E-MAIL TRENDS BY THE NUMBERS - E-zine Tips points to some items of note to publishers in DoubleClick's latest E-mail Trend Report:
- Newsletters classified as Consumer Audience continue to collect the highest average click-throughs, at 10.7%, followed by those classified as Consumer Products and Services (9.7%).
- Response rates to text e-mails continue to fall. Text messages collected an average 5.6% click rate, down slightly from Q3. HTML messages generated a rate of 11.2%, about the same as in the previous quarter.
- Bounce rates appeared to have levelled off. About 10.5% of all e-mails sent registered either a hard or soft bounce, down from 11.1% in the previous quarter and up only slightly from Q4 2001. Soft bounces -- messages undelivered because of full mailboxes or server problems -- made up 53% of all bounces, compared with 47% for hard bounces due to invalid addresses.
- Tuesday remains the most popular day to send, with 19% of Consumer Audience newsletters going out on that day.
DoubleClick's executive summary is available at its corporate site (click on 'Featured Trends'.)
IRISH GOV'T PLANS DATA RETENTION BILL - ENN.ie reports that the Irish government has established a Web site as part of the consultation process for the Data Retention Bill. The proposed legislation will require telecoms operators to store traffic information about landline calls, mobile phone calls, faxes, e-mails and Internet activities for three years. Civil liberties and human rights groups have criticised the proposal for its potential impact on privacy rights. At the DoJ Web site, click on the 'Consultation on Data Retention' link.
AOL'S NEW E-MAIL PRODUCT AIMED AT TECH-SAVVY - BizReport writes that America Online is previewing a new e-mail product 'AOL Communicator' which integrates features from two of AOL's most popular services -- instant messenger and e-mail -- and is targeted at heavy users of e-mail, including college students, small business owners and techies as it tries to curtail defections in its Internet subscriber base and turn around its business.
