Business and Marketing

Their open rates were 65% greater than business-as-usual emails and their click-throughs 148% higher, says a study.

Triggered emails clobber business-as-usual (BAU) emails in every metric know to marketers, but they remain a work in progress, accounting for less than 5% of volume, according to Epsilon's Q1 email trends report.

Open rates for triggered emails, which are deployed as a result of actions like abandoned carts, were nearly 53% in Q1, compared to about 30% for BAU messages, and average click rates of 9.7% were 148% higher than BAU emails. Marketers clearly are cognizant of their effectiveness and sent triggered email volume up 25% over last year's first quarter.

The highest open rates for triggered messages were seen in financial services (69%), general retail (62%), and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals (62%). The highest click rates of between 12 and 14% were attained by consumer packaged goods, apparel, general retail, and consumer media.

“Email continues to be a highly effective method to engage consumers, but marketers are now tasked with developing a content-first approach, as opposed to channel-first, because the path to purchase has become more complex,” said Judy Loschen, Epsilon's VP of digital analytics. “It's important to think holistically about the experiences that inspire consumers to act.”

Open rates overall held steady in Q1 at 32%, while click-through rates dipped below 4%. Click rates have been steadily decreasing since hitting 5.1% in Q1 2013.

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