Are your welcome emails doing their job properly and in a timely manner? The findings of a recent study by the Email Experience Council suggest that more attention to detail is needed if email marketers are to create a good first impression.

Fewer than three-quarters of online retailers send out welcome e-mails to customers who have signed up for a newsletter or other email program, according to the Email Experience Council’s (EEC) second annual "Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study". At 72 percent, that figure is up on 2006’s 66 percent, but when you consider that welcome emails have much higher opening rates than regular email communications, it’s an opportunity that 28 percent of online retailers are missing out on.