Home Design Production Reporting & Analysis Contact us "Having Alchemy Worx manage the entire process of our international email campaigns gives us the peace of mind that comes with a company that specializes in email - what a difference that makes!" Stephanie Kidder - Director, WW E-Commerce Sales and Marketing Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, Sibelius, Pinnacle The AWCM Index [pronounced: aw-suh m] Weekly mailing volumes fall nearly 60% in January... Welcome to the AWCM Index. Every month we'll report on different aspects of B2C emails received by our monitor, including volumes, frequency, send days, from addresses, subject line lengths, spam folder delivery, and anything else we think you might find interesting. The index is made up of subscriptions to over 100 free email newsletters or offer programs. The companies represented in the survey cover a broad range of consumer goods and services, including travel, retail, supermarket, comparison sites, DIY / furniture, fashion, health, jewelry, mobile phones, movies, music, photography and electrical goods. For a full list of companies, please email us. The AWCM Index reveals a 20% increase in the total volume of emails received by the AWCM index in December compared to November 2008 (up from 320 to 384), with the volume increasing by 72% between August and December (See Figure 1). The monthly increase recorded in December was second only to that seen in October (+24%). Figure 1: Monthly volume received Weekly volumes steadily increased between August (c50 emails received per week) and the penultimate week of the year (99 emails received). The volume received fell back to 72 over the Christmas week, before dropping to around 40 per week in the first three weeks of the year. The second week of January recorded the fewest e-mails since the ACWM index has begun (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Weekly volume received Over the next 12 months, we will be looking to identify what percentage of this increase is attributable to seasonality, and the current economic climate. Between December and August, the number of companies sending emails increased by 29%, from 63 (59%) of the 107 companies on the AWCM Index sending an email in August, rising to 81 (76%) in December. However, while there were 7-10% monthly increases in the number of active companies between August and November, this levelled off somewhat in December, with only one more company sending an email than in November (see Figure 3). Figure 3: Number of Companies Mailing per Month The higher rate of increase in volume of emails received in December over November (+20%) compared to the number of companies sending emails (+1%) reflects a 19% increase in the average number sent per active company, from 4.0 e-mails sent in November, to 4.7 in December, much the highest number recorded over the 5 months as a whole, and a 34% increase over August and September (see Figure 4). Figure 4: Average Frequency Across the five month period, the majority of messages (91%) were received in the monitor on week days. Tuesdays were the least popular send day during the working week, with an average of 13% of mailings, while Monday and Friday were the most popular, each accounting for an average of 24% of mailing volume (Figure 5). Figure 5: Average Day of the Week (Aug-Dec 08) However, the share of messages received on Fridays (and for that matter on Thursdays) fell in November and December compared to the preceding three months, while Tuesday became an increasingly popular day for sending e-mails, increasing share from 11-12% in August-October, to 17-18% in December (Figure 6)*. With brands increasing their frequency to an average of almost five messages per month, and the reduced number of working days in December, it appears that marketers were using any week day available to them. * NB. that the number of occurrences of each day in any month varies Figure 6: Day of the Week by Month Each month we will report on these base metrics and other, relevant topics. If you would be interested in receiving weekly updates or analysis by industry sector please email us. Notes to the editor The AWCM Index was started in July 2008 with a fixed number of subscriptions. The index is made up of subscriptions to over 100 free email newsletters or offer programs. The companies represented in the survey cover a broad range of consumer goods and services, including travel, retail, supermarket, comparison sites, DIY / furniture, fashion, health, jewelry, mobile phones, movies, music, photography and electrical goods. Please email us for a full list of companies. Analysis has been undertaken by Alchemy Worx and the independent Research agency BML (www.bookmarketing.co.uk) Please take the time to give us some feedback: Feedback... Received this from a friend or colleague? Click here to subscribe.