Q2 2013 email trends and benchmarks

October 2013

3epsilon.com

Executive summary 3

Business as usual email trends 4

Triggered email trends 8

Email activity segment evaluation 10

Conclusion 13

About Epsilon 14

About Email Institute 14

Contents

4epsilon.com

Email continues to reign as one of the most effective communication mediums to reach target audiences, engage consumers and drive purchase behavior.

Epsilon has compiled and analyzed aggregated data from billions of emails since 2002. The benchmark reports have shown consistent data for several quarters indicating that metrics such as non-bounce, triggered email performance compared to

Business as Usual (BAU) messages and percentages of new and mature subscribers on the average email file continue to perform well. These steady percentages for key metrics continue to highlight critical opportunities for email marketers to drive stronger ROI.

Please note this benchmark data should only be used as a guideline. Specifics for each company will ultimately drive results.

Executive summary

5epsilon.com

In this analysis of performance trends by industry and message type, the Q2 2013 Email Trends and Benchmarks offers insight into how the average company in 13 industry categories performs. The study is compiled from 6.1 billion emails sent in Q2 2013 (April through June) across multiple industries and approximately 150 clients.

Open rates decreased quarter over quarter (-8.3%), but increased over the same period last year (+11.5%), resulting in an overall open rate of 28.5%.

Click rates were 4.3%, a decrease both quarter over quarter and year over year.

Non-bounce rates remained strong at 96.1%.

Business as usual email trends

Open rates decreased slightly

over Q1 2013, yet remained

above Q2 averages from 2011 and 2012

26.2%

4.7%

95.7%

5.2%

22.2%

4.3%

28.5%

96.1%

5.1%

31.1%

96.4%

5.2% 4.5%

24.8% 27.4%

96.3% 96.0%96.5%

23.8%

5.5%

95.9%

25.6%

4.4%

96.5% 96.1%

27.2%

4.5%

Q113 Q213Q212Q211 Q311 Q411 Q112 Q312

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Click-throughOpen rateNon-bounce

Q412

Q2 2013 overall performance

6epsilon.com

Nine of the 13 industries analyzed had an open rate increase of 5% or higher when compared to last years metrics: Business Products and Services General, Consumer Products CPG, Consumer Publishing/ Media General, Consumer Services General, Consumer Services Telecom, Financial Services CC/Banks, Retail Apparel, Retail General and Retail Specialty.

Three of the industries analyzed had a click rate increase of 5% or higher in Q2 2013: Consumer Products CPG, Consumer Services General and Retail Apparel.

In Q2 2013, the highest open rates occurred in the Retail General (40.0%), Financial Services CC/Banks (39.6%) and Travel/Hospitality Travel Services (31.8%) categories.

The highest click to open rates occurred in the Consumer Products CPG (40.5%), Retail Apparel (24.4%) and Consumer Publishing/Media General (20.7%) categories.

Epsilon Q2 2013 North American Industry

Non-BounceOpen Rate

Click Rate

Click to Open Rate

Business Products and Services General 93.3% 31.4% 3.7% 11.8%

Business Publishing/Media General 97.8% 19.4% 2.9% 14.7%

Consumer Products CPG 95.4% 19.0% 7.7% 40.5%

Consumer Products Pharmaceutical 92.5% 29.5% 4.3% 14.5%

Consumer Publishing/Media General 98.9% 19.3% 4.0% 20.7%

Consumer Services General 97.1% 25.5% 4.4% 17.1%

Consumer Services Telecom 98.8% 18.5% 2.7% 14.4%

Financial Services CC/Banks 95.8% 39.6% 3.9% 9.9%

Financial Services General 96.5% 29.6% 4.8% 16.2%

Retail Apparel 99.4% 20.0% 4.9% 24.4%

Retail General 97.6% 40.0% 5.0% 12.6%

Retail Specialty 97.3% 24.5% 3.1% 12.8%

Travel/Hospitality Travel Services 97.0% 31.8% 3.7% 11.7%

*Red or blue text indicates an increase (blue) or decrease (red) over last years metrics that was over 5 %.

Industries analyzed

Industry performance

7epsilon.com

As part of the Q2 2013 Email Trends and Benchmarks report, Epsilon also analyzed the types of messages sent and their performance metrics. Down from Q1 2013 (61.4%), nearly 54% of emails deployed through Epsilons proprietary email platform were characterized as marketing messages.

Key metrics analyzed by

message type across

industries

Campaign performance

Message type

Open rate

Click rate

Click to open rate

Acquisition 18.6% 1.4% 7.3%

Editorial 30.8% 4.5% 14.5%

Legal 16.9% 1.8% 10.9%

Marketing 24.1% 3.4% 14.1%

Other 18.0% 2.4% 13.4%

Research 39.2% 4.2% 10.7%

Service 53.7% 10.3% 19.2%

*Message types are based on emails deployed out of one of Epsilons two proprietary email platforms and are defined by the person(s) creating the campaigns, which may not reflect the same definitions as your company.

Research0.1%

Service7.5% Acquisition

0.1%

Editorial1.2%

% delivered in Q2 2013

Industry Industry category

Message type

Open rate

Click rate

Click to open rate

% of total delivered in industry

Business Products and Services

General Editorial 51.4% 9.3% 18.0% 0.0%

Marketing 19.8% 1.7% 8.6% 49.2%

Other 15.4% 1.9% 12.6% 50.8%

Business Publishing/ Media

General Marketing 20.4% 1.2% 6.1% 99.4%

Other 41.4% 1.6% 3.9% 0.6%

Service 90.8% 16.2% 17.8% 0.1%

Consumer Products CPG Marketing 19.2% 3.0% 15.4% 99.9%

Other 38.8% 7.7% 20.0% 0.1%

Pharmaceutical Marketing 17.4% 2.9% 16.9% 93.5%

Other 7.1% 1.0% 14.1% 6.4%

Research 48.5% 3.5% 7.2% 0.0%

Service 32.3% 6.7% 20.8% 0.1%

Consumer Publishing/ Media

General Other 28.4% 5.7% 19.9% 98.6%

Research 32.3% 2.6% 8.2% 1.4%

Marketing53.5%

Other34.4%

8epsilon.com

Key metrics analyzed (cont.)

Industry Industry category

Message type

Open rate

Click rate

Click to open rate

% of total delivered in industry

Consumer Services General Marketing 34.7% 5.7% 16.5% 98.0%Other 80.0% 16.1% 20.1% 1.4%

Service 75.4% 24.9% 33.0% 0.6%

Telecom Marketing 28.6% 2.4% 8.4% 95.6%

Research 37.4% 3.0% 7.9% 1.5%

Service 49.0% 10.2% 20.9% 2.9%

Financial Services CC/Banks Acquisition 17.6% 1.2% 6.9% 0.6%

Marketing 31.6% 1.8% 5.6% 38.7%

Other 48.7% 6.4% 13.2% 23.5%

Research 53.4% 9.1% 17.0% 0.0%

Service 51.9% 6.5% 12.5% 37.2%

General Marketing 24.9% 1.1% 4.5% 67.4%

Other 25.7% 1.6% 6.4% 22.4%

Service 59.6% 10.6% 17.7% 10.2%

Retail Apparel Service 71.0% 50.2% 70.7% 100.0%

General Acquisition 65.8% 3.6% 5.4% 0.0%

Editorial 14.9% 8.7% 58.6% 0.0%

Legal 16.9% 1.8% 10.9% 7.2%

Marketing 22.3% 4.7% 21.2% 29.7%

Other 13.3% 1.8% 13.8% 63.0%

Research 27.8% 1.4% 5.0% 0.1%

Service 61.8% 7.9% 12.9% 0.0%

Specialty Acquisition 31.9% 2.2% 7.0% 100.0%

Editorial 23.1% 2.9% 12.6% 1.7%

Marketing 20.0% 1.9% 9.6% 95.4%

Other 28.3% 3.3% 11.5% 2.7%

Research 45.8% 8.8% 19.3% 0.2%

Service 84.7% 6.7% 7.9% 0.0%

Travel/Hospitality Travel Services Marketing 23.0% 3.0% 13.1% 99.9%

Other 85.0% 14.4% 16.9% 0.0%

Service 80.1% 1.6% 2.0% 0.1%

*Message types are pulled from Epsilons proprietary email platform only and are defined by the person(s) creating the campaigns and may not reflect the same definitions as your company.

9epsilon.com

Triggered email trends

Epsilons triggered email metrics are compiled from more than 216 million triggered emails sent from April to June 2013 across multiple industries. These messages were sent as the result of an action, such as a Welcome, Thank You, Abandon Shopping Cart or Confirmation email.

This study also highlights significant differences between triggered email performance and Business as Usual (BAU) email performance.

In Q2 2013, triggered messages accounted for 3.5% of total email volume, a 30.6% increase over Q2 2012 (2.6%).

Non-bounce rates continued to drive strong results for Epsilon clients, only 1.2% lower that BAU metrics.

Triggered message open rates were 72.6% higher than BAU messages in Q2 2013. This is a decrease from Q2 2012, when Epsilon noted a 94.8% lift over BAU.

Triggered click rates continued to perform well, reporting 152.3% higher than BAU. This is higher than the 122.1% click rate lift over BAU noted in Q2 2012.

Overall triggered message

performance

Overall performance

45.9%

10.4%

94.7%

9.8%

40.4%

10.7%

49.2%

95.0%

11.2%

50.0%

95.9%

11.5% 9.0%

48.0% 46.7%

94.7% 95.6%94.8%

46.8%

11.7%

95.2%

49.8%

9.8%

95.2% 94.7%

47.7%

9.7%

Q113 Q213Q212Q211 Q311 Q411 Q112 Q312

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Q412

5.0%

4.0%

3.0%

2.0%

1.0%

0.0%

Click-throughOpen rateNon-bounce% of Total delivered

-1.2%

+72.6%

+152.3%

Q213 BAUdifference

10epsilon.com

The highest open rates for triggered messages were in