Optimization of emails for mobile devices is becoming increasingly important

As more and more people own a smartphone, emails also need to be optimized for mobile devices to increase click-through rates again.Epsilon, the leading provider of dialog marketing services, continuously analyzes billions of e-mails in terms of their delivery, open and click rates to present key figures in a quarterly trend and benchmark study that allow statements to be made about the success of e-mail marketing campaigns. The latest study for the third quarter of 2013 is now available.Click rates down significantlyIt shows that the delivery and open rates of marketing e-mails in the EMEA region remain stable, while at the same time the click rates have fallen significantly - both compared to the previous year's result and compared to the previous quarter.While the delivery rate in the EMEA region increased slightly from 96.7 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to the current 96.9 percent at a high level, and the open rate also decreased only marginally from 24.6 percent in the same quarter of the previous year to 24.5 percent now, the click rate recorded a significant decline: While 9.1 percent of the advertising e-mails in Europe were clicked in the third quarter of 2012, this figure was only 7.6 percent in the previous quarter - with a further downward trend. The current click rate for the EMEA region is 6.9 percent. This corresponds to a decline of 23.5 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Strong downward trend in GermanyThe key figures in Germany are even more affected by this downward trend. Although the delivery rate also increased slightly by 0.2 percent year-on-year from 97.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to 97.5 percent now, the open rate fell by 4.2 percent from 25.9 percent to 24.8 percent in the same period. However, the open rate fell by 4.2 percent over the same period, from 25.9 percent to 24.8 percent.The biggest loss, however, was recorded by the click rate: at 9.5 percent, it was still above the European average in the third quarter of 2012 and has since fallen by 26.6 percent to almost the same level as the EMEA average. At 7.0 percent, it is now just 0.1 percentage points above the average for the region."Optimizing email for mobile devices""The increasing spread of smartphones has a significant influence on the current results. This is because e-mail is in first place among the basic applications of mobile Internet use," explains Swen Krups, Vice President Client Services EMEA, Epsilon International. "The results are a clear signal to advertisers to push the optimization of e-mails for mobile devices more strongly. "This is also confirmed by the current study of the Lab E-Mail 360° of the German Digital Economy Association (BVDW)According to the study, 31.6 percent of mobile users complain about the unsatisfactory display of e-mails on their cell phones and 27.2 percent criticize their poor readability.Further results of the benchmark study:Comparison Europe with North AmericaAt 95.7 percent, the delivery rate in North America is slightly below the EMEA average of 96.9 percent. In terms of open rate, the key figure in North America of 29.5 percent is well above the European average of 24.5 percent. The click rate, on the other hand, at 4.5 percent in North America remains below the EMEA region's click rate of 6.9 percent.Sharp drop in click-through rate in SwitzerlandAs in the rest of the EMEA region, the delivery and open rates in Switzerland have remained relatively stable. Although the open rate fell slightly compared to the previous quarter, it increased by 13.7 percent year-on-year, from 26.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to 29.9 percent now.The click rate of marketing emails in Switzerland, however, recorded a major loss and, with a drop of 45.2 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, has plummeted at an above-average rate. Whereas 12 months ago, 7.1 percent of marketing emails had content clicked on, the figure is currently only 3.9 percent.Interested parties can download the complete email marketing trend report for the third quarter of 2013 from Epsilon at [email protected] request