Marketing Customers Open E-Newsletters: Study

Marketing companies and retailers’ customers open e-mail more than anyone else, according to new research. Marketing firms achieve an average unique open rate of 63%, and retailers enjoy a 55% open rate.

The research by IMN Inc., an e-mail newsletter firm that studied 109 million newsletter mailings over three years, shows that customers of financial services are close behind, with an open rate of 48%. Manufacturing customers realize an open rate of 43%, nonprofits’ rate is 41% and software development firms see a 41% rate.

The average unique open rate among IMM clients is 39%.

Once they open their e-mails, subscribers seek out product-oriented content, the study showed. Across industries, articles containing information on companies’ products receive 29% of readers’ unique clickthroughs.

They open company news at a rate of 18%, and industry news at a 14% clickthrough rate. Content billed as "tips and tricks" are not opened as much—with just an 11% clickthrough rate.

Overall, though, e-newsletters seems a strong choice as a customer relationship management device. Some 64% of e-newsletter subscribers read the content in each issue.

Are customers receiving the e-newsletters sent out? On average, 97% are receiving their client e-mails, said the study. Only 0.3% bounce due to full mailboxes, and another 2.3% due to incorrect addresses.

IMN, in Newton, MA, which specializes in e-mail newsletters as a CRM tool marketers to share with their clients, used to be known as iMakeNews.