Email marketing hits new highs in most successful half-year

An increase in website traffic generated by email, growth in the number of email addresses under management and a rise in the number of campaigns being run have resulted in the email marketing sector recording its most successful half-year to date, research published by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has revealed.

According to the findings of the DMA’s 2010 H2 Email Benchmarking Report, click-through rates from emails leapt from 12 million in H2 2009 to 16.1 million in H2 2010 - an increase of 33 per cent in the amount of traffic email is marshalling to clients’ websites. The half year also saw a 35 per cent rise in the volume of emails being sent during H2 2010. The number of email addresses that Email Services Providers(ESPs) manage grew across the year from 90.2 million in Q1 2010 to 101.7 million in Q4 2010.

Email marketing budgets rose through the half-year, with a third of clients spending between 21 – 40 per cent more on email in Q4 2010 compared to Q4 2009.

Surveying 20 of the UK’s ESPs, the biannual Email Benchmarking Report is produced by the DMA’s Email Marketing Council. Commenting on the findings of the report, the Council’s James Bunting said:

“Email marketers in the UK are continuing to improve on their success. The DMA’s email tracking study earlier this year showed that consumers are receiving more emails of interest to them than ever before and this latest research shows that those relevant emails are working. Email is driving more traffic to websites than ever before.

The future looks to be even brighter because this success is occurring at a time that ESPs are promising advanced tactics within their product suites enabling even greater targeting and relevance.”

Dela Quist, CEO of Alchemy Worx – sponsors of the report, added:

“Our clients are sending more emails than ever before as they begin to embrace the ‘more is more’ maxim. With increases in volume and frequency, of course, comes the corresponding challenge of producing ever more innovative emails and the demand this places on internal resources.”

The H2 2010 Email Benchmarking Report also features the latest data on strategy and segmentation, as well as open rates and deliverability. To download the report click here>>

CFL are creating more and more email marketing campaigns sending over 3 million client emails in the last 12 months, which is up a million from the previous year. Phil Martin, Marketing Manager said "We are helping our clients to build their own warm databases including email and mobile numbers, these clients include Pub Chains,Breweries, Greyhound racing tracks, nightclubs, bars and other local businesses.

Emails are always targeting and timely, and we are achieving 24% open rates and 20% Click rates and up to 96% deliverability."

www.cflmarketing.co.uk