Experian CheetahMail has released a report that indicates email marketing is not getting to the correct segments, with open and click rates for campaigns declining worldwide as email recipients struggle to consume the increasing volume of emails they receive, many of which are irrelevant.

The report entitled Five new failings of email marketing with best practice solutions, revealed that unique open rates have declined from 21% at the start of 2006, down to 15% in the year ended 2008.

However, the report hinted there was also hope – it indicated that the volume of email marketing messages is expected to reach 838 billion in 2013 in the US and the Australian Communications and Media Authority researched Australians and confirmed that email is the most popular online activity by a ‘significant margin’.

Experian CheetahMail was honoured in Forrester Researchs ‘Forrester Wave: Email Marketing Service Providers’ report for Q4 2009, which evaluated 15 email marketing services providers (ESPs) based on current offering, strategy and market presence, and rated the top performers in the field.

The report indicated that despite there being many chances for marketers to win big online, the report indicates that there are many missed opportunities to enhance the quality and therefore results of email marketing.

“Email marketing will progressively fail if marketers continue to have a poor appreciation of the critical need to make communications relevant and timely. From design through to deliverability, marketers must adopt a best practice approach if they are to maintain the benefits of email marketing in the long term. The tips in this paper are designed to be a starting point to migrate email marketing communications to the next level,” explained the report.