industry 21
Bounce Percentage by Mailing Frequency 22
Stabilization
Stabilization of Open Rates 23
Total Emails Opened by Hour (Cumulative) 23
Open and Click Rates by List Size and Industry

Banking and Finance 24
Computer and Internet 24
Consulting 25
Consumers: General 25
Education and Training 26
Entertainment 26
Government 27
Large Business: General 27
Manufacturing 28
Marketing and Advertising 28
Media and Publishing 29
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare 29
Nonprofit and Trade Association 30
Real Estate 30
Religious and Spiritual 31
Restaurant and Food Service 31
Retail Establishments 32
Small Business: General 32
Telecommunications 33
Transportation and Travel 33
Wholesale and Distribution 34
Closing Remarks
Methodology 35
About MailerMailer 35
Copyright
2009 by MailerMailer LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page II
Introduction
Why Do We Do This?
The MailerMailer team is once again excited to publish our popular bi-annual email
marketing metrics report. This is our ninth one.
It takes a good deal of time and effort to create these reports, but we do it for three
reasons:
• Email marketing is extremely measureable and we happen to have loads of data at our
fingertips.
• It helps our industry. We enjoy sharing benchmarks that anyone can use to gauge and
improve their own email marketing results.
• Most importantly, it gives our customers very useful information to see how their
campaigns perform relative to others.
To find out the latest information on email marketing trends, subscribe to MailerMailer’s
newsletter at http://www.mailermailer.com/newsletter-signup.rwp and read our blog, at
http://blog.mailermailer.com.
Copyright
2009 by MailerMailer LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 1
Introduction
State of the Industry: Effects of the Recession and Technology Trends
This report, more so than previous editions, shows how societal and economic trends are
reflected in the email performance of several industries. Given the state of the economy, it may
not be a surprise that Banking/Finance and Real Estate dropped from their top open and click
rate positions. Yet it’s not all doom and gloom. On the other side of the spectrum, others, such
as the Religious/Spiritual industry, for example, continue to see growth in their subscriber
response.
The key to leading winning campaigns in the midst of a recession is to move with the ebb and
flow of changing subscriber needs and preferences. A recent trend in subscriber reading habits
is that many are now viewing email messages on mobile devices. Many marketers are designing
image-heavy emails optimal for image-enabled, computer monitor viewing experiences.
However, they are failing to cater to the unique needs of their mobile email crowd. So we
decided to include a special section in this report to help email marketers address the changing
reading preferences of their audience.
Email Rocks, Even in a Recession

The Direct Marketing Association has consistently reported that email garners the
highest ROI among all direct response methods. Their recent study shows email
marketing’s average ROI to be $45.06 for every dollar spent, more than double Internet
marketing’s ROI of $19.94 for every dollar spent. Companies, nonprofits, and other
organizations can all take advantage of email marketing’s amazing ROI, and this report
will help.
Marketers faced with tightening budgets have options to make their dollars stretch
further. Rather than removing email marketing from their mix, they can explore low cost
providers that will allow them to continue reaping the benefits of email marketing.
Tip
In good times and bad, email marketers can and do succeed. Check out savvy strategies of several
successful companies in our new eBook, “Turning Emails Into Customers” Get your free copy at:
http://www.mailermailer.com/email-marketing-ebook.rwp
Copyright
Introduction
Executive Summary
This reports tracks email messages sent through MailerMailer between July 1 and December
21, 2008. It also includes data from earlier reports to show trends. See Methodology for details
about how this data was collected and measured.
• How Soon Do People Open Their Email? – 74.5% of opens occur within the first 24
hours and 84.3% occur within the first 48 hours.
• Open Rates – The overall unique open rates stand at 12.52% which is a marginal decline
from the 13.20% open rate experienced in the first half of 2008.
• Click Rates – Click rates held steady. Subscriber clicks in the second half of 2008 were
comparable to those in the previous six months, rising a mere 0.08%.
• Best Days to Send – Though weekends and the beginning of the week outperform the
other days, Monday is the clear winner having both the highest open rate and click rate.
• Subject Lines – Yet again, emails with subject lines shorter than 35 characters were
opened more than emails with subject lines longer than 35 characters.
• Personalization – Personalization can be good. Data shows when only the message is
personalized, there are more opens and clicks. However, emails with only the subject
line personalized garnered the least amount of opens and clicks.
• Deliverability – For the second year now, deliverability continues to increase and
bounces continue to decrease. This means more messages are reaching recipients’ inbox.
• Number of Recipients – Messages delivered to small and medium lists have far
greater open and click rates than messages delivered to lists containing 1000 or more
subscribers. A smaller list does not directly affect open and click rates, but mailings to
smaller lists may be targeted better, contain more relevant content or have more recent
subscribers.
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Open Rates
16% Unique Open Rates
13.98% The overall unique open rate for emails sent by
14% 13.20% customers in all industries in the last six months
12.52%
of 2008 declined slightly, less than 0.7%. This is a
12%
smaller decrease than the previous six months, which
10%
saw a similar decline.
8% Last half of 2008: 12.52%

First half of 2008: 13.20%
6%
4% Why have open rates declined in the past?

2%
Open rates began declining in late 2004 as more
email programs began disabling automatic image
0% downloading by default. That said, click rates are
H2 2007 H1 2008 H2 2008 holding somewhat steady, suggesting that people are
Unique Open Rates still reading their emails, just not with images enabled.
To track open rates, HTML emails contain a 1x1

pixel invisible image. When a recipient enables images
Tip to display when they read the message, the sending
Use “alt” tags proving a description of servers are able to track when the image was displayed
your images to people who have images and by whom- this is the “open rate” information you
disabled. see in your reports. When images are blocked, the
“open” cannot be tracked.
In our last report, we mentioned that open rates are

becoming less accurate with many people reading
Definition email from hand held devices and disabling image
Unique opens are calculated as the number downloading. The fact that click rates remained
of addresses which were tracked as having fairly steady suggests that people are still reading the
viewed a message divided by the total messages even though fewer opens are being reported.
number of HTML messages sent. Each
address, even if it opened the message more Not all industries experienced a decline in open rates,
than once, was counted only once; hence,
as the next page shows.
showing unique opens.
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Open Rates
Open Rates by Industry
Religious/Spiritual 25.75%
The industries which earned the highest
Telecommunications 22.63% unique open rates in the first half of
2008 were mostly the same as the prior
Transportation/Travel 20.75%
six months. Banking/Finance, however,
Banking/Finance 20.35% lost its reign, dropping down to the
number four spot. Religious/Spiritual
Government 19.68%
now has the highest open rate from the
Nonprofit/Trade Association 17.43% industries. Government also fell from
third to fifth place.
Wholesale/Distribution 17.34%
H2 ‘08 H1’ 08
Real Estate 15.31% Religious/Spiritual 25.75% 26.69%
Telecommunications 22.63% 25.17%
Media/Publishing 14.32%
Transportation/Travel 20.75% 24.86%
Large Business: General 14.09% Banking/Finance 20.35% 27.75%
Government 19.68% 25.60%
Retail Establishment 14.04%
Consumers: General 13.65%

Emails sent by the following industries
were least likely to be opened:
Education/Training 13.46% H2 ‘08 H1 ‘08
Computer/Internet 9.53% 8.82%
Small Business: General 12.42%
Entertainment 8.75% 9.07%
Manufacturing 11.66% Medical 7.11% 5.85%
Marketing/Advertising 10.72%
Consulting 10.36%
Restaurant/Food Service 9.58% Tip

Make sure your subscribers can
Computer/Internet 9.53%
recognize your Sender, or “From,”
Entertainment 8.75% name. Also, be careful with the
words you use in your subject line.
Medical/Dental/Healthcare 7.11% Subject lines that read like spam are
often confused with spam. Including
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
your brand name can help increase
Open Rates By Industry
recognition with your readers.
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Open Rates
H1 2008 H2 2008
Open Rate Comparison
Banking/Finance 27.75%
20.35% Open rates for some industries increased
Computer/Internet 8.82% while most decreased.
9.53%
Consulting 9.31%
10.36% Biggest Winners:
13.30% Nonprofit/Trade Association
Consumers: General
13.65% Medical/Dental/Healthcare
15.72%
Education/Training
13.46%
Consulting
Entertainment 9.07%
8.75% Biggest Losers:
Government 25.60% Banking/Finance
19.68%
Government
16.43%
Large Business: General
14.09% Transportation/Travel
Manufacturing 13.80% Small Business: General
11.66%
10.72%
Tip
14.32% Common things subscribers desire
Medical/Dental/Healthcare 5.85% when they open an email message
7.11%
include: high-quality writing, good
14.60%
Nonprofit/Trade Association design and brevity. Include these
17.43%
17.74%
three elements in your campaigns.
Real Estate
15.31%
26.69%
Religious/Spiritual
25.75%
9.87%
Restaurant/Food Service
9.58%
15.98%
Retail Establishment
14.04%
16.49%
Small Business: General
12.42%
25.17%
Telecommunications
22.63%
24.86%
Transportation/Travel
20.75%
19.25%
Wholesale/Distribution
17.34%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Open Rate Comparison
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Click Rates
4.0%
Click Rates
Click rates record how many time the links in an
email message were clicked. It includes clicks from
2.90%
both text and HTML versions of a message. Overall
3.0% 2.80%
2.73% click rates rose slightly by .07% since our last report
six months ago.
2.0% Second half of 2008: 2.80%

First half of 2008: 2.73%
1.0% Tip
Use the power of social networks to increase your
subscriptions, as well as your open and click rates.
For example, you could post an update on Facebook
0.0%
or Twitter urging your audience to subscribe and
H2 2007 H1 2008 H2 2008
check out your latest newsletter. Include a blurb
Click Rates
about special content you are featuring and what
unique value you are providing.
Sample tweet: “Sent out our May Newsletter for the

Safe Haven Project. Talks about our new financing
program! Subscribe here (link).”
Definition
Click rates are defined as the total number of unique
clicks (i.e., the first time a person clicks on a link)
divided by the total number of opportunities to
click. It is calculated as follows: the total number of
unique clicks divided by the product of the number
of links in each message and the number of total
recipients.
For example, a message sent to 100 people with 5 unique

links in it that get 10 unique clicks would have a 10/(100*5)
= 2% click rate.
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Click Rates
Click Rates by Industry
Religious/Spiritual 7.04%
There has been a lot of change since our
Transportation/Travel 4.44%
last report six months ago. Religious/
Spiritual first appeared as a top
Consumers: General 4.22% performing industry last year, and has
continued to dominate, taking the
Banking/Finance 3.68%
number one spot yet again in the second
Retail Establishment 3.64% half of 2008. Consumers is a new
industry to this list, while Real Estate, a
Real Estate 3.47%
usual top industry, did not make the list
Computer/Internet 2.87% this time around. This is not surprising
given the state of the economy and the
real estate market.
Medical/Dental/Healthcare 2.54%
H2 ‘08 H1 ‘08
Wholesale/Distribution 2.43% Religious/Spiritual 7.04% 6.66%
Transportation/Travel 4.44% 4.65%
Nonprofit/Trade Association 2.37%
Consumers: General 4.22% 3.61%
Education/Training 2.21% Banking/Finance 3.68% 5.74%
Retail Establishment 3.64% 4.61%
Consulting 2.06%
Large Business: General 1.99%

Emails sent by the following industries
Manufacturing 1.94%
in July - December 2008 were the
Telecommunications 1.77% least likely to be clicked on:
Small Business: General 1.68% H2 ‘08 H1 ‘08

Government 1.56% 2.01%
Government 1.56%
Entertainment 1.31% 1.58%
Entertainment 1.31% Marketing/Advertising 1.20% 1.39%
Restaurant/Food Service 0.64% 0.78%
Restaurant/Food Service 0.64% Government is new to this list and has

taken the place of Consulting, which
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8%
has experienced a rise in click rates.
Click Rates By Industry
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Click Rates
H1 2008 H2 2008
Click Rate Comparison
5.74%
Banking/Finance
3.68% Some industry click rates saw major
Computer/Internet
2.50% fluctuations compared to six months
2.87%
ago. Only two of the five industries that
1.46%
Consulting
2.06%
were top performers in our last report
3.61% maintained their positions. Those two
Consumers: General
4.22% industries are Religious/Spiritual and
2.80% Consulting.
Education/Training
2.21%
1.58%
Entertainment
1.31% Biggest Winners:
Government
2.01% Consumers: General
1.56%
Consulting
1.79%
1.99% Nonprofit/Trade Association
2.41% Religious/Spiritual
Manufacturing
1.94% Computer/Internet
1.39%
Marketing/Advertising
1.20%
3.09%
Biggest Losers:
Media/Publishing
2.71% Real Estate
Medical/Dental/Healthcare
3.87% Banking/Finance
2.54%
1.83%
Nonprofit/Trade Association
2.37% Retail Establishment
6.35%
Real Estate
3.47%
6.66%
Religious/Spiritual
7.04%
.78%
.64%
4.61%
3.64%
2.11%
1.68%
1.80%
Telecommunications
1.77%
4.65%
4.44%
3.16%
2.43%
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8%
Click Rate Comparison
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Open and Click Rates

By Day
In general, the earlier in the workweek the emails were sent, the better. Best day to send:
Open rates peaked on Mondays and decreased as the workweek
continued. Emails sent on Sundays saw a drop in open rate. Those sent
Monday
on Mondays generated the highest open and click rates.
Click rates hardly changed compared to the first half of 2008,

though days in the latter half of the workweek showed a slight
increase in clicks. To increase your open and click rates, the data
points to sending earlier in the week.
16%
14%
12%
10%
Open Rate H2 2008

8%
Open Rate H1 2008
6% Click Rate H2 2008
Click Rate H1 2008

4%
2%
0%
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat
Open and Click Rates By Day
Tip
Avoid these common newsletter complaints that cause people to stop
opening your emails and clicking your links:
• Overly frequent deliveries • Large file size

• Irrelevant content • Too many pictures or ads
• Format problems • Broken links
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Design Tips Case Study

Maximizing Opens, Clicks and Sales in Terrible Times
Situation:
Theatre IV & Barksdale
When times are tough, the household dollar is often on a tighter
Theatre Profile
string. This presents a challenge for many theatre companies,
whose sales mostly depend on theatre-goers’ disposable income. Email Marketer: Jessica
Daugherty
When newspaper headlines are screaming about bank failures and
Position: Webmaster
job layoffs, the last thing Jessica Daugherty wants to do is present
another headline about a new tragic drama. Company:
Theatre IV, America’s
Action Plan: Focus on Positives largest children’s company
No matter what show is playing, Daugherty highlights the upbeat in the schools touring to
nature of the story. She strives to make the email marketing message 35 states and performing
on a main stage. Barksdale
itself a nice escape-kind-of-experience to draw people in to buy tickets
Theatre, a professional
and watch the show.
theater in central Virginia.
Theatreiv.org
Implementation:
Here are some ways Daugherty presents the positives: Though living in New
Zealand herself, Daugherty
• Bigger graphics, bolder colors, less text - more splashy look is able to telecommute
and schedule emails to her
• Positive text in the subject lines and message itself, while still
subscribers on the other
staying true to the integrity of the play - that way even if the
side of the world.
play is a gripping drama, she would play up the quirkiness of
the characters, without mentioning the illness eating up that
character inside. Tip
• Poignant images - one woman went to see the play, “The Best
See 5 other design
Christmas Pageant Ever,” because of the touching graphic
case studies in the free
eBook, Successful Email
Daugherty infuses an uplifting strategy into her nonprofit’s
Marketer’s Playbook: Real
campaigns to help retain engaged subscribers and make ticket sales, Examples of Campaigns
even in difficult times. Though the general theatre industry is seeing That Generate Buzz and
the effects of the recession, Daugherty’s focus on positive appeal Bring in Sales
continues to draw patrons to Theatre IV and Barksdale Theatre.
Copyright
Subject line: Theatre IV’s Sideways Stories and 2 Show Subscription Savings
From: Theatre IV: The Children’s Theatre of Virginia
Fun subject line Bright, bold colors

Using colors that POP
Alliterative subject line
brings life into your email.
rolls off the tongue. Using
These particular color
this technique appeals to
choices also reflect the fun
readers’ sense of hearing
and quirky mood
when they read out loud.
of the play.
Discounts Powerful imagery

Showing monetary value The overbearing size of the
- “Save” - especially useful teacher, the expressions
when people’s wallets are on the faces and the
tight. shadows all work together
to create a compelling
statement.
Copyright
Subject line: Barksdale: Rave Reviews, Video & Discounts for Children of a Lesser God
From: Barksdale Theatre
Poignant pictures
Scenes straight from the
drama gives subscribers a
preview of what they will
see on stage.
Reviews
Seeing testimonials
of other people and
publications give a sense
of what people can expect
and can attract people to
the show.
Dynamic content
Including an image with a
video link helps readers to
engage and connect with
the play’s characters.
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Subject Line Length

Opens by Subject Line Length
Our data confirms, yet again, the correlation between shorter
subject lines and higher open rates. Succinct subject lines Shorter subject lines
containing less than 35 characters tend to get more attention
than subject lines with more than 35 characters. continue to result in
dramatically higher
Though, in general, open rates decrease as subject line length
open and click rates.
increases, this is not an absolute rule. You should test what
your readers respond to. Open rates are very closely tied to the
relationship you have with your recipients. The numbers and
charts shown here represent aggregate information across a
broad range of senders.
25%
Tip
Before sending an email
20% 18.98%
message, ask if your
15.38% readers could confuse
15% your email subject line
for spam. “Renew Your
Service” is a vague,
10%
innocuous subject line
that, without mention of a
5% recognizable brand name,
may seem like a spammer
trying to get attention.
0% “FREE,” “!!!” and “$$” are
less than 35 more than 35
also common spam words
Opens By Subject Line Length to avoid.
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Subject Line Length

Clicks by Subject Line Length
Subject line length also appears to have an effect on click rates.
Similar to open rates, the shorter the subject line, the better the
response. Readers may have clicked more links in emails with
shorter subject lines because more of those emails were opened.
4%
3.52%
3%
2% 1.75%
1%
0%
less than 35 more than 35
Clicks By Subject Line Length
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Subject Line Content

Subject Line Trends: Most Popular Words Ten Most Popular Terms
1. news
We broke down every subject line analyzed in this report into 2. party
the individual words used to determine the 100 most popular 3. newsletter
words. We accounted for different variations of the same word 4. free
so “desk” and “desks” are counted as being the same but “new” 5. night
and “news” are counted as being different. The “word cloud” 6. sale
below depicts a visual representation of the most popular words 7. com
used in subject lines. The larger and darker the words appear, 8. update
the more frequently they were used. 9. holiday
10. week
Post this word cloud on your blog. Get a web-ready version at http://www.mailermailer.com/metrics.rwp
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Personalization
How Personalization Affects Open and Click Rates
Our data shows that personalization can be good. Personalizing
the message itself is associated with higher click rates. It is also
correlated with higher open rates, though open rates are generally
more influenced by the subject line, sender name, and subscribers’
relationship with the sender. Emails with personalization in the
subject lines had the worst performance, generating the least amount
of click rates.
Personalizing subject lines is a tactic used by some to get recipients

to open unsolicited email. Thus, the decrease in opens due to
personalized subject lines is likely caused by people becoming
conditioned to delete such messages because they are often unsolicited.
Not Personalized 12.40%
Subject Line Only

6.14%
Personalized
Message Only Personalized 14.89%
Both Subject Line and

13.19%
Message Personalized
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%
Open Rates By Personalization
Not Personalized 2.73%
Subject Line Only

1.94%
Personalized
Message Only Personalized 4.38%
Both Subject Line and

2.69%
Message Personalized
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5%
Click Rates By Personalization
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Message Format and Links

Click Rates by Format
There was virtually no difference in click
rates between HTML and text messages.
Text Messages 2.95%
Our data shows about a 0.1% difference
in click rate but the vast majority of our
customer’s recipients, over 95%, opted to
receive HTML formatted messages instead
of text. As a result, we had far fewer text-
only messages in our data set so the click
rate may be less statistically valid. In the
HTML Messages 3.05% last few years, HTML messages have seen
a slight decline in click rates. This may
partially be due to an increase of email
viewing on mobile devices.
0% 1% 2% 3% 4%
Click Rates By Format
Clicks by Number of Links

more than 20 3.99%
Emails containing more items to click on
garnered higher click rates than messages
with fewer links, with a sharp increase for
between 11 and 20 1.75% messages having over 20 links.
between 5 and 10 1.25% Tip

To increase the number of clicks your
message receives, link to a variety of
between 1 and 5 1.49% content and include multiple links to
your destination pages.
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5%
Clicks By Number of Links
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Designing mobile-friendly emails

Recently, MarketingSherpa, in partnership with SurveySampling, found Note
that 64% of key decision makers view emails on their Blackberrys and other
More than 50% of
mobile devices.1 Yet the Email Experience Council found that fewer than
mobile devices being
50% of marketers are creating emails that actually render appropriately. used are Blackberry
Many email messages are not fully being displayed on mobile devices devices, followed by
because of blocked images. Windows Mobile- and
Treos-branded devices.
To get around this, email marketers can create a third format for their email Though the iPhone
messages: Mobile. It would be a shorter version of their original message, accounts for only
designed for easy skimming, with minimal use of images. Though there are about 5% of corporate
smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and the Blackberry Storm that do users, significant
display email images, many users are carrying mobile phones that do not. growth in the use of
iPhone is expected in
Here is a simple 3-step guide to get higher read rates: the next two years. -
Osterman Research
1. At the signup page, include a checkbox for users to select a “Mobile
(2008) 2
phone edition” of the newsletter.
2. Create a separate issue that’s optimized for a mobile phone’s screen.
Avoid images and ensure the content is easy-to-read text that can be read
through quickly.
3. Provide a link to the “full” edition of the newsletter that readers
can click on. (Note: Those who do not want to spend the extra time
creating an abbreviated version of email content can add this text to the
“Text only” option of the signup page: “Text only (no images, great for
Blackberry and other mobile devices)”
It is important to get readers the information they want in the way they
want it. The more their desires are addressed, the better the email campaigns
will perform.
1 MarketingSherpa, in partnership with SurveySampling. (2007). EmailStatCenter.com.
Retrieved April 28, 2009 from http://www.emailstatcenter.com/HTMLvTEXT.html.

2 Osterman Research. Black Diamond, WA. (2008). NeverFailGroup.com. Retrieved
April 28, 2009 from http://extranet.neverfailgroup.com/download/OR%20

Executive%20Summary%20-%20Mobile%20Messaging%20Market%20Trends%20
2008-2011%20v2.pdf.
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Bounces
Deliverability and Bounces
For the second year now, deliverability continues to increase and bounces continue to decrease. All
email campaigns result in a percentage of messages that are undeliverable. An email may “bounce
back” due to several reasons:
• Subscriber’s email address has changed

• Receiving server is temporarily unavailable
• Message inadvertently flagged as spam
• Inbox is full
MailerMailer automatically records and purges email addresses that result in bounces from our
customers’ lists after their fifth mailing with us. Due to this, our customers’ bounce rates generally
decrease noticeably after their fifth delivery using our system.
5%
4%
3.32%
3% 2.69%
2%
1.46%
1.29%
1%
0%
H1 2008 H2 2008 H1 2008 H2 2008
First Five Mailings Sixth and subsequent mailings
Tip
Bounce rates for the first five mailings depend largely on how well an existing list was managed prior
to using our service. We use several screening procedures for our new customers and for new lists
that minimize inclusion of older or unreliable addresses.
The average bounce rates for the sixth and subsequent mailings are affected by several factors
including the frequency in which a customer sends messages to a particular email list. See Bounce
Percentage by Mailing Frequency.
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Bounces
First Five Mailings Sixth and Subsequent
Bounce Rates by Industry
2.96%
Banking/Finance Industries that received the lowest
.6%
Computer/Internet
2.72% bounce rates for their first five mailings
1.08%
(and therefore, the best delivery rates)
7.39%
Consulting
1.78%
were:
1.96%
Consumers: General
1.05% Consumers: General 1.96%
Education/Training
3.59% Transportation/Travel 2.12%
2.49%
Nonprofit/Trade Association 2.19%
2.63%
Entertainment
1.19%
4.26% The following industries earned the
Government
1.98% lowest bounce rates (and therefore, the
3.13% best delivery rates) on their sixth and
1.90%
3.42%
subsequent mailings with MailerMailer:
Manufacturing
.91%
Marketing/Advertising
3.83% Banking/Finance 0.60%
1.20%
Manufacturing 0.91%
3.01%
Media/Publishing
1.50% Telecommunications 1.01%
3.78%
3.39%
2.19%
Nonprofit/Trade Association
1.26%
8.47%
Real Estate
3.33%
2.71%
Religious/Spiritual
1.77%
2.37%
1.12%
4.07%
2.55%
2.25%
1.63%
3.19%
Telecommunications
1.01%
2.12%
1.39%
3.71%
2.19%
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9%
Bounce Rates By Industry
Copyright
Bounces
Bounce Percentage by Mailing Frequency
A percent of people change jobs and/or email addresses at any given Deliverability
time which results in natural attrition for all email lists. There is also a
relationship between the frequency in which you send emails to a list and
is higher for
the bounce percentage per mailing. frequent senders.
Bounce percentages are most likely lower for more frequent senders due
to inactive addresses being purged from their lists regularly. In addition,
recipients are less likely to mistake your message for spam if they receive
emails from you frequently.
Deliverability also affects bounce rates. According to SenderScore,

MailerMailer’s deliverability was 99.31% during the period covered by this
report.
6%
4.90%
5%
Bounce Percentage
4%
3%
2.10%
2%
1.40%
1.01%
1% 0.73%
0.51%
0%
Once a day or Few times a Once a week Few times a Once a month Less than once
more week month a month
Mailing Frequency
Tip
Follow an established publishing schedule. That way, your subscribers will
not forget that they signed up, and will come to expect and perhaps even
anticipate your newsletter.
Copyright
Stabilization
Stabilization of Open Rates 100%
There was a slight decrease in the

90%
number of opens that occur within 84.3% H2 2008
the first 2, 24, and 48 hours of 80%
H1 2008
74.5%
a message send, compared to six 70%
Cumulative Percent Opened

months ago.
60%
Nearly one-third, 29.64% to be exact, 50%

of all opens occur within the first two
40%
hours. This is a drop from 32.36% of
emails being opened within the first 30%
two hours six months ago, and more

20%
similar to the 29.57% a year ago.
10%
The number of people opening their

0%
messages within the first 24 hours 0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288 312 335
stayed about the same, 74.5% versus Hours After Delivery

74.8% six months prior. In the first 14%
48 hours, 84.3% of opens will have
occurred, compared to 84.6% in our 12%
last report. H2 2008
H1 2008
Messages Opened in the Hour
10%
Total Emails Opened by Hour
(Cumulative) 8%
Most of your recipients will open your

6%
email within 4-6 hours of delivery if
they are going to open it at all. You
4%
will receive most of your customer
responses within two days.
2%
Tip
0%
Make sure your images, links, and 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48
landing pages remain accessible to Hours After Delivery
subscribers long after the actual
email send date. Some recipients
store their emails and return to them
long after they were originally sent.
Copyright

Banking and Finance
45% 15%
41.33%
11.78%
36% 33.53% 12%
10.62%
27% 9%
18.72%
18% 6%
3.32%
9% 3%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Open Rates By List Size Click Rates By List Size
Computer and Internet
30% 9%
27.09%
7.20%
24%
19.76%
6%
18%
12%
9.35% 2.88%
3%
2.15%
6%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Consulting
25% 14%
22.11%
12% 11.65%
20%
10%
15%
8%
10.38%
6%
10% 8.69%
4.26%
4%
5%
2.02%
2%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Consumers: General
35% 8%
31.95%
6.81%
28%
6%
5.50%
21.78%
21%
4.17%
4%
13.57%
14%
2%
7%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Education and Training
35% 4%
29.66%
28.70%
28%
3%
2.92%
2.61%
21% 2.18%
2%
14% 12.22%
1%
7%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Entertainment
25% 5%
23.41%
20% 19.21% 4% 3.84%

3.50%
15% 3%
10% 8.68% 2%
1.30%
5% 1%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Government
30% 9%
24.63%
24% 6.74%
19.70%
18.82% 6%
18%
3.46%
12% 3.28%
3%
6%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
25% 5%
23.79%
20.37%
3.92%
20% 4%
15% 13.95% 3%
2.05% 1.96%
10% 2%
5% 1%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Manufacturing
35% 12%
29.15%
9.52% 9.58%
28% 26.44%
9%
21%
6%
14%
11.63%
3%
7% 1.89%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Marketing and Advertising
30% 5%
4.56%
24.60%
25%
4%
20%
17.80%
3%
15%
10.63% 2%
10% 1.41%
1.19%
1%
5%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Media and Publishing
35% 5%
4.33%
28.92%
28% 4%
24.84%
21% 3% 2.74% 2.69%
14.22%
14% 2%
7% 1%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare
30% 9%
26.64%
7.57%
24%
21.98%
6%
18%
12%
3%
2.44%
6.75% 2.08%
6%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Nonprofit and Trade Association
35% 4%
32.99%
3.19%
28%
3% 2.82%
23.49%
2.33%
21%
16.85% 2%
14%
1%
7%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Real Estate
25% 7%
6.17%
20.74% 6%
19.88%
20% 5.36%
5%
15.21%
15%
4%
3.40%
3%
10%
2%
5%
1%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Religious and Spiritual
45% 9%
7.43%
35.45%
36% 6.80%
33.31%
6.46%
6%
27% 25.21%
18%
3%
9%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Restaurant and Food Service
35% 7%
31.77%
5.88%
6%
28%
5%
21.10%
21%
4%
3%
14%
2.24%
9.46% 2%
7%
1% 0.62%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Retail Establishments
35% 12%
28.68%
28% 9.21%
8.97%
9%
22.47%
21%
6%
13.96%
14%
3.56%
3%
7%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
25% 4%
23.64% 3.72%
22.39%
3.49%
20%
3%
15%
12.26%
2%
1.64%
10%
1%
5%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright

Telecommunications
35% 12%
30.78%
28% 9.32%
9%
22.64%
21%
17.55%
6%
14%
3%
7% 2.02%
1.73%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Transportation and Travel
35% 35%
32.69%
27.17% 27.61%
28% 28%
24.02%
20.74%
21% 21%
14% 14%
7% 7%
4.19%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright
Wholesale and Distribution
30% 8%
26.95%
25.11%
24%
6.20%
6%
18% 16.87%
4%
12%
2.35%
2%
6% 1.27%
0% 0%
25-499 499-999 1000+ 25-499 499-999 1000+
Copyright
Closing Remarks
Methodology
We regularly analyze and report aggregate industry data based on our customers’ email use.
The data for this report is based on email messages sent to 25 or more recipients between July 1
and December 31, 2008, by a sampling of MailerMailer customers. Only industries that were
represented by a significant number of unique customers and/or subscribers were reported
independently in this report. Click rate calculations excluded emails that contained no links.
Aggregate statistics from over 300 million email messages sent by a sampling of over 3,000
permission-based email senders were analyzed for this report. However, due to the fact that
email senders self-reported their industry affiliation and other factors beyond our control, this
document does not represent a scientific study.
About MailerMailer
MailerMailer is a web-based email list management service for creating and tracking opt-in
newsletters and email campaigns. Create and send personalized, targeted emails based on your
subscribers’ interests and demographics. This low-cost, do-it-yourself service automates email list
set up and maintenance and includes templates for easy management.
Visit http://www.mailermailer.com for more information and a free trial.
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email

marketing  ���9

Which Industries Get the Best Response Rates

Designing Mobile Friendly Emails

Open and Click Rates

Design Tips Case Study

Subject Line Length

Subject Line Content

Message Format and Links

Open and Click Rates by List Size and Industry

Email Rocks, Even in a Recession

8% Last half of 2008: 12.52%

4% Why have open rates declined in the past?

To track open rates, HTML emails contain a 1x1

In our last report, we mentioned that open rates are

Consumers: General 13.65%

Restaurant/Food Service 9.58% Tip

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Open Rate Comparison

2.0% Second half of 2008: 2.80%

Sample tweet: “Sent out our May Newsletter for the

For example, a message sent to 100 people with 5 unique

Large Business: General 1.99%

Small Business: General 1.68% H2 ‘08 H1 ‘08

Restaurant/Food Service 0.64% Government is new to this list and has

Click Rate Comparison

Open and Click Rates

Click rates hardly changed compared to the first half of 2008,

Open Rate H2 2008

6% Click Rate H2 2008

Click Rate H1 2008

Open and Click Rates By Day

• Overly frequent deliveries • Large file size

Design Tips Case Study

Fun subject line Bright, bold colors

Discounts Powerful imagery

Subject Line Length

Subject Line Length

Clicks By Subject Line Length

Subject Line Content

Personalizing subject lines is a tactic used by some to get recipients

Not Personalized 12.40%

Subject Line Only

Message Only Personalized 14.89%

Both Subject Line and

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%

Open Rates By Personalization

Not Personalized 2.73%

Subject Line Only

Message Only Personalized 4.38%

Both Subject Line and

Click Rates By Personalization

Message Format and Links

Click Rates By Format

Clicks by Number of Links

between 5 and 10 1.25% Tip

Clicks By Number of Links

Designing mobile-friendly emails

marketing  ��9