Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) achieved an open rate of 18.21 per cent in 2010, a new report has shown.

Sign-up.to's UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report also found that SMEs achieved a click-through rate of 3.29 per cent.

Restaurants showed the strongest performance, with an 28.19 per cent average open rate and a 6.64 per cent click-through rate.

"Email marketing has become an established way for restaurateurs to engage directly with their customers and many are using it alongside social media activities to drive customers into their branches," said the company.

According to the study, which is based on the results of over 500 million email campaigns sent by UK companies, the biggest growth in performance over the year was in the business to business sales sector.

The news comes just weeks after a study by integrated communications agency Rocket found that email marketing is more effective at brand building and boosting sales than social media.

This news comes from the Direct Marketing Association and the website www.b2balliance.info which brings together best practice guidelines and other key information on a range of B2B Marketing & Communication topics from a powerful alliance of specialist trade organisations.