More Emails Opened on Friday - Clicked on Sunday, According to New Study by Email Service Provider ExactTarget.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Emails sent on Friday had the highest average open rate in 2005, according to the 2005 Response Rate Study by on-demand email service provider ExactTarget. The most comprehensive study to date includes data collected during the 2005 calendar year from more than 4,000 organizations, 230,000 email sends and 2.7 billion email messages.

"ExactTarget's 2004 study asserted that there is no such thing as a universal best day to send email, and we still hold this view," said Morgan Stewart, director of strategic services at ExactTarget and author of the study. "The results of our 2005 study show that organizations still must conduct their own tests to determine which day of the week works best for them, but all organizations should consider Friday and Sunday as viable challengers."

According to the study, Friday had the highest average open rate for 14 months straight - from October 2004 through November 2005.

Sunday had the year's highest average click-through rate, or number of times someone clicked on a link in the email, followed by Friday. However, Sunday was a consistently low performer for open rates.

Activity Still Focused Mid-Week

The ExactTarget study shows that email send activity is still focused mid-week, with approximately 96 percent of campaigns and 92 percent of email volume sent Monday through Friday.

"When deciding when to send an email, organizations must consider their competition in the inbox," said Stewart. "An organization may have clearly defined competitors in the general marketplace, but its competitors in the inbox can be drastically different. In the inbox, organizations are competing for the attention of their subscribers. Given that the number of emails sent on Friday is relatively low compared to other weekdays (14.3 percent of emails are sent on Friday versus 24.5 percent are sent on Tuesday), the odds of getting the attention of subscribers is higher. The strong email open results for Friday support this notion. The number of emails sent over the weekend also is low (3 percent are sent on Sunday and 4.9 percent are sent on Saturday), so this increases the odds that subscribers will spend time interacting with their email."

The higher relative volume of email on the weekend is due to the business-to-consumer focus of these campaigns. "B2B organizations sending on the weekends may have been rewarded for their unconventional choice of day to send, as their average click-through rates were 25 percent higher on the weekend," said Stewart.

Email is Seasonal

The ExactTarget study also shows a seasonal component to email results. Strong open activity correlates with strong click activity and this was clearly the case for organizations sending email on Friday in the study. Friday yielded consistently strong clickthrough results of 6.2 to 7.1 percent monthly throughout the year, and Friday was second behind Sunday in average click-through rates. Month-to-month click-through rates for Sunday varied widely, with the average ranging from 4.9 percent in June to 8.3 percent in October. This variation follows seasonal trends with low performance in summer months and strong response in winter months.

"During the summer months, email recipients are most likely spending the weekend outdoors away from their computers," said Stewart. "In the winter, subscribers may spend more time indoors catching up on email and/or preparing for the week ahead."

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is the market leader in on-demand email software solutions for permission-based email marketing. More than 4,000 organizations worldwide, including The Home Depot, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Scotts and Encyclopedia Britannica, rely on ExactTarget email solutions to strengthen their customer relationships and to control email throughout the enterprise. ExactTarget is a recognized technology leader, ranked highest in business suitability by JupiterResearch in 2004 and 2005 based on the solution's usability, strong feature set and dynamic content tool. ExactTarget solutions meet the needs of all industry verticals and all size organizations, including SMB, corporate divisions, not-for-profits, large retail/direct marketers, agencies and enterprises. Privately owned and headquartered in Indianapolis, USA, the company has more than 30 offices spanning North America, Europe and Australia. To learn more, go to http://www.exacttarget.com