E-mail Performance Boasts a Strong Start to 2012

E-mail marketers began this year with good momentum. Not only did e-mail volume increase in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the year-earlier period, but open rates and other key e-mail metrics rose at the same time. According to the most recent report from multichannel marketing company Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association, e-mail volume increased 21.4% in the quarter from the year-earlier period. Despite the added volume, open rates also increased 12.6% to an overall 26.2% rate. Nonbounce rates and triggered e-mail growth provided more evidence of solid e-mail performance. For details, see http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120621/EMAIL13/306209997/email-volume-up-along-with-open-rates#seenit

Postal Delivery Shows Record Improvement

Good news for direct mail: The U.S. Postal Service has shown significant improvement in its delivery ratings over the last six months, according to the Red Tag News Publication Association, which monitors delivery of approximately 45 periodical publications. In the January-May 2012  period, the publication group found USPS overall delivery percentages improved from 61% to 76%, with all areas in the 70% and greater delivery range -- for the first time ever! Improving mail delivery is just one of the challenges facing the USPS, of course. The recent PostalVision conference in June unsurprisingly focused on the digital arena as it developed growth strategies to put the USPS on track to handle half the world’s mail volume by 2020. For more, see the report at http://www.abmassociation.com/News/2793/Postal-delivery-improves%3B-PostalVision-offers-USPS-growth-strategies