Business Editors/High-Tech Writers
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2003
Analysis Also Shows Decline in Unsubscribe Rates,
Indicating Trust Is Gone, Company Reports
For Corporate America, Tuesday is "E" day -- the most popular day for companies to send emails, with Wednesday the top day for recipients to open emails. So concludes the first Delivery Trends Report from EmailLabs, a leading provider of email marketing automation solutions. The new quarterly report will focus on email relevance and deliverability issues for email marketers.
In a second major finding, email recipients are tending not to "unsubscribe" from emails, according to the report, which shows a steady decline in unsubscribe rates since January. Rather than officially unsubscribing, recipients are now more likely to simply delete unwanted emails. Accordingly, many email marketers are now eliminating names of subscribers who do not open a specified number of emails in a row, or are asking those subscribers to re-opt in.
For the second consecutive quarter, Tuesday is the most popular day of the week to send email messages (25.4 percent), followed by Wednesday at 23.3 percent and Thursday at 18.3 percent. Bringing up the rear are Saturday at 0.9 percent and Sunday at 1.4 percent. While there are some minor differences among the first three quarters of 2003, the general trends remain the same:
-- More than two-thirds of all messages are sent Tuesday through
Thursday
-- Less than 3 percent of all messages are sent on the weekend
-- Monday and Friday consistently comprise between 25-30 percent
of emails sent
In Q3, the combined average unsubscribe rate for HTML and text messages was 0.17 percent, a decline from .19 percent in Q2 and .29 percent in Q1 2003. Text messages were unsubscribed at a slightly higher rate than HTML in Q3 and Q2 at 0.22 percent, though nearly even with HTML messages in Q1 at .28 percent.
Midweek Emailing Dissected
Why Tuesday and Wednesday? For years the conventional wisdom has been to not email on Monday (the first day back in the office) or Friday (end of week deadlines, leaving early, etc.). In addition, unless the sender is targeting an appropriate consumer audience, weekends are out. From a practical perspective, marketing teams often complete the email creative and production process on Friday or Monday, leading to a Tuesday or Wednesday distribution.
"The most obvious implication is that during the middle of the week your email messages are battling with a greater amount of legitimate email than on other days," said Loren McDonald, VP of Marketing, EmailLabs. "Flexibility remains essential. Depending upon your content, the relationship you have with your recipients, who they are, the frequency of your emails and other factors, days other than the middle of the week may in fact generate better results."
The decline in overall unsubscribe rates is not surprising, according to McDonald -- the likely result of an increasing lack of trust in the unsubscribe process among recipients. In addition, with the explosion of spam emails, consumers have become accustomed to deleting dozens, if not hundreds, of emails per day, he noted. This often includes deleting legitimate emails they've opted in to, rather than subjecting themselves to the more time-consuming unsubscribe process.
"Email marketers should always watch their unsubscribe rate closely, but if it is in fact declining for your company, don't assume that you have a higher retention rate," McDonald said. "Make sure your unsubscribe process is simple and functioning, and instills a sense of trust. Second, consider weeding out in-active subscribers from your list. For example, ask subscribers that haven't taken any action over a specific time period to re opt-in."
Among the other Q3 findings:
-- Most Popular Send Time: 9 a.m. (PT) -- 17.8 percent
-- Most Open Day: Wednesday -- 22.8 percent
-- Most Popular Open Time: 11 a.m. (PST) -- 6.8 percent
-- Most Popular Click-Through Day: Wednesday -- 24.2 percent
-- Most Popular Click Through Time: 11 a.m. (PST) -- 6.2 percent
The EmailLabs Q3 Delivery Trend Report average statistics are based on approximately 525 client accounts. EmailLabs' clients range from companies that send out as few as several hundred business-to-business emails to clients, to publishers and ecommerce companies sending out millions of emails on an opt-in basis.
The EmailLabs Delivery Trends Report will include average bounce and unsubscribe rates, HTML vs. text message formatting, and most common time and day emails are sent, opened and clicked on. To receive a copy of Delivery Trends -- Q3 2003, go to: http://emaillabs.com/deliverytrend_signup.html.
About EmailLabs
EmailLabs is a leading provider of advanced email technology solutions to agencies, publishers and marketing, sales and customer service departments of middle-market and Global 2000 companies. The EmailLabs email-marketing platform is provided as an ASP (Web-based) service, and is easily customized and integrated with a company's Web site, sales force automation and CRM technologies. The company provides email-marketing solutions to more than 275 companies, including Nokia, Agilent, AON, Jupitermedia and Silicon Valley Bank. Headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., EmailLabs is a service of Uptilt, Inc. Uptilt is privately held and profitable. For more information, visit www.EmailLabs.com.
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