E-mail’s Q2 performance improves slightly over last year, says DoubleClick

E-mail metrics for the second quarter improved slightly over a year ago, with bounce rates dropping 15.4% to 11.5% from 13.6% during that time and e-mail open rates rising 3.2% to 38.8% from 37.6%, according to DoubleClick Inc.`s new Q2 E-mail Trend report. E-mail from retail and catalog companies showed the greatest improvement year over year, in comparison to travel company e-mails that saw only nominal increases over last year. E-mail on consumer products and services were relatively constant year over year, while business products and services as well as business publisher e-mails saw slight declines.

“While we did see a slight improvement in performance metrics year over year, the clear story from these results is the stability in performance that legitimate e-mail marketers are enjoying, an encouraging sign given the current e-mail environment with spam levels continuing to rise,” says Eric Kirby, DoubleClick’s vice president of strategic services. “Legitimate marketers that continue to use e-mail to enhance their brand and build customer trust are seeing success with e-mail as a communication vehicle.”

Total click-through rates increased 10.7% to 8.3% in the second quarter from 7.5% a year ago. Conversion rates off e-mails from retail and catalog companies held steady year over year. Average revenue generated per e-mail delivered in this year’s second quarter was $0.28 versus $0.29 a year ago. For every thousand pieces of e-mail sent in this year’s second quarter, more than 2.65 purchases resulted, on average. However, average order size decreased slightly year over year, to $98 this year from $102 last year.

DoubleClick’s findings are based on aggregate data from its Dartmail e-mail delivery technology. Second quarter data are based on more than 2 billion permission-based e-mails from hundreds of DoubleClick clients.