According to Bigfoot Interactive's 1Q 2005 benchmark analysis of email performance, released today, email delivery rates across all major vertical markets remained high. The best performances were by editorial newsletters (97.6 percent delivery) and service messaging from financial services companies (96.8 percent).

However, the rapid adoption of broadband internet access appears to be driving email address changes, accounting for the bulk of invalid addresses and bouncebacks. Together with frequent ISP and email address changes, broadband adoption will continue to have an impact on email delivery for the foreseeable future, according to the report.

More than 13 percent of all recipients with at least one email address indicate they have switched ISPs or mailbox providers in the past six months, and nine percent are considering switching in the next six months, according to Bigfoot. (Last week, DoubleClick also reported that open rates had dropped in the first quarter.)

Editorial newsletters had the highest delivery rates - 97.6 percent (an improvement from both last quarter and the same period last year) - and strong click-through rates averaging 11.6 percent. Retail and catalog marketers had overall delivery rates of 94-95 percent for the third consecutive quarter. Auto marketers improved their performance with a 21.2 percent increase in overall click-throughs compared with the first quarter of last year.