Experian Marketing Services shows email volume increased nearly 13 percent Q3 2013

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight and targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing, showed that overall email volume increased 12.7 percent in Q3 2013 versus Q3 2012, according to the Experian Marketing Services 2013 Q3 Email Benchmark Report. The cross-channel marketing leader also found that unique open rates increased 6 percent year-over-year in Q3 2013.

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The benchmark report's spotlight on transactional emails reveals a rise in open rates with the inclusion of a brand's name in the subject line of transactional emails, such as shipping and order confirmations, order cancellations and return confirmations. While the use of this tactic varied widely, brand-name inclusion in only shipping confirmation emails produced significant gain with a 7-percent increase in unique open rates. Other findings include:

• Unique click rates for shipping confirmations that featured personalization reached 13.5 percent, as compared to 8.3 percent without personalization
• Click-to-open rates for both order and shipping confirmations that included invitations to join loyalty programs rose 26 percent and 16 percent respectively
• The strongest cross-selling results came from emails that featured dynamic product personalization; order confirmations saw the highest increase in transaction rates, from 0.65 percent with static cross-sells to 0.97 percent with dynamic cross-sells.

"Our latest Benchmark Study provides even more evidence that personal connections really do matter," said Peter DeNunzio, general manager for cross-channel marketing at Experian Marketing Services. "Transactional emails showed 23-percent higher click rates when they personally addressed a customer in the body of the email. These are the kind of emails that can help marketers generate repeat sales."

Expanding cross-channel opportunities
After analyzing Twitter and Instagram campaigns, Experian Marketing Services identified a key trend to watch among social media mailings. In short, promoting social media in subject lines is an especially effective cross-channel practice.

Experian Marketing Services' research involved a year-over-year comparison of this type of subject line, revealing significant growth in the percentage of emails that mention Twitter or Instagram in the subject line. Subject-line mentions of Twitter rose from 8 percent in Q3 2012 to 41 percent in Q3 2013, while mentions of Instagram climbed from 3 percent in Q3 2012 to 30 percent in Q3 2013. While subject-line mentions of Facebook also increased, from 76 percent in Q3 2012 to 87 percent in Q3 2013, mentions of Pinterest actually fell from 9 percent in Q3 2012 to 5 percent in Q3 2013.

Holiday strategy
The benchmark report also reveals a number of significant best practices for success, which can be especially important for email marketers during the holiday sales season.

"As more customers visit their favorite online destinations for holiday shopping, more password requests will occur, providing marketers with the opportunity to optimize these emails," added DeNunzio. "Specifically, cross-sell sections in password-reset emails produced a 93-percent higher transaction rate than those without cross-sells items, leveraging subscribers' existing brand interest to maximize product interest."

Experian Marketing Services' Q3 2013 Quarterly Benchmark Report is available to download.

About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing Services is a global provider of integrated consumer insights and targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing. We help organizations around the world intelligently interact with today's dynamic, empowered and hyperconnected customers. By coordinating seamless interactions across all marketing channels, marketers are able to plan and execute superior brand experiences that deepen customer loyalty, strengthen brand advocacy and maximize profits.

For more information, please visit http://www.experian.com/marketingservices.

About Experian
Experian^® is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients around the world. The Group helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2013 was US$4.7 billion. Experian employs approximately 17,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:
Suzanne Blackburn
Experian Marketing Services
1 212 863 4648
[email protected]

SOURCE Experian