Benchmark - ENG Q1en Q2 2010

Email Benchmark 2010
Q1 and Q2 2010
ENG version
Introduction
Due to fast rising new channels such as Facebook, Twitter and even Foursquare we tend to forget that good old email
(being 20 years old now) still generates the best results. The American DMA predicted the average profit to be 40 dollars in
2010. Search engine marketing scored a second place with a respectable profit of 24 dollars. Worth a thought!
This ‘return per invested dollar’ depends on a number of factors, most of which have an impact on the website itself. We
cannot provide this effect, but we can provide you with the important figures preceding the website visit. Some of these
are the number of opened emails, the average CTR and, of course, the bounce rate. You can use these figures to reflect on
your own results. How successful are your mailings compared to with those of similar organizations, competitors or other
sectors?
To provide you with an insight we have composed this fifth edition of our email benchmark. In this benchmark, you
will find combined figures of the first half of 2010, containing results from millions of emails, based on more than 6000
campaigns from more than 150 leading companies in the Netherlands.
In addition, we have done some research among our clients to identify the trends in email marketing. The results of this
survey are included in the benchmark report.
Of course we will also provide tips on how to improve your email marketing results and we are taking a look across the
border, comparing our results with figures from MailerMailer, eRoi, Econsultancy, Forrester and Marketing Sherpa, among
others.
Should you have any questions regarding the differences between your figures and the presented averages, or if you would
like help improving your figures, please contact one of our account or project managers.
Our sales support is ready for your questions on +31 30 698 8070.
Wishing you lots of reading pleasure and inspiration,
Rogier van der Veen

Marketing Manager
Amersfoortseweg 10e 3705 GJ Zeist Tel: +31 (0)30 698 80 70 Fax: +31 (0)30 698 80 81 welcome@e-village.nl www.createaclang.com 2
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................ 2
In a nutshell................................................................................................................ 5
1. Importance of email marketing............................................................................... 7
1.1 Budget for email..................................................................................................................................7
1.2 ROI......................................................................................................................................................8
1.3 New addresses....................................................................................................................................9
2. Challenges . ......................................................................................................... 11
2.1 Email deliverability.............................................................................................................................11
2.2 Relevant email content......................................................................................................................12
2.3 Competition with social media...........................................................................................................12
2.4 Integration with other databases.......................................................................................................13
2.5 Making sure that legitimate email is not interpreted as spam.............................................................13
2.6 Measuring and improving the ROI of email marketing campaigns......................................................14
2.7 Keeping up-to-date with online marketing.........................................................................................14
3. Trends ................................................................................................................. 15
3.1 Trends in the market..........................................................................................................................15
3.2 Trends within the own organisation...................................................................................................15
4. Bounceratio.......................................................................................................... 17
4.1 Results...............................................................................................................................................17
4.2 Compared with previous editions.......................................................................................................18
4.3 Business to Consumer en Business to Business .................................................................................18
4.4 What goes on abroad........................................................................................................................18
5. Open rate............................................................................................................. 19
5.1 Results...............................................................................................................................................19
5.2 Compared with previous editions . ....................................................................................................20
5.3 Business to Consumer and Business to Business ................................................................................20
5.4 What goes on abroad........................................................................................................................20
5.5 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................21
6. Clickthrough rate ................................................................................................. 22

6.1 Results...............................................................................................................................................22
6.2 Compared with previous editions.......................................................................................................23
6.3 Business to Consumer en Business to Business ...............................................................................24
6.4 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................24
7. Conclusion............................................................................................................ 25
8. About deliverability............................................................................................... 27
8.1 Email structure...................................................................................................................................27
8.2 Images..............................................................................................................................................27
8.3 Phishy URLs.......................................................................................................................................27
8.4 Subject line........................................................................................................................................28
9. Glossary................................................................................................................ 29
About E-Village......................................................................................................... 31
Over Clang............................................................................................................... 31
At the end................................................................................................................ 31
In a nutshell
General
• This benchmark contains results of millions of emails based on more than 6000 campaigns from more than 150 leading
companies in the Netherlands;
• The information has been gathered over the period from January 1st until June 30th 2010;
• We try to compare the latest figures with those from previous benchmarks as often as possible;
• We are taking a look across the border where possible.
Survey
• Hooray! 67% of all marketers expect the budget for email marketing to increase subsequently;
• Right now, the hot topics in marketing land are (it won’t surprise you): social media and mobile marketing;
• Boo! 72% of all interviewed marketers do not know what the ROI of their email marketing campaigns is;
• Almost 26% recruits new addresses from offline channels as well;
• The ‘general newsletter’ is by far the most commonly used form of email marketing.
The figures
• The average bounce rate is 1.4% for Q1 and Q2 2010. In 2009, the average bounce rate still was 3.0%.
• The average open rate is lower than a year ago. Of all messages arriving at their destination, 22% is registered as
opened, down from 32% in Q1 and Q2 2009.
• The clickthrough rate (CTR) – the number of unique individuals that clicked a link in the mail – in relation to the number
of arriving emails – was 5.7% on average. A year ago, this clickthrough rate was 8.2%.
Come on email marketers, there’s work to do! The decrease of these figures can and has to be stopped. Testing, creative
subject lines, segmentation and different designs can help you to improve these rates, and therefore trigger the traffic to
your website and shopping cart!
If you need some advice, don’t hesitate to bring in one of our consultants by calling this number: +31 30 698 8070 or
sending an email to sales@e-village.nl. It is no coincidence that we have won the EMail Idol 2010 award, with a winning
email template for opens, clicks and sales!
Part 1: What keeps you busy?
1. Importance of email marketing
We have done research to discover the current trends and the role of email marketing in the Netherlands. We asked our
clients to share their point of view on the recent developments in email marketing. More specifically, we asked questions
about budgets, campaign goals, address acquisition and the use of email. Did you know that three-quarter of the
interviewees would expect the budget for email marketing to increase in 2010?
1.1 Budget for email

We asked how many percent of the budget for the total digital marketing mix was reserved for email marketing. 55% of all
interviewees mentioned a percentage from 0-5%.
Figure 2: Email budget
Do you expect this budget to increase?

42.5% of the interviewees expect the budget for email to increase in the second half of 2010. Forrester Research also
surveyed the developments on the European markets and concluded that within the next five years, the number of sent
emails will double.
Figure 3: Email budget for 2010
How do you divide your online marketing budget for the different disciplines?
The majority of interviewees are spending 50% on email marketing, while 0.46% uses the entire online marketing budget
for email marketing. This should serve you as an example (and no, it wasn’t us)!
Figure 4: Online marketing budget for different disciplines
1.2 ROI
Do you know what your email campaign generates in solid Euros (or other currencies)? In short: do you measure the ROI of
your email campaigns?
72% of the interviewees do not measure what their campaigns generate. That’s too bad, because after all, that’s what it’s
all about: making money.
Figure 5: Do you measure the ROI of your email marketing campaigns?
But why don’t you measure it? Here are a few answers we’ve heard:
We will as soon as CRM allows us to;

Not always possible;
Because so far nobody has been made available for that.
What does the invested Euro return?

Of the 28% who do measure the ROI of email marketing campaigns, only one was willing to share what one invested
Euro returns. Amounts between 0 and 500 Euros were mentioned. Most people stated they did not want to share this
information, or that the return could not be expressed in money.
Tip!
Do you use Google Analytics or Sitestat to analyse your website? If yes, you can integrate these with Clang. If you then
link this to your conversion page you can see precisely what your mailing has generated. No matter if that’s Euros,
appointments or downloads. In addition, there are various possibilities to link with CRM systems. Give our sales department
a call at +31 30 698 8070 to discuss these opportunities or mail us at sales@e-village.nl.
1.3 New addresses

The database has to grow, and it’d better be with high quality addresses. But how can you achieve that? Most addresses
are collected through the own website: 32.5%, followed by offline communication with no less than 25.9%.
Figure 6: Obtaining new addresses.
1.4 When do you use email marketing?
We also asked our clients what they use email for. The majority answered they would use email for the general newsletter
(19.6%), leaving the contents aside.
Figure 7: Email use
Under other, acquisition, DM, professional content newsletters were mentioned.
Tip!
Clang can be easily integrated in your e-commerce platform, enabling you to create dynamic or personalized content for
service mails, booking or order confirmations. Entirely automated, without the need for additional manpower! Give Roger
van Kampen a call at +31 30 698 1692 or mail him at r.vankampen@e-village.nl.
2. Challenges
We have put together a number of challenges, or tricky matters that you as a marketer could encounter. We have received
the following answers to the question whether you recognize yourself in this.
2.1 Email deliverability

Does your email reach its final destination: the inbox? In short: what about deliverability? 46% indicates that this is
currently an important issue and 49% expects the importance to increase in the coming six months.
Figure 8: Email deliverability
Tips!
• E-Village’s platforms have an extremely reliable deliverability, thanks to our strict anti spam policy our clients have
to conform with, but also thanks to our own team of dedicated specialists who are continuously in contact with all
important email platforms such as Hotmail, AOL and Gmail. Besides, E-Village uses extensive authentication technology,
such as DomainKeys, SenderID, SPF and feedback loops for both Clang and E-Messenger.
• It is possible to have your own subdomain (mail.yourcompany.com). Your brand can then profit from the very good
reputation of the E-Village platform. We also offer to have your subdomain run inside an SSL-certificate protected
environment. This prevents popping up warning windows in webmail clients such as Gmail or KPN Outlook Web
Access. Call or email our sales department for your options: +31 30 698 8070 or sales@e-village.nl.
2.2 Relevant email content
How do I deliver relevant content to my recipients? An important question and the correct answer and right interpretation
will improve your rates significantly. The majority experiences this as a great challenge.
Figure 9: Relevant email content
2.3 Competition with social media

Good old email faces more and more competitors, particularly social media such as Facebook and Twitter. However,
marketers’ opinions are divided. Which of these would you employ for which situation? It is obvious that the applying these
channels depends on the type of the message you want to get across.
Figure 10: Competition with social media
2.4 Integration with other databases
CRM database, e-commerce database, sales information systems: customer data is saved in many different places. Are
you going to work on the integration of all of these systems in the near future? Respondents expressed mixed feelings on
that topic. About 60% expect not to attach greater importance over the coming six months. Perhaps they already have it
working the way it should?
Figure 11: Integration with other databases
2.5 Making sure that legitimate email is not interpreted as spam

Relevant content is closely connected to the question whether legitimate email is interpreted as spam. Delete and ‘this
is spam’ are one and the same action. The majority (even if it’s a narrow one) thinks this is a major topic in the next six
months, and to be honest, we think even after that period of time.
Figure 12: Making sure legitimate email is not interpreted as spam
Tip!
• It’s not about how much, but whom! An enormous database of inactive email addresses is not interesting. What is
interesting is the number of people who really use your emails: who opens and who clicks? Can you make further
segments using this information?
2.6 Measuring and improving the ROI of email marketing campaigns
Fortunately, a lot of marketers have put measuring and improving the ROI of email marketing campaigns high on their
agenda. The more insight you have in the ROI, the earlier are willing to reserve more budget for email marketing.
Figure 13: Measuring and improving the ROI of email marketing
2.7 Keeping up-to-date with online marketing

This is probably the most important task of every marketer, or even every employee: staying up-to-date. What’s going on in
the market, which trends and developments are important for my organization? It’s not a surprise the majority indicates to
be constantly working on that. At least we know for sure that this benchmark will be in great demand ;-)
Figure 14: Keeping up-to-date with online marketing
3. Trends
Second Life, Foursquare, RFID, RSS, Twitter, Cloud computing. Every year, every months something appears that we’re all
eager to follow. But which trends in online marketing are not a hype but a serious trend that we need to work on in 2010
and 2011?
3.1 Trends in the market

24% of all respondents mention social media applications and mobile marketing scored a solid second place. Not
surprising, but nevertheless important.
Figure 15: Trends in the market
3.2 Trends within the own organisation

And there it is again: social media. Marketers are quite busy with them. Almost 30% of all interviewees think this is an
important trend, which will be picked up if it hasn’t been picked up already within their businesses.dit een belangrijke trend
is die binnen organisaties opgepakt wordt of gaat worden.
Figure 16: Trends within the own organisation
Part 2: Numbers
4. Bounceratio
In case email does not reach its destination, any of the following situations can be true:
• The email address of the receiver has changed.
• The email address of the receiver is misspelled, pointing to a non-existing address.
• The receiving mail server is temporarily unavailable.
• The message is inadvertently identified as spam.
• The mailbox is full.
4.1 Results
The average bounce rate is 1.4%, meaning that out of all sent messages, 1.4% is not delivered. There are large differences
between branches. The branch real estate has a bounce rate of 8.6%, whereas organizations in tourism have an average
rate of 0.6%.
Figure 18: Bounce rate Q1 and Q2 2010
4.2 Compared with previous editions
The bounce rate is down from a year earlier, possibly an indication that the quality of the email lists is continuously
improving.
Figure 19: Bounce rate 2008, 2009 and 2010
4.3 Business to Consumer en Business to Business

If we divide the branches into B2C and B2B, the bounce rate turns out higher in B2B.
Figure 20: Bounce rate Q1 and Q2 2010 divided into B2C and B2B
4.4 What goes on abroad

From across the borders we see similar results. The MailerMailer report, for example, shows a bounce rate of 1.87%. There
are large differences between branches as well: real estate has a rate of 4.3%, compared to marketing showing a bounce
rate of only 1.1%.
Tips!
• Clang and E-Messenger both have the ability to perform domain checks. This enables you to make sure the part after
the @ is valid. The plug-ins in Clang can carry out many more automated checks. Give our support team a call
at +31 30 698 8070 for an in-depth explanation!
• Don’t send email with an invalid mail address or ‘noreply@’. As a rule, ISPs check in- and outgoing mail for such
addresses and mark them as spam. After all, the addressee should be able to respond.
• Use a 2-stage subscription process, called ‘confirmed opt-in’ in which the subscription is confirmed via email. In this
way you are sure that the email address is in use.
5. Open rate
Now that you’ve made sure you reached a maximum delivery rate, you want your mails to be read as well. No matter if you
send a service message or a list of special offers.
The open rate is under pressure, because reliability leaves much to be desired. Opens are measured with the help of one
tiny image. If the function to download images is disabled, as in most email clients as well as the majority of smartphones,
or if you receive the plain text version instead of the HTML version, opens are not counted.
On the other hand, an email is counted as opened as soon as it is shown in the preview pane, although in that case you
have not necessarily read the email. Therefore, the relevance of this rate is largely denpending on the reason with which
the mail was sent. In most of the cases it’s all about the number of people who click through to the website. (More on the
clickthrough rate later.)
5.1 Results
The average open rate is 21.9%. This means that out of all sent messages, 21.9% is measured as being opened. Again we
can see large differences, ranging from 35.1% to 17.2%.
Figure 21: Open rate Q1 and Q2 2010
The number of opens is decreasing dramatically; a decline of more than 30% is reported. At the moment, we can only
guess what the reason is, because we haven’t done any research on that. However, results can be improved with good
sender names and creative subject lines. At the Email Marketing Conference, E-Village has shown that with a good design
and a gripping subject line a turnover as much as 400% higher could be realized, compared to a competitor’s design. Be
more adventurous! The open rate can and needs to be increased! It is one of the first steps to improve your ROI.
Figure 22: Open rate 2008, 2009 and 2010
5.3 Business to Consumer and Business to Business

If we break down the open rate into consumer-oriented campaigns and business-to-business campaigns, we can see that
there is hardly any difference between the B2C and B2B scores.
Figure 23: Open rate Q1 and Q2 2010 divided into B2C and B2B
5.4 What goes on abroad

MailerMailer reports (as cited in report from eMarketer.com1,) an average open rate of 11.2%. Medical institutions score
very low with an open rate of only 7.3%, whereas religious institutions have a very high score of 21%. But the overall trend
remains: the rates are under pressure.
1
Why email metrics are in decline, Emarketer.com, 26th July 2010
5.5 Conclusion
A high open rate (after a low bounce rate) is the first step to improve your ROI. After all, this is the road to success: from
opens to clicks to purchases. We will show you later which dramatic effects a low open rate has on the traffic to your web-
site.
It’s all about commitment. Religion is a topic that relies on a traditional and strong bond, which brings forth information
the recipient wants and uses. This is apparent from the US figures. It can help to try something similar: create relationships,
share relevant information, and help people.
Tips!
• Make sure your newsletter is mobile-friendly, or includes a link to a mobile-friendly version. In Clang, you can see pre-
cisely who of your recipients is reading your newsletter with a mobile operating system. You can use this information to
tune your design.
• Make sure you use an easily recognizable sender name, from which the receiver can clearly see who it is from. Using
your company name, so the reader can see where the mail came from, can lead to an increased open rate.
• Newsletter subscribers are far more likely to open their messages than addresses from leased databases.
• Be creative when choosing a subject line, but don’t overdo it. Email is opened more often when it has a convincing or
personalized subject.
• Make sure your mailings are relevant and not sent too fast after another. Surveys show that 75% of the unsubscribers
motivate this by saying they did not find the mailings relevant enough and they received too many over a short period
of time. Use the right message at the right time!
• Spelling mistakes or misspelt names are not done, but that should come as no surprise.
A fresh look from the outside can work miracles. Talk to one of our consultants to see where you can generate additional
profit. Call Dennis Winkel or Roger van Kampen at +31 30 608 8070.
6. Clickthrough rate
Generating traffic to your website is a major goal, because it’s there that things are bought, downloaded, viewed. The
more clicks to your website, the bigger your chance that mailings will be profitable, apart from brand awareness. The
clickthrough rate indicates how interested your customers are in a certain subject or product. Based on this information,
it is possible to send a specific group more information about particular subjects. This rate can either be expressed in the
number of messages that arrived at the final destination or the number of opened messages. We have analyzed both.
6.1 Results
There are great differences between various branches. Telecommunication has the lowest results (3.1%), but luckily there
are some peaks as well. Financials and Real estate have higher results: 12.3%.
Figure 24: Clicks in relation to the number of arrived messages Q1/Q2 2010
Figures look a lot better when expressed in the number of opened message. We advise you to approach your management
with these percentages if asked for. ;-)
Figure 25: Clicks in relation to the number of opened messages Q1/Q2 2010.

There is a considerable decrease in comparison with last year.
Figure 26: Clicks in relation to the number of arrived messages 2008, 2009 and 2010
Figure 27: Clickthrough rate in relation to the number of opened messages 2008, 2009 and 2010
6.3 Business to Consumer en Business to Business
There are minor differences between B2C and B2B.
Figure 28: Clicks expressed in number of arrived messages Q1 and Q2 2010 divided into B2B and B2C.
Figure 29: Clickthrough rate expressed in number of opened messages Q1 and Q2 2010 divided into B2C and B2B
6.4 Conclusion
The average percentage of clicks – in relation to the number of arrived messages – is 5.7%. That doesn’t seem to be much,
and believe me, it sure isn’t. Think about this: 6% of all people who receive your email take the trouble to click through to
your website. This is obviously connected with the open rate. The decline we notice here influences the clickthrough rate.
After all, there will be no clicks in an email that hasn’t been opened. The results of the CTR, expressed in the number of
opened messages (fig. 27), reflect this quite well. It’s true that this rate is lower than last year, but the damage is limited.
Tips!
• Make your customers curious by using catchy texts. Tell them just enough, triggering them to click through.
• With Clang, you can tag content, which enables you to segment even further, so you can make sure the content
matches your recipients’ needs.
• Readers appreciate appealing, well-designed emails, containing useful and interesting information.
• Links can save readers a lot of time when reading your emails. Links enable the reader to make a selection of what he
wants to read and what not. This is how you can help your reader to find the news that is relevant for him.
• A clear call-to-action. Indicate clearly where to click, by adding a ‘Buy Now’ button or a link pointing to ‘Read the
entire story...’
• People favour personalized messages over general messages, which means you need to segment your database. This
can be as simple as making separate messages for male and female readers.
7. Conclusion
Of course we know that you as a marketer have to work on many things, and that email is but one of the channels that
you have got to manage. Every year, you need to do more with less, and this is no different for us. But it pays off to put
the effort and energy into your programs and campaigns. Marketing Sherpa2 has done research among 1500 marketers
and was able to come up with clear results: good tactics do cost time and energy, but they also do pay a profit. It’s
true that it takes a lot of energy to set up campaigns initially, but after that they need only a minimum of maintenance,
especially when processes are automated. If you wish to share your thoughts on this subject, please contact one of our
consultants or account managers at +31 30 698 8070 or send us an email at welcome@e-village.nl.
Did you know that with the same effort you are dedicating to your email marketing campaigns already, you could score
better results? Change the rules, be adventurous, think of new formats, increase or decrease frequency, segment and
automate.
Seth Godin put it nicely in a recent blog post: ‘a car is not merely a faster horse’. Not only is email a quicker and cheaper
way to deploy traditional DM, but it is something different, something that needs to be approached in another way. Play a
new game, not the old one faster3.
Are the results only under pressure in Europe? No, far from that. In July 2010, EMarketer4 presented the results for the US,
which showed that the rates are similarly under pressure there. Experts are discussing ‘list fatigue’. Overfull inboxes with
irrelevant messages are supposed to be the reason for declining results.
2
2010 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, MarketingSherpa, July 2010
3
A car is not merely a faster horse, Seth’s Blog, June 23rd 2010
4
Why email metrics are in decline, Emarketer.com, July 26th 2010
We think it’s not as bad as it looks. The client will make a move if it improves his life, or makes life easier, challenges him
or makes him curious. It’s all about that familiar question: “what’s in it for me?” If you can answer this question for your
individual customer, customer group or segment, you’ve already come a long way to achieving better results.
The next edition will be published in February 2011, then we shall see. We wish you lots of success and a lot of pleasure,
and if you need any help, advise (or just someone who is all ears): you know where to find us!
E-Village BV
Amersfoortseweg 10e
3705 GJ, Zeist
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 30 698 8070
Email: welcome@e-village.nl
8. About deliverability
Apart from everything we can do to ensure that your messages reach the inbox, there is a number of things you can do
yourself to make sure that spam filters regard your messages as legitimate emails.
8.1 Email structure

An email message preferably consists of an HTML part and a plain text part. The plain text version is presented to email
recipients who cannot see or have chosen they don’t want to see HTML (for example mobile telephones). Both Clang and
E-Messenger are able to generate a text version based on the HTML version with the press of a button. Generating a text
version from a largely graphical email isn’t as easy, but it usually contains a clear message that can be translated into text.
In spam, this text version is often missing or is entirely different from the HTML part. Therefore you should make sure the
text version is similar as much as possible to the HTML part.
8.2 Images
In many web-based and desktop clients, messages are generally displayed without images, unless the recipient has marked
the sender as ‘secure’. If this isn’t the case, you can make the contents of your email clearer by using image dimensions
and ALT texts. Unfortunately, ALT texts aren’t displayed in Windows Live Mail (Hotmail), but they are in most other email
clients.
Make sure that the ALT text of your images is short, since Yahoo Mail, the iPhone, Gmail and Apple Mail can only display
short ALT texts.
Gmail, KPN Outlook Web Access and Telfort webmail are examples of web clients that run in a secure environment. As a
consequence, it could happen that a security warning is shown whenever an email contains data (images) that is hosted in
an unprotected environment. This can be solved by using Clang, which operates entirely in a secure environment. Call or
email the sales department at +31 30 698 8070 or sales@e-village.nl.
8.3 Phishy URLs

Every now and then an email is identified as phishing (see Glossary). There is a number of things you can take
into consideration to avoid these false-positives. Don’t use IP-addresses in the hyperlinks in your email: <a
href=”http://123.123.123.123/”> link</a>, and also not as the source where images are hosted: <img src=
“http://123.123.123.123/image.jpg” />. It will also be denominated as spam if the clickable URL “www.
yourwebsite.tld” is shown in the text, while the underlying URL, for measurement reasons, refers to “http://myclang.
com/1234abcd”. It’s better to choose a textual link such as “To the website”, instead of showing a web address.
8.4 Subject line
The subject line of your email also needs to be chosen carefully, because not every subject is encouraging the reader to
come into (trans)action. In addition, its content could make filters trigger to regard the message as unwanted. A lot of
spam mails (you know them: the very-well known Viagra and Cialis, making certain soft parts harder) make use of high
discount rates in the subject line. There are filters that automatically lower the score for that, as well as for writing entire
words in capital letters (screaming). For the same reason, you should not use exclamation marks in the subject line.
The subject line is your chance to make the recipient read the rest of the email. Therefore it’s a certain risk to use the title
of the most important item in the newsletter as a subject line. If the recipient reads the subject line and is not interested in
the topic at the moment, or when he thinks he has already seen or heard about it, he might not even open it. On the other
hand it is important not to communicate too much. A dynamic subject with content matching the recipients’ interests can
be the solution.
9. Glossary
Bounce rate A bounce is an email message that is returned to the sending mail server, in this case the one
from E-Village. The percentage is calculated by dividing the number of returned messages by the
total number of sent messages.
Clicks per mail Clicks per mail measure how often people have clicked in your mail. Only unique clicks are
counted. If someone clicks the same article twice, this is counted as one. If someone clicks on
two different links, however, it’s counted as two clicks.
CTR The click-through rate (CTR) is the number of unique persons clicking a link in a mailing. This can
be expressed in two ways: the number of messages that arrived at the final destination (sent
minus bounced) or the number of opened messages.
Deliverability ‘The ability to deliver’, more specific: in the inbox. Deliverability is taking care the email reaches
the recipients’ inbox, and isn’t caught in spam filters and is not delivered to the unwanted mail
folder.
Hard bounce A hard bounce is a message that is sent to an address that doesn’t exist. This happens when
email addresses are misspelled. Mistakes can be made before or after the @ sign, for example
when a name isn’t spelled correctly or for example @hotmial.com. It can also be after the dot.
The extension .nl exists, while .nk doesn’t. These are common mistakes resulting in bounces.
Open rate The open rate is the number of measured ‘emails opened by the receiver’ in relation to the ‘total
number of sent messages’. Measuring is done by placing a tiny picture to every HTML mailing.
When the mail is opened, the picture is loaded and the counter is increased by 1. It’s possible
that the user has switched off automatic downloading of pictures in emails, for example in
Hotmail. This means the mail is not registered, even though the user has read the mail. However,
when a link is clicked in the message, it will be registered as opened, since it is impossible to click
a link in the mail without opening it.

Plain text messages are not registered, which means that mails opened and read on a mobile
phone or a Blackberry also won’t be registered. On the other hand, mail shown in an automatic
preview is registered as opened, although quite often the user does not even see it. Therefore it
depends on the mailing objectives whether the open rate is relevant.
Preview Pane The preview pane is the part of the mail client that shows the upper part of the email contents,
without actually opening it. It is important to keep the preview pane in mind when it comes to
designing an attention-grabbing opening for your email.
ROI (ROI (Return on Investment) is the figure that provides insight into profits. For email marketing,
we also calculate the costs for sending, licenses and the time invested.
ROI= (Returns minus Investment)/Investment x 100
For example: you earned 10,000 Euros with an emailing, worked on it for two hours at 50
Euros each (=100 Euro), and sending the mailing has cost you 500 Euros. The ROI is: (10.000 –
(500+100)/600 x 100 = 1567% (which is actually very good ;-))
Sometimes you’ll see it without a percentage but as a value (in this example € 15,67).
Soft bounce A soft bounce is created when a message for example reaches a full mailbox. The provider
returns a message to our servers, including a code that enables us to identify the reason for the
bounce. The address is existent and the provider can find it, but because of the fact that a limit
has been exceeded (full mailbox), the message is returned to the sender and not delivered to the
recipient.
Spam OPTA (Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority of the Netherlands) provides the
following definition of spam: “unwanted messages that are sent through email, by mobile
telephones (SMS or MMS), or via any other electronic channel”. Unsolicited faxes and calls from
an automatic calling system (where you are called by a computer) are also considered spam.
In case of an automatic Internet telephony call, we are talking about ‘spit’. Sending unwanted
messages to social networking website users (such as Facebook or MySpace) are also defined as
spam.
Subject line The text that is sent as the subject of your emailing. It’s an important part of your message,
influencing the open rate. After all, it’s the one of the first things people see in their inbox, as
well as the sender’s name.
About E-Village
We develop email marketing software for marketing and CRM professionals, software that
enables organizations to communicate with customers all the way down to the individual
level. Because we think that the right message, to the right person at the right moment is
appreciated. That doesn’t only save costs, but raises loyalty and therefore your sales.
We have been developing our software since 1999, for market leaders and A-grade brands
such as Shell, bol.com, G-Star, KLM, Robeco, Leaseplan Bank, transavia.com, The Phone
House, Kuoni, Macintosh Retail Group and Atos Consulting.
About Clang
The basic idea behind Clang is crystal clear. In an ideal world, you approach your customers
with relevant messages at the right moment in their lives, and involve them in a personal
dialogue. Clang makes this possible.
Clang is the unique email marketing platform for award winning professionals, such as KLM,
bol.com, The Phone House and Boekvandaag.nl. Clang gets the most out of your database
and increases conversion.
Give us a call to get to know us better or visit www.createaclang.com
E-Village b.v. At the end

Amersfoortseweg 10e
3705 GJ Zeist This is the 5th edition of our benchmark. In case there are things you would like to see in
The Netherlands the next issue, or if you have any tips for us and for colleagues in other organizations, or if
you would just like to comment, we will be happy to listen to you!
Tel: +31 30 698 80 70
Fax: +31 30 698 80 81
marketing@e-village.nl
www.e-village.nl

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Email Benchmark 2010

Wishing you lots of reading pleasure and inspiration,

Rogier van der Veen

6. Clickthrough rate ................................................................................................. 22

1.1 Budget for email

Figure 2: Email budget

Do you expect this budget to increase?

Figure 3: Email budget for 2010

Figure 4: Online marketing budget for different disciplines

Figure 5: Do you measure the ROI of your email marketing campaigns?

We will as soon as CRM allows us to;

What does the invested Euro return?

1.3 New addresses

Figure 6: Obtaining new addresses.

Figure 7: Email use

Under other, acquisition, DM, professional content newsletters were mentioned.

2.1 Email deliverability

Figure 8: Email deliverability

Figure 9: Relevant email content

2.3 Competition with social media

Figure 10: Competition with social media

Figure 11: Integration with other databases

2.5 Making sure that legitimate email is not interpreted as spam

Figure 12: Making sure legitimate email is not interpreted as spam

Figure 13: Measuring and improving the ROI of email marketing

2.7 Keeping up-to-date with online marketing

Figure 14: Keeping up-to-date with online marketing

3.1 Trends in the market

Figure 15: Trends in the market

3.2 Trends within the own organisation

Figure 16: Trends within the own organisation

Figure 18: Bounce rate Q1 and Q2 2010

Figure 19: Bounce rate 2008, 2009 and 2010

4.3 Business to Consumer en Business to Business

4.4 What goes on abroad

Figure 21: Open rate Q1 and Q2 2010

Figure 22: Open rate 2008, 2009 and 2010

5.3 Business to Consumer and Business to Business

5.4 What goes on abroad

6.2 Compared with previous editions

8.1 Email structure

8.3 Phishy URLs

ROI= (Returns minus Investment)/Investment x 100

Give us a call to get to know us better or visit www.createaclang.com

E-Village b.v. At the end

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