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Email volume increased nearly 13 percent Q3 2013

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Krystal
New Update

NEW YORK, USA: Experian Marketing Services showed that overall email volume increased 12.7 percent in Q3 2013 versus Q3 2012, according to the Experian Marketing Services 2013 Q3 Email Benchmark Report. It also found that unique open rates increased six percent year-over-year in Q3 2013.

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The benchmark report's spotlight on transactional emails reveals a rise in open rates with the inclusion of a brand's name in the subject line of transactional emails, such as shipping and order confirmations, order cancellations and return confirmations.

While the use of this tactic varied widely, brand-name inclusion in only shipping confirmation emails produced significant gain with a seven percent increase in unique open rates.

Some of the other findings include:

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  • Unique click rates for shipping confirmations that featured personalization reached 13.5 percent, as compared to 8.3 percent without personalization.
  • Click-to-open rates for both order and shipping confirmations that included invitations to join loyalty programs rose 26 percent and 16 percent respectively.
  • The strongest cross-selling results came from emails that featured dynamic product personalization; order confirmations saw the highest increase in transaction rates, from 0.65 percent with static cross-sells to 0.97 percent with dynamic cross-sells.

Peter DeNunzio, general manager for cross-channel marketing at Experian Marketing Services, said: "Our latest Benchmark Study provides even more evidence that personal connections really do matter. Transactional emails showed 23-percent higher click rates when they personally addressed a customer in the body of the email. These are the kind of emails that can help marketers generate repeat sales."

When it comes to expanding cross-channel opportunities, Experian Marketing Services identified a key trend to watch among social media mailings, after analyzing Twitter and Instagram campaigns. In short, promoting social media in subject lines is an especially effective cross-channel practice.

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Experian Marketing Services' research involved a year-over-year comparison of this type of subject line, revealing significant growth in the percentage of emails that mention Twitter or Instagram in the subject line.

Subject-line mentions of Twitter rose from eight percent in Q3 2012 to 41 percent in Q3 2013, while mentions of Instagram climbed from three percent in Q3 2012 to 30 percent in Q3 2013.

While subject-line mentions of Facebook also increased, from 76 percent in Q3 2012 to 87 percent in Q3 2013, mentions of Pinterest actually fell from nine percent in Q3 2012 to five percent in Q3 2013.

The benchmark report also reveals a number of significant best practices for success, which can be especially important for email marketers during the holiday sales season.

DeNunzio concluded: "As more customers visit their favorite online destinations for holiday shopping, more password requests will occur, providing marketers with the opportunity to optimize these emails. Specifically, cross-sell sections in password-reset emails produced a 93-percent higher transaction rate than those without cross-sells items, leveraging subscribers' existing brand interest to maximize product interest."