Trends Q: Does a decrease in industry-wide email volume correlate to an increase in performance?

Last week we asked whether resort campaigns sent on holidays performed better than emails sent in the days before or after. The results suggested holidays actually see an increase in email performance. But with overall email volume dipping as open rates increased, we wondered what effect industry-wide volume had on other days of the year. Here’s what we found.

The Goods
To find our answer we used three years of resort email campaigns (2012-2014) sent to over 500,000,000 people by 75 resorts. We took a rolling, 15-day average of their collective volume and grouped days by whether a one day’s volume was above or below that average. We then found the average open rate for those those days.

In each of the three years we looked at, emails sent on days where industry-wide volume was below average saw open rates that were about 7% (1.5 percentage points) better than campaigns sent on days with above average volume.

What This Means
So what days see lower volume? Simply put, weekends and holidays. And why? Because for many resorts who look to drive weekend and holiday occupancy, sending during those times is simply too late.

In other words, yes, volume and performance correlate. But the reason you’re sending campaigns on the days you are is the same reason everyone else is too: those are simply the best days to send. That’s why they’re busy. The decrease in performance simply comes with the territory.

Next Week: MORE
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