Over the past year pharmaceutical companies have tweaked their email marketing campaigns to focus more on consumers, instead of physicians - and their metrics reflect that shift. So says to Epsilon's recently-released Q4 2009 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks Results [pdf], which reported an increase in opens, clicks and non-bounce rates for the pharma space.
Pharma is not the only industry to report a rise, according to Epsilon - consumer goods and telecom are also reporting better metrics. Pharma, though, has been particularly adept at handling the changing marketing methodologies in its space.
Consumer Marketing
About five years ago, pharma companies began to focus more on consumer marketing as opposed to doctor detailing, Kevin Mabley, SVP of Strategic & Analytic Consulting at Epsilon, tells MarketingVOX. "But their email campaigns didn’t follow suit until last year, which is when we saw the increase in open and click rates, not coincidentally."
Some of the tweaks have been small but significant, he says. "They understand it is a different conversation."
Smarter Taxonomy
Consumer goods also saw a similar increase in metrics. One trend Mabley identifies in this category is that these firms are creating smarter taxonomy of URLs. "With these, they are better able to see long-term trends, such whether people are more likely to respond to samples or coupons for example. Having an email structure laid out in such an organized fashion allows for that kind of analysis."
Transactional Messages
Telecom has been focusing more on service messages - such as notifying a customer their bill is due, Mabley says. "Transactional messages typically outperform general marketing messages."
In general, email marketers saw an increase in both open and click rates in Q4 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. Open rates remain strong at 22.0%, increasing 5.3% from Q4 2008. The average click rate was 5.9%, up slightly from this same time last year (5.8%). Also, not surprisingly, during the high-volume holiday season, the average volume per client increased 25.8% from last quarter and was up 9.8% from last year.
At Odds
The Epsilon survey is at odds with findings from a separate study whose findings suggest a growing weariness on the part of recipients to these messages. The study, by Implix, found that e-mail fatigue and low engagement is a particular problem among North Americans, whose average open rate is 10.76% - in contrast with Europe, which registered a rate over 13%. More than 40 out of every 100 recipients who opened a message sent from Europe clicked on a link. In North America, less than one out of every three opened and clicked on a link.
About the survey: The quarterly analysis is compiled from over 7 billion emails sent by Epsilon in October, November and December 2009, across multiple industries and approximately 170 participating clients. The analysis combines data from both of Epsilon’s proprietary platforms, DREAM and DREAMmail.
