Last week’s MailerMailer report showed that success in email has been in steady decline for 5 years. The latest data shows a drop in email openings from 12% in the first half of 2009 to 11.2% in the second half and click throughs declined from 2.6% to 1.6%. And, more importantly, both have been declining since 2007. In the second half of 2007 opening rates were 14% and click rates 2.9% The MailerMailer report notes several possible factors contributing to lower open rates:  cluttered consumer inboxes, the increasing use of mobile devices, and the option of turning off email images. And let’s not forget the huge adoption and growing sophistication of spam filters. Looking at email open rates by industry, agriculture, religion, transportation and large businesses had the highest open rates, while entertainment, banking, marketing and medicine had the lowest email open rates. The report found that click rates suffered much worse in the second half of 2009, dropping more than 38% from the first half and nearly 43% from the same period of the previous year. MailerMailer states again that the problem with "click rates” is due to inbox clutter, but also noted that "anti-phishing security measures sometimes stop links from going live. Email recipients must then take two actions – one to enable the links, and a second one to click on them." The industry breakdown was similar to the one for open rates – religion, transportation, environmental and retail emails saw the most click throughs. Legal, marketing, entertainment and restaurant industry emails had the lowest click rates. Another study by Experian Cheetahmail in March 2010 found that nonprofits saw the fastest opens, while catalogers were quickest to be clicked on. Marketers can speed up interaction rates with tactics like limited-time offers in email subject lines, but some industries, like travel, should expect a longer lead time due to the nature of their products and services. But beyond some of these tactical issues there are some bigger picture strategic considerations. Due to postal regulations the price of mailing is going to increase and become a more expensive (read less attractive) option to some companies. Even with a slight decline in “opens” or “clicks,” offering a less expensive alternative or a combined (cross media) service with direct mail may help your customers achieve greater success. Research is showing that there are some common denominators across media. It does not matter if it is an overfilled mailbox or email box, segmentation and personalization are becoming more important with all forms of direct marketing. Are you concerned by the decline in email “Opens” and “Click Rates”? Howard Fenton is a Senior Consultant at NAPL. Howie advises commercial printers, in-plants, and manufacturers on workflow management, operations, digital services, and customer research.