BIGFOOT INTERACTIVE Q1 2004 BENCHMARK RESULTS HIGHLIGHT THE POWER OF RELEVANT, TIMELY EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS
- Year End Statements and Event Driven Promotions Drive High Response Rates -
NEW YORK, NY — May 17, 2004 -- Bigfoot Interactive, the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies, today announced the release of its quarterly vertical benchmark analysis for email communications campaigns launched and monitored from January through the end of March 2004. Findings across key verticals reveal sustained or improved delivery and unique click-through rates (CTR) for permission-based email campaigns that focused on relevant and timely messaging.
Similar to last quarter, most vertical markets experienced improved delivery rates (emails successfully sent) as marketers remained diligent in their list management and hygiene efforts as a means to improve deliverability and adherence to CAN SPAM compliance. Specifically, Retail, Financial Services and Media campaigns, showed the strongest performance among all vertical segments, with delivery rates rising 14%, 3% and 2% respectively over last quarter. Overall delivery rates for the Media and Financial Services’ vertical markets peaked at 93.3% and 92.4% respectively.
The unique CTR for Financial Services service email campaigns revealed the strongest increase within the vertical, up 21% over last quarter (from 17.6% to 22.1%) primarily due to significant interest and response to year-end statement alerts from major credit card issuers and banks. Electronic banking, bill presentment and payment (EBPP), and account servicing continue to grow at a rapid pace as more consumers turn to the convenience of the Web to manage their finances. A recently released Jupiter Research report titled, Online Banking Alerts: Benchmarking and Channel Optimization (April 22, 2004) forecasts that by year’s end, 35 million US households will conduct banking activities online. According to the same report, email alerts are expected to leap forward in 2004 and become the industry standard as all national and regional banks implement and expand their email alert offerings.
Quarter Over Quarter Performance Highlights Across Other Key Business Segments:
Retail – Timely, spring season promotional email campaigns from leading luxury brands drove strong results in Q1 2004, yielding an average click through rate of 11.2%.
Automotive – Promotional mailings including a mix of aggressive lease specials, auto show promotions and interactive games that yielded an average unique CTR of 19.3%, representing more than an 8% increase over Q4 ’03 results.
Media – Personalized newsletter headlines contributed to a 26% increase in the unique click-through rate for editorial campaigns over last quarter (Q4 ’03), to reach 16.5%. Focused promotional campaigns, including specials offers and contests around local events, spurred a significant spike in the average unique CTR for promotional messages and yielded a 96% increase over last quarter’s results to reach 4.9%.
"Q1 performance metrics again showed that relevant and timely permission-based email communications that offer value play a critical role in the marketing mix, and point to the ever growing health and effectiveness of the medium," said Al DiGuido, CEO of Bigfoot Interactive. "By highlighting the successes each quarter, Bigfoot Interactive hopes to further educate marketers on how performance can be impacted by seasonality factors as well as the nature of the product, service, offer and message – all critical components in efficiently building profitable long-term customer relationships and marketing ROI cost."
DiGuido added, "As the movement towards personalized, dynamically generated email gains speed, communications across every vertical will realize substantial gains. An initial contact by email is not the end of the story – it’s only the beginning. Marketers must find a way to steadily introduce value to that relationship, throughout the customer lifecycle based on the customer’s interests, needs and behaviors."
Findings from the Q1 2004 trend analysis were aggregated from Bigfoot Interactive’s automated email technology platform, DREAMSM (Direct Response Email Application Manager) and were based on all retention-based mailings from January 1, 2004 through March 31, 2004. Individual campaign results can dramatically vary based on audience, creative, subject line/offer and more.
About Bigfoot Interactive
Bigfoot Interactive (www.bigfootinteractive.com) is the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communication solutions and marketing automation technologies. Through its combination of innovative technologies, professional services and vertical market expertise, Bigfoot Interactive helps marketers acquire, grow and retain profitable customer relationships through highly relevant and personalized email communications. The company`s end-to-end suite of industry-specific products and services includes scalable email campaign technology, delivery optimization, marketing automation tools, turnkey integration solutions, strategic consulting, and creative expertise to produce email programs that generate measurable results throughout the customer lifecycle.
Since 1997, Bigfoot Interactive has developed successful permission-based email programs for more than 150 top companies, including American Honda Motor Co., The Washington Post. Newsweek Interactive, and MCI. Privately held and based in New York, the company`s investors include JPMorgan Partners, Flatiron Partners, Hudson Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Grey Ventures, HPJ Media Ventures and Syndicat Technologies.
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Bigfoot Interactive, DREAM, and the Bigfoot Interactive logo are trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of Bigfoot Interactive in the United States and other countries.
Contact:
Amy Shanks
Sloane & Company
Assistant Account Executive
212-446-1894 -- work
917-536-6664 -- cell
ashanks@sloanepr.com
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