Bigfoot Interactive Q4 2003 Benchmark Report Reveals Improved Delivery and Performance across Vertical Email Campaigns
Retail, Consumer Package Goods, Automotive and Financial Services Campaigns Continue To Improve Delivery Rates and Generate Increased Customer Interest
NEW YORK – March 9, 2004 – Bigfoot Interactive, the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies, today announced the release of its vertical benchmark analysis for email communication campaigns launched during the fourth quarter of 2003. Results across key verticals showed relevant and timely offers drive customer interest and response. Corresponding with the peak holiday shopping season, results for the retail and consumer packaged goods verticals generated their strongest click-through results for the year.
Nearly every vertical market saw delivery rates (emails successfully sent) increase or remain stable during the quarter as more marketers implemented real-time, automated opt-out and bounce/hygiene processing systems across campaigns due to delivery and CAN-SPAM compliance initiatives. The Media and Financial Services vertical markets led the way with overall delivery rates of 92% and 90% respectively. Delivery and delivery monitoring continues to be a top priority for marketers looking to leverage the efficiency and effectiveness of permission-based email in their communication efforts to grow customer relationships and marketing return on investment.
Quarter Over Quarter Performance Highlights Across Key Business Segments:
-- Retail - Unique click-through rates for promotional emails reached a high for the year of 8.6%, representing a 4.9% increase in performance over last quarter's unique click through rate of 8.2%. The uptake was perpetuated by the continued success of in-store coupon campaigns and holiday promotional efforts. A recent Bigfoot Interactive and NOP World Research study on customer's perceptions of email communications from retailers showed increasing consumer demand for more targeted and contextually relevant communications from their retailers.
-- Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) - Like the retail vertical, CPG manufacturers benefited from the strong online holiday shopping season, yielding a strong overall unique click-through rate of 12.4% for the quarter. This represents a record high result for the year and a gain of 2.2% over Q3 2003 results and a 22% increase in overall performance of CPG email campaigns.
-- Automotive - Unique click-through rates for editorial email campaigns reached 20.7%, an increase of 10.7% from the Q3 2003 unique click-through rate of 18.7%. The increase was primarily driven by targeted, model specific "Owner News" email newsletters, which saw unique click-through rates as high as 27%.
-- Media - Unique click-through rates for media editorial campaigns increased from 10.3% to 13.1%, representing a performance gain of 27% after the summer slowdown. General and political news alerts generated consistently high click-through rates throughout the quarter.
-- Financial Services - Overall unique click through rates remained strong overall at 10.2%, while delivery rates increased to a record high of 90% due to the implementation of more advanced and automated opt-out, hygiene and bounce management systems for numerous triggered service messaging programs. Service messaging continues to generate impressive click-through rates averaging 17.6% for the quarter -up 10% over the Q3 2003 result of 16%- due to increased interest in service messaging from credit card holders during the holiday shopping season.
"Long gone are the days of blasting email with irrelevant messages to everyone in your database. The results announced today validate the power of permission-based, contextually relevant email and the increasingly important role it plays in driving commerce, customer service and the overall relationship between marketers and their customers," said Al DiGuido, CEO of Bigfoot Interactive. "Perceptions of the inbox are changing and if a message isn't relevant, it's going to be considered spam."
Findings from the Q4 2003 trend analysis were aggregated from Bigfoot Interactive's automated email technology platform, DREAM(SM) (Direct Response Email Application Manager) and were based on all retention-based mailings from October 1 through December 31, 2003. Individual campaign results can dramatically vary based on audience, creative, subject line/offer and more.
About Bigfoot Interactive
Bigfoot Interactive (www.bigfootinteractive.com) is the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies. Through its combination of innovative technologies, professional services and vertical market expertise, Bigfoot Interactive helps marketers acquire, grow and retain profitable customer relationships through highly relevant and personalized email communications. The company's end-to-end suite of industry-specific products and services includes scalable email campaign technology, delivery optimization, marketing automation tools, turnkey integration solutions, strategic consulting, and creative expertise to produce email programs that generate measurable results throughout the customer lifecycle.
Since 1997, Bigfoot Interactive has developed successful permission-based email programs for more than 150 top companies, including Expedia, American Honda Motor Co. and The Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive. Privately held and based in New York, the company's investors include JPMorgan Partners, Flatiron Partners, Hudson Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Grey Ventures, HPJ Media Ventures and Syndicat Technologies.
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