E-mail click rates

Since the first quarter of this year open rates have declined from 39.2% in Q1 and click-through rates have fallen to 8.3% this past quarter from 8.9% in Q1. Nonetheless, it is important to note that legitimate e-mail marketers can carve a space for themselves over time.

DoubleClick's report is based on aggregate data from hundereds of DoubleClick clients who sent 2 billion permission-based commercial e-mails using the company's DARTmail delivery technology. DoubleClick notes that companies in certain industries fared better than others in Q2. For example, e-mails promoting retail companies and catalogs experienced delivery rates of 91.3% this past quarter -- up from 85.4% in Q2 2002 -- while click-through rates rose 9.8% over the year.