E-Mail Dayparts Lose Impact

DoubleClick found an overlap of professional and personal email usage in its sixth annual consumer email study. The data call into question the necessity of daypart targeting in email campaigns.

Over half of the survey’s respondents check work email at home in the evening and on weekends. Forty-eight percent check their personal email accounts at work, and 21 percent check personal email from work throughout the day.

A report issued last quarter from aQuantive’s Atlas Institute recommended using dayparts for display ads. DoubleClick’s research suggests email reaches consumers regardless of day of week or time of day.

“E-mail users are accessing their email on a regular basis, it does make daypart overall less important,” said DoubleClick Email Solutions Director of Strategic Services, Richard Fleck. “We see [dayparts] as more of a testing strategy for clients.”

Relevancy is the most effective tool for email campaigns, according to the study. “Almost half of respondents also consider permission-based email that comes too frequently or that is no longer relevant as spam,” it states.

“This presents enormous opportunities [for marketers], while at the same time requiring a significant degree of sophistication to communicate and interact with consumers on their terms in a mutually beneficial manner,” said Eric Kirby, general manager of DoubleClick E-mail Solutions.

E-mail campaign conversions offer ROI value beyond online activity. Seventy-eight percent of respondents purchased goods promoted in email. E-mail coupons were redeemed by 59 percent of respondents. DoubleClick also finds as many as one-third of consumers click on information but return later to transact.