E-mail click-through rates dropped to 5.3% during the second quarter of 2010, the lowest rate recorded since 2006 when marketing services firm Epsilon and the Email Experience Council began tracking e-mail with their Email Trends and Benchmarks quarterly report.
Click-through rates peaked higher than 7% several times throughout 2006 and 2007 but have averaged 5.9% since Q2 2008, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the average volume per Epsilon client tracked in the benchmark report increased 10.5% year over year and open rates remained steady at 22.1%. The open rate in Q2 2009 was 22.2%.
“With a small decline in click rates coupled with increasing volumes, it is more important than ever to break through the clutter and compel customers to open and click on links in your messages,” says Kevin Mabley, senior vice president of strategic and analytic consulting at Epsilon. Mabley recommends senders personalize e-mail content and mine customer data to create the content most relevant to each recipient.
The Q2 2010 Email Trends and Benchmarks study did reveal some good news for e-mail marketers. The non-bounce rate increased slightly—from 94.1% a year ago to 94.8% during Q2—which means more messages reached the intended recipients and that marketers are doing a better job of keeping their e-mail databases up to date. It was the highest non-bounce rate since Q2 2007, when the rate was 95.1%.
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