There are a few comments to CTR and delivery rates in e-mail marketing.

Taking into consideration http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007192 and http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=110936, it seems that there’s no actual references in general data. The two researches show a big gap (almost 20%) in the delivery rates, which is not understandable.
One should assume that Epsilon was using brand new mailing lists, while Return Path was using scarcely updated lists. 20% is know as the percentage of addresses that become obsolete with one year time. If that’s not the case, then maybe one of the two research firms needs to change parameters or origins.

There’s one more detail which I always didn’t understand, at least when I was in Europe.
All my mailings had an average of 30% as open rate and a 8/10% as click-through rate. And I couldn’t understand how my results were always above all the general statistics … that’s because I don’t presume I’m such a DM guru.
Now that I’m in the US all my statistics returned normal: independently from the message, its tone or content, my result seems an exact replica of those shown by the two above researches.

My final comment is very simple.
As DM had such an evolution in the US, US customers deal much more critically with incoming messages. Those could be more friendly, even more naïve if compared to the seriousness of European copybodies. But the maturity and the higher experience in dealing with a much more intense amount of targeted communication puts the marketer in a more challenging position towards its public.
On the other hand European people is still “new” to such a communication bombardment: they always complain about the huge inbox but they read and interact more.

At the end one could say: if DM is effective in the US (where response rates are lower), no European marketer should complain if its DM campaign didn’t reach the expected goals.
Moreover, one should come here, and find out how any targeted communication is often a start of a thick conversation (quite impossible elsewhere) and how response times are even more different (being quicker) and meaningful.

http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/Environment/

An 11-course curriculum, “Environmentally Responsible Marketing,” will enable marketers to “gain knowledge and tools to consider environmental outcomes in their overall direct marketing planning, strategy, and tactical decision-making.”

11 corsi sul “marketing ecoresponsabile” offriranno agli addetti la possibbilità di “acquisire conoscenza e strumenti per considerare i benefici ambientali nelle loro pianificazioni e decisioni tattiche nel campo specifico.

http://www.psfk.com/2008/10/mail-games-testing-the-system.html

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Alternative_media_43/An_ad_sales_pitch_sent_round_the_world.asp

New Zealand’s TV2 had sent the letters from New Zealand to Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Lausanne, Amsterdam, London, New York, San Francisco and finally back to media buyers in Auckland and Wellington. The result: “TV2’s Saturday night movie slot was booked out for the next six months,” Howman says, generating $5 million in business for the network.

New Zealand’s TV2 ha spedito le lettere dalla Nuova Zelanda a Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Losanna, Amsterdam, Londra, New York, San Francisco e finalmente ai media buyer in Auckland e Wellington. Il risultato: “Lo slot associato ai film del sabato sera sono stati prenotati per i successivi sei mesi, generando 5 milioni di dollari per il network.

http://if.psfk.com/if/#Creative Circle Awards

for Honda Lawnmowers / per i tagliaerba Honda.

http://blogs.mediapost.com/email_insider/?p=548

Are you contemplating taking on behavioral targeting and optimizing customer touch points through triggered email messaging?

Pensate di usare metodologie di behavior target e di ottimizzazione per il consumatore attraverso un’e-mail marketing efficace?
[articolo in inglese]