• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 14, 2013

It’s hard to beat this expertly curated summary of recent North American Email performance experience, so here’s an abridged eMarketer summary and a link to acquire the complete report, if it should be relevant to your needs.

According to an eMarketer report, Email Benchmarks: Key Metrics and Trends for 2013, nearly one in three emails sent in North America during Q1 2013 were opened, the highest number in recent history. Mobile device adoption and the use of marketing automation for targeted emails are having among the biggest impacts on email performance.

Email Marketing  Performance (North America)
	Measure
Time Frame	Click Through	Open Rate	NonBounce
2012
Q1	4.7%	26.2	96.5
Q2	4.4	25.6	95.9
Q3	4.5	27.2	96.1
Q4	4.5	27.4	96.0
2013
Q1	5.1	31.1	96.4
Source: Epsilon, July 2013

A February 2013 survey from Blue Hornet showed that 71.8% of US email users ages 24 to 40 said they typically read their personal email throughout the day. Mobile plays an undeniable role in enabling consumers to check email from anywhere and at any time of day. Data from Knotice showed mobile phones and tablets accounted for a combined total of 41.1% of US email opens in H2 2012, up from 27.4% in H2 2011.

US Email Marketing Open Rate Share (% of Total; H2,2011; H2, 2012)
Device	2nd Half, 2011	2nd Half, 2012
Desktop computers	72.61%	58.92%
Mobile phones	20.63	28.95
Tablets	6.76	12.10
Source: Knotice, April 2012, February 2013

Pam McAtee, Epsilon’s senior vice president of digital solutions, points out that mobile now accounts for 60% or more of all opens for most clients, expected to to climb before plateauing at around 70% to 80%.

McAtee says “…  consumers open (emails) multiple times on multiple different types of devices… a mobile device and then on a desktop, predominantly in that order… using mobile devices to… clean up email… going back to a desktop and converting…”

Though open rate performance suggests an increased level of initial engagement with email, additional data from Experian Marketing Services showed measures more indicative of conversions declining between Q1 2012 and Q1 2013. Click-to-open rate dropped 9.6% year over year, and transaction-to-click rate fell 15.6%. However, average order size increased about $23, suggesting fewer clicks resulted in purchases, but that those purchases were more substantial.

Email Marketing Campaign Metrics  (North America; % of Respondents/Change; 2012/2013)
Open/Click	Q1 2012	Q1 2013	% Change
Total Open Rate	22.2%	24.4%	9.7%
Unique open	25.5	17.0	9.7%
Click-to-open	16.3	14.7	-9.6%
Total Click Rate	3.8%	3.9%	1,6%
Unique click	2.7	2.7	3.0%
Transaction-to-click	5.4	4.5	-15.6%
Transaction	0.11	0.09	-13.0%
Revenue per Email	$0.12	$0.12	-0.8%
Average order	$159.93	$182.92	14.4%
Bounce	3.0	1.9	-36.7%
Unsubscribe	0.16	0.14	-15.8%
Source: Experian, May 2013

To drive greater engagement with email, whether on desktop or mobile, companies are using marketing automation via triggered messaging. Triggered emails enable marketers to use automation to respond to a user-prompted action or behavior (e.g. abandoned shopping cart, confirmation, thank you or welcome response). Consumers opened one out of every two triggered emails in North America in Q1 2013, according to Epsilon.

Triggered Email (North America, Q1, 2011- Q1, 2013)
Period	NonBounce	Open Rate	Clickthrough Rate
Q1 2011	94.6%	46.8%	12.9%
Q1 2012	95.2	45.9	10.4
Q1 2013	95.9	50.0	11.2
Source: Epsilon, July 2013

TimeTriggered emails are often behaviorally relevant, but relevance is only part of a larger ability to personalize communications, says the report. October 2012 data from Experian Marketing Services noted US marketing emails that were both triggered and personalized saw 29.2% click rates compared to 23.3% for triggered emails lacking personalization.

Though the full report has been developed for clients of eMarketer, this link to eMarketer will provide directions to access the study.