Email Response Rates Highest on First Day After Receipt
By Anna Johnson on June 23rd, 2010Email marketing research from Experian CheetahMail shows that almost half (47 percent) of transactions and three-quarters of opens and clicks occur within one day of people receiving an email communication.
That said, Experien CheetahMail’s March 2010 study of 44,011 mailings from 404 industry-diverse clients in increments of one, three and seven days from send also shows that response times for transactions and revenue vary according to such factors as the industry, the type of email being sent, and the urgency of the email.
For example, companies in the Business Products and Services category tend to have the quickest customer response, with 52 percent of transactions and 79 percent of revenue received in the first day. In contrast, response rates to emails in the Travel industry are the slowest, with only 13 percent of transactions and 11 percent of revenue occurring within the first day of email receipt.
Transactions and revenue response times also vary by mailing type and subject line content.
Using time-limited offers in subject lines results in the quickest response time of all, with 59 percent of transactions in day one, while coupons demonstrate much slower response, with only 36 percent of transactions the first day.
Abandoned-cart emails generate quick transaction responses with 52 percent received on day one, while also generating higher revenue per email in the long term. Meanwhile, ‘welcome’ emails generate much slower transaction responses, with only 33 percent of transactions occurring on the first day after the email is received.
