Welcome Emails Drive Transaction Rates Nine Times Higher Than Bulk Mailings

NEW YORK, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Experian Marketing Services, a global marketing leader and provider of email marketing and customer intelligence technologies, today announced the findings of a new study from its email marketing technology, Experian CheetahMail. The study, titled The welcome email report: Benchmark data and analysis for engaging new subscribers through email marketing, reports critical data on welcome email campaigns indicting that welcome emails have transaction rates nine times higher than bulk mailings. The analysis clearly shows that a welcome campaign is an essential component of a sophisticated email program.

To gauge the impact of welcome messages and determine optimal best practices surrounding them, Experian CheetahMail's Strategic Services Group analyzed the performance and content details of welcome emails compared with mass promotions deployed by the same businesses from May 2009 to April 2010. Key findings include the following:

• Revenue per email is eight times higher and transaction rates are nine times higher for welcome emails than for bulk mailings.
• Welcome emails generate four times the total open rates and five times the click rates compared with other bulk promotions.
• Welcome messages sent in real time as triggered emails, deployed through Experian CheetahMail's Event-Based Mailer Technology, have significantly higher open, click and transaction rates than bulk (daily, weekly, monthly) recurrent campaigns.
• Real-time welcomes with offers have more than double the transaction rates and revenue per mail compared with real-time welcomes with no offers.
• Welcome emails with free shipping offers have the highest transaction rates. Other than free shipping, "15 percent off" had the highest revenue per email for both real-time and bulk welcome emails.
• On average, welcome emails with links to social media have 6 percent higher click rates than welcomes without those links.

Complementing the data points, Experian CheetahMail's report also provides a number of best practices for marketers looking to make the most of their welcome email campaigns. According to the report, marketers should make a connection to the subscriber clear by dynamically mentioning the source of acquisition, particularly if there is a delay between sign-up and the first email. Other recommendations include adding a link to a preference center and considering deploying a real-time version of welcome messages.

"Most companies understand the importance of welcome emails, but we find that many don't prioritize optimization of these campaigns. Welcome emails should be more than an obligatory contact. They are a means to engage with prospective customers when their propensities to open, click and transact are at peak levels," said Rachel Bergman, general manager and senior vice president, Experian CheetahMail. "Experian CheetahMail has the greatest breadth and depth of aggregated email data in the industry. Studies such as this are aimed at helping our clients prioritize their efforts on the most profitable email communications."  

About Experian CheetahMail

Experian® CheetahMail® is the trusted service provider of email marketing and customer intelligence technologies for top enterprises worldwide. With the industry's largest client services teams, feature-rich email technology and a broad range of data management options, Experian CheetahMail enables clients to build data-driven, relevant relationships with their customers. Servicing the world's most recognizable brands, Experian CheetahMail's globally diverse client base includes 1800Flowers, Barclays, Borders Books, Discovery Communications, KLM, Neiman Marcus and Wyndham Hotels. Experian CheetahMail, a business unit of Experian (LSE: EXPN), was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Beijing and Melbourne. For more information, please visit http://www.cheetahmail.com or email [email protected].

About Experian Marketing Services

Experian Marketing Services delivers best-in-breed data, analytics and platforms into multiple regions around the globe. It is focused on helping marketers more effectively target and engage their best customers through email, digital advertising, customer data management, customer and competitive insight, data enrichment and list rental, modeling and analytics, and strategic consulting. Through these capabilities, Experian Marketing Services enables organizations to encourage brand advocacy, create measurable return on investment and significantly improve the lifetime value of their customers. 

About Experian

Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 90 countries. The company 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, 2010, was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São 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.

SOURCE Experian CheetahMail