E-mail marketing benchmark report from APAC

1. Enterprise Email Marketing
Solutions & Services
18.21% L at tR
13.11% 69.77% AND TR S
E N DS
29.09% 27.5% 27.
14.32% 15.01%
6.60%
30.5% 25.4% 13.
27.5% 15.21
% 32.5%
32.5% 27.5%41.5%
29.0% 15.01% 15.21
30.5% 90% 29.81% 30.5%
25.09%12.5% 18.21%
12.24% 48.5%
35.7%
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - ASIAN EDITION
Latest results and analysis of email response data
including industry and language comparison

2. Contents – emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
1
Introduction 2
Bounces 3
Open Rate 4
Click Rate 5
Unsubscribe Rate 6
Comparing Industries 7
Comparing Industries for the Last Two Years 8
Comparing Languages 11
Comparing Languages for the Last Two Years 12
Summary of Results 15
Recommendations 16
About emarsys 16

3. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – sian Edition – Introduction
2
he emarsys Email Benchmark Report celebrates its tenth birthday. For the last 10 years we
have analysed response data from our clients and provided insight into email marketing trends.
his year, not only have we have collected data from over 70,000 B2B and B2C campaigns
(newsletters, promotional email) sent by over 1000 businesses across different countries and
industry sectors, we introduce the new “ sia Edition” of the Benchmark Report with figures and
insights specific to the sian region.
he data, collected between January 1st and December 31st 2011 was analysed to produce
detailed statistics on:
•• Open and click-through rates
•• Bounces and unsubscribes
•• Response by industry
•• Response by language
his year we feel it’s time to retire one statistic - that is the format of emails sent. Over 98% of
emails are sent using H ML (with a text copy) so there is no longer any need to measure this
level of activity.
In previous years, our analysis included a comparison of campaign success metrics in 14
European languages and a detailed breakdown of results by industry. his year, we incorporate
metrics based on the Chinese language into our first sian Edition, as China grows in its wired
population and internet as well as email usage. In addition like last year, we complemented it
with an overview of response trends over the last two years.
o ensure the most accurate results, we distinguish between the first two campaigns
(“introductory campaigns”) and all campaigns thereafter (“on-going campaigns”) for the
analysis of bounce and unsubscribe rates. s a general industry tendency, the first two
campaigns have significantly higher bounce and unsubscribe rates than later campaigns
as some rogue data may have been imported in the initial set up and therefore has to be
analysed separately.
here is also a proliferation of daily deal providers and companies who have adopted this
methodology over the over the course of 2011 which we feel could skew the results, in terms
of frequency of send. We have therefore levelled the data on these types of businesses to
ensure continuity and quality of our report.continuity and quality of our report.
Internal test campaigns, campaigns without clickable call-to-actions or campaigns with
immediate incentives (e.g. “click here to see who won the sweepstake”) that lead to a
non- representative high response, have not been taken into consideration.
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

4. Bounces– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
3
Bounces (in %)
2007 14.59 % 4.62 %
2008 8.29 % 2.86 %
2009 10.86 % 3.08 %
2010 7.89 % 2.50 %
2011 6.79 % 1.84 %
Bounces: First Mailings Bounces: Ongoing Campaigns
Fig. 1: Average bounce rates in a year-on-year comparison
The trend continues: In 2011, the bounce rates have once again improved getting lower in both first mailings and on-going campaigns.
Bounces B2B vs B2C (in%)
2007 15.17 % 6.13 %
2008 8.87 % 3.88 %
2009 10.45 % 4.09 %
2010 7.05 % 2.90 %
2011 7.85 % 2.49 %
B2B First Mailings B2B ongoing
2007 14.09 % 3.56 %
2008 8.13 % 2.36 %
2009 11.03 % 2.75 %
2010 8.00 % 2.36 %
2011 6.64 % 1.73%
B2C First Mailings B2C ongoing
Fig. 2: Average bounce rates, comparing B2B to B2C
The performance in both the B2C and B2B sectors, which was good in 2010, has further improved last year.

5. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – Open Rate
4
Open Rate (in %)
2007 34.9 %
2008 30.24 %
2009 29.29 %
2010 25.07 %
2011 22.73 %
Fig. 3: Average open rate (recipients of HTML emails only)
The open rate shows another decrease; however, the decline in percentage is significantly smaller than last year.
Open Rate B2B vs. B2C (in %)
2007 37.33 %
2008 32.19 %
2009 31.11 %
2010 27.90 %
2011 25.21 %
B2B
2007 33.18 %
2008 28.56 %
2009 28.02 %
2010 24.04 %
2011 22.18 %
B2C
Fig. 4: Average open rate (HTML recipients only), comparing B2B to B2C
As already indicated by the overall results for the total open rate, open rates decrease slightly for both the B2B and the B2C sector.
A notable factor is that in the B2C sector, the return rate is significantly smaller than last year.
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

6. Click Rate– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
5
Click Rates (in%)
2007 9.88 % 19.27 %
2008 8.49 % 15.57 %
2009 8.21 % 14.59 %
2010 6.73 % 11.08 %
2011 7.27 % 11.60 %
Unique Total
Fig. 5: Individual (min.1 click/recipient) and total (all clicks) click rates in a year-on-year comparison
After years of steady decline there is a positive trend to be observed: In 2011, clicks increased once again.
Both the individual click rate and the total click rate increase by half a percentage point last year.
Click Rates B2B vs. B2C (in%)
2007 10.42 % 22.23 %
2008 8.98 % 17.09 %
2009 8.13 % 14.66 %
2010 7.24 % 13.00 %
2011 7.45 % 13.49 %
B2B unique B2B total
2007 9.5 % 33.18 %
2008 8.08 % 14.28 %
2009 8.24 % 14.48 %
2010 6.54 % 10.38 %
2011 7.23 % 11.15 %
B2C unique B2C total
Fig. 6: Individual (min. 1 click/recipient) and total (all clicks) click rates when comparing B2B to B2C
For B2B companies, there is a small increase for both individual click rates and the total amount of clicks.
This becomes even more noticeable for B2C companies with regard to both first and on-going mailings.

7. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – Unsubscribe Rate
6
Unsubscribes (in%)
2007 0.57 % 0.28 %
2008 0.67 % 0.38 %
2009 0.44 % 0.21 %
2010 0.35 % 0.16 %
2011 0.34 % 0.11 %
Unsubscribes: First Mailings Unsubscribes: Ongoing
Fig. 7: Average unsubscribe rate in a year-on-year comparison
The positive trend of decreasing unsubscribe rates continues in 2011. For first mailings the decrease might be minimal – but a decrease it is -, for
on-going mailings it has now dropped to 11 per cent and thus constitutes the smallest number ever in the year-on-year comparison.
Unsubscribes B2B vs. B2C (in%)
2007 0.64 % 0.26 %
2008 0.59 % 0.35 %
2009 0.49 % 0.21 %
2010 0.40 % 0.17 %
2011 0.37 % 0.13 %
B2B First Mailings B2B Ongoing
2007 0.56 % 0.28 %
2008 0.72 % 0.40 %
2009 0.42 % 0.20 %
2010 0.34 % 0.15 %
2011 0.33 % 0.11 %
B2C First Mailings B2C Ongoing
Fig. 8: Average unsubscribe rate when comparing B2B to B2C
The unsubscribe rate becomes increasingly lower for both B2B and B2C companies. A closer look reveals that the percentage rate for B2B and
B2C companies decreases significantly, in particular with regard to on-going mailings.
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

8. Comparing Industries– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
7
Comparing Industries in 2011
In 2011, the highest open rate was tracked for companies in the administration and energy sectors, followed by publishing and
media companies and producers of industry and consumer goods. The highest click rate, on the other hand, can be observed
in the education and consulting sectors.
Industries Bounces Clicks Unique Clicks Total Open Rate Unsubscribes
Administration/
2.42 8.13 13.05 34.74 0.19
Energy
Education/
3.62 8.15 17.78 23.36 0.20
Consulting
Financial
2.35 8.04 14.74 21.44 0.13
Services
Industrial/
2.85 6.53 10.41 25.41 0.18
Consumer Goods
Marketing/
4.28 7.44 13.64 22.92 0.14
Agencies
Non-Profit 5.86 6.83 10.62 21.60 0.08
Pharmaceutical/
2.66 5.62 8.44 20.79 0.33
Health
Publishing/
1.02 8.56 13.87 27.94 0.08
Media
Retail/
1.28 7.19 10.55 18.76 0.10
E-Commerce
Technology/
Telecom 3.17 5.74 10.13 25.17 0.17
Travel/
1.88 6.06 9.90 24.89 0.12
Leisure
Daily Deal 1.51 3.99 5.88 14.51 0.08

9. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – Comparing Industries for the Last Two Years
8
Bounces Unique Clicks
Administration/ 3.28 % 8.51 %
Energy 2.42 % 8.13 %
Education/ 3.28 % 7.11 %
Consulting 3.62 % 8.15 %
Financial 2.98 % 8.04 %
Services 2.35 % 8.04 %
Industrial/ 4.07 % 7.52 %
Consumer Goods 2.85 % 6.53 %
Marketing/ 4.03 % 9.26 %
Agencies 4.28 % 7.44 %
Non-Profit 3.64 % 6.37 %
5.86 % 6.83 %
2.20 % 6.60 %
Pharmaceutical/
Health 2.66 % 5.62 %
Publishing/ 1.68 % 9.09 %
Media 1.02 % 8.56 %
2.15 % 5.38 %
Retail/
E-Commerce 1.28 % 7.19 %
Technology/ 3.01 % 5.85 %
Telecom 3.17 % 5.74 %
Travel/Leisure 2.45 % 5.64 %
1.88 % 6.06%
Daily Deal 1.51 % 3.99%
2010 2011
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

10. Comparing Industries for the Last Two Years– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
9
Total Clicks Open Rate
Administration/ 15.88 % 28.65 %
Energy 13.05 % 34.74 %
Education/ 12.83 % 25.83 %
Consulting 17.78 % 23.36 %
Financial 15.02 % 27.82 %
Services 14.74 % 21.44 %
12.42 % 30.35 %
Industrial/
Consumer Goods 10.41 % 25.41 %
Marketing/ 16.87 % 26.41 %
Agencies 13.64% 22.92 %
Non-Profit 10.73 % 22.51 %
10.62 % 21.60 %
Pharmaceutical/ 10.43 % 21.68 %
Health 8.44% 20.79 %
Publishing/ 14.90 % 29.49 %
Media 13.87% 27.94 %
Retail/ 7.73 % 21.72 %
E-Commerce 10.55 % 18.76 %
Technology/ 11.58 % 25.33 %
Telecom 10.13% 25.17 %
9.08 % 22.40 %
Travel/Leisure
9.90 % 24.98 %
5.88 % 14.51 %
Daily Deal
2010 2011

11. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – Comparing Industries for the Last Two Years
10
Unsubscribes
Administration/ 0.21 %
Energy 0.19 %
Education/ 0.22 %
Consulting 0.20 %
Financial 0.18 %
Services 0.13 %
Industrial/ 0.28 %
Consumer Goods 0.18 %
Marketing/ 0.15 %
Agencies 0.14 %
Non-Profit 0.01 %
0.08 %
0.13 %
Pharmaceutical/
Health 0.33 %
Publishing/ 0.14 %
Media 0.08 %
Retail/ 0.15 %
E-Commerce 0.10 %
Technology/ 0.17 %
Telecom 0.17 %
Travel/Leisure 0.11 %
0.12 %
Daily Deal 0.08 %
2010 2011
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

12. Comparing Languages– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
11
Comparing Languages in 2011
A noticeable fact is the ongoing positive trend for both open rate and click rate in Scandinavian campaigns. Finnish and Danish
campaigns lead in both open rate and click rate and thus achieve the best results when comparing languages.
Languages Bounces Clicks Unique Clicks Total Open Rate Unsubscribes
German 1.69 7.50 12.28 27.04 0.13
English 1.93 4.62 7.69 15.94 0.12
Spanish 4.02 5.38 8.07 16.84 0.06
Italian 2.51 5.19 8.29 21.48 0.09
Chinese 3.46 2.29 3.60 13.91 0.02
Dutch 1.67 7.54 11.38 22.18 0.20
French 1.73 5.75 9.32 19.32 0.16
Swedish 1.14 9.25 13.09 21.82 0.17
Norwegian 1.62 10.27 14.78 23.27 0.13
Finnish 1.77 17.28 23.00 29.11 0.14
Polish 1.74 10.84 16.37 17.08 0.06
Hungarian 1.04 5.00 6.97 17.97 0.09
Czech 0.90 8.31 12.82 14.72 0.13
Danish 1.39 13.22 18.34 29.42 0.10

13. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – Comparing Languages for the Last Two Years
12
Bounces Unique Clicks
German 2.25 % 7.37 %
1.69 % 7.50 %
English 3.44% 4.41%
1.93 % 4.62 %
Spanish 4.23 % 4.07 %
4.02 % 5.38 %
Italian 3.35 % 5.45 %
2.51 % 5.19 %
Chinese 2.57 % 1.15 %
3.46 % 2.29 %
Dutch 1.88 % 7.68 %
1.67 % 7.54 %
French 2.83 % 6.31 %
1.73 % 5.75 %
1.28 % 7.70 %
Swedish
1.14 % 9.25 %
Norwegian 2.41% 10.49%
1.62 % 10.27 %
Finnish 2.53 % 11.64 %
1.77 % 17.28 %
Polish 2.98 % 8.05 %
1.74 % 10.84 %
Hungarian 4.35 % 7.32 %
1.04 % 5.00 %
Czech 2.58 % 9.79 %
0.90 % 8.31 %
Danish 0.91 % 13.90 %
1.39 % 13.22 %
2010 2011
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

14. Comparing Languages for the Last Two Years– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
13
Total Clicks Open Rate
German 12.08 % 29.26 %
12.28 % 27.04 %
English 7.83 % 17.50%
7.69 % 15.94 %
Spanish 6.45 % 17.87 %
8.07 % 16.84 %
Italian 9.30 % 25.65 %
8.29 % 21.48%
Chinese 3.87% 28.50 %
3.60% 13.91%
Dutch 12.17 % 25.94 %
11.38 % 22.18 %
French 10.59 % 23.33 %
9.32 % 19.32%
11.01% 22.13 %
Swedish
13.09 % 21.82%
Norwegian 18.65% 25.05%
14.78 % 23.27 %
Finnish 16.38 % 26.13 %
23.00 % 29.11 %
Polish 13.23 % 18.67 %
16.37% 17.08 %
Hungarian 11.77 % 27.29 %
6.97 % 17.97 %
Czech 16.57 % 20.81 %
12.82 % 14.72%
Danish 20.10 % 27.07 %
18.34 % 29.42 %
2010 2011

15. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – Comparing Languages for the Last Two Years
14
Unsubscribes
German 0.17 %
0.13%
English 0.17%
0.12 %
Spanish 0.05 %
0.06 %
Italian 0.08 %
0.09 %
Chinese 0.01 %
0.02 %
Dutch 0.29 %
0.20 %
French 0.17 %
0.16 %
0.21 %
Swedish
0.17 %
Norwegian 0.16%
0.13 %
Finnish 0.21 %
0.14 %
Polish 0.07 %
0.06 %
Hungarian 0.13 %
0.09 %
Czech 0.12 %
0.13 %
Danish 0.13 %
0.10 %
2010 2011
Email Benchmark Report 2012 - Asian Edition

16. Summary of Results and Recommendations– emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition
15
Summary of results
This year’s benchmark report shows that there has been a general positive increase on the
number of clicks despite a small decline in the overall open rates in western countries as well as
in Chinese-speaking ones. This trend is applicable to both B2B and B2C. Unsubscribe rates
and bounce rates continue to fall (except in Chinese-speaking countries) indicating that the
improvement in quality of email addresses and database cleansing continues. While nearly all
figures are at their lowest level since our records began 10 years ago, Chinese regions
experience a slight surge in bounces and unsubscribes. The recent rise in internet usage which
leads to an increase in inactivated email accounts may skew and undermine the increase in
these numbers, yet this may also hint that Chinese senders require more aggressive
data-cleansing.
Major industry and language differences
The Scandinavian countries continue to dominate the open and click rate although the Finnish
have overtaken the Danish from last year on clicks with an impressive 17.28%.
English and Chinese click rates remain the lowest whilst Germany slipped from top position last
year on open rates to third. With regards to industries, there doesn’t seem to be any particular
trend taking place, as last year’s industry/consumer led in the open rate but this year
administration/energy took pole position. But despite the high open rates they only came third in
clicks. The emergence of the ‘daily deal’ sector (now in a separate category) had the lowest
overall open and click rate with 14.5% and 3.99% respectively.
Why are there signs of improvement in click rate despite lower open rates?
There may be many reasons for improvement in clicks, despite the fall in open rates.
One reason may be that more focused messages are being delivered to a more segmented
and targeted audience. The ‘one size fits all’ email is at last showing signs of decline as
customers become more selective in the communications they wish to receive.
Another reason may be that with the ever increasing amount of email received, there is ‘inbox
clutter’ where emails fight for attention. Poor subject lines that aren’t compelling, despite the
more focused approach, cannot stand out amongst the ‘clutter’ and therefore may not be
opened.
Email clients now by default, do not display images on first opening. This means that some
emails may be read without graphics, (a requirement for tracking open rates), and are not
recorded in this report.

17. emarsys Email Benchmark Report 2012 – Asian Edition – About emarsys
16
Recommendations
A report from Radicati Group indicates that email continues to grow with some 294 billion email
messages sent globally each day - Our inboxes are continually populated with more and more
irrelevant messages. SPAM arriving into your inbox has now almost been eradicated with
sophisticated filters at both the ISP and on the desktop but what we still receive is
overwhelming and getting your messages read continues to be challenging. Emails with
compelling and relevant subject lines that are tested using A/B or multi-variant testing will
continue to see improvements in both opens and clicks.
Whilst years ago, people would tend to ‘eyeball’ every email, our time is now more valuable and
we open less emails as a percentage of what we receive. If you want to get your email read, you
have to ensure relevant and attention-grabbing subject lines that are tested using A/B or
multi-variant testing before sending. Have interesting focused content, and offers that are
targeted to the recipient’s preferences. In essence great content and good data will be even
more valuable in the future.
More than ever customers are reading their email on mobile devices. ReturnPath predict that by
the end of 2012 more email will be opened on mobile devices than desktops. This means that
sending desktop ready emails only will mean that fewer emails will be read and even fewer will
be actioned. econsultancy suggests that a whopping 41% of emails not optimised for mobile will
either be closed or deleted, destined never to be opened on a desktop and read as you
intended. Our thoughts for the coming year are: if you don’t optimise for both desktop and
mobile don’t be surprised that next year the open and click figures will be markedly less than
this year.
About emarsys
emarsys is one of the largest providers of email, mobile and social marketing automation
solutions in the world sending out over 50 billion emails each year on behalf of more than 1000
‘blue chip’ clients such as eBay, Volvo, Garmin, A.S. Watson, Zurich and TimeOut.
Our industry leading solution is designed to meet the complex needs of our customers,
providing all you need for driving multi-channel online marketing success and increasing ROI
- through the most comprehensive email, mobile, and social media marketing automation
solutions in combination with our unrivalled deliverability expertise.
VIENN A • LONDON • MUNICH • BERLIN • ZUR ICH • PA R IS • HONG KONG • BEIJING • MOSCOW • ISTA NBUL

18. Contact Us
For more information, please contact us or
visit www.emarsys.com and learn more about our other
global office locations.
emarsys Ltd
Unit F, 5/F
China Overseas Building, 139 Hennessey Road
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Phone: +852 3168 2500
Fax: +852 3168 2515
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