Nearly half of transactions occur within a day of email receipt
New research reveals customer response times by industry 
Almost half (47%) of transactions and three-quarters of opens and clicks occur within one day of the email receipt.
That is one of the main findings of new research into the effectiveness of email marketing technology by Experian Marketing Services, a provider of email marketing and customer intelligence technologies.
Findings from the study specify customer response time variances by industry and offer, confirming the volatility in customer preferences and instantaneous nature of the email channel today. Response times for transactions and revenue were found to vary by industry. The data showed that companies in the Business Products and Services vertical tend to have the quickest customer response, with 52% of transactions and 79% of revenue received in the first day.
In comparison to all other industries, Travel was the slowest with only 13% of transactions and 11% of revenue occurring on day one.
The research found that transactions and revenue response times can significantly vary by mailing type and subject line content. Using time-limited offers in subject lines shows the quickest response time of all, with 59% of transactions in day one, while coupons demonstrate much slower response, with only 36% of transactions the first day. Abandoned-cart emails generate quick transaction responses with 52% received on day one, while also generating higher revenue per email in the long term. Welcome email recipients appear to require more time to make purchases, with only 33% of transactions occurring the first day.
“Being able to anticipate customer response time can help businesses optimize everything from forecasting and budget planning to timing the launch of cross-channel promotions and sales,” said Rachel Bergman, general manager and SVP, Experian CheetahMail. “This type of insight is invaluable to progressive marketers looking to strengthen their campaign strategies for increased ROI and deeper customer engagement. We are pleased to offer our clients custom analysis of such research, across all industries and catered to their individual business goals.”
The research was conducted in March 2010 by Experian’s Strategic Services group, to look at email response times in more depth and to find where variability may occur. Email performance was analyzed for 44,011 mailings from 404 clients across a range of industries in increments of one, three and seven days from send.