Data shows that email is alive and kicking
Last winter, MediaShift interviewed me for an article entitled “Email is Far From Dead”.
The beginning of the article discusses how people have been declaring the end of email’s relevance for years. Yet, recent data from ExactTarget shares statistics on email that bring its relevance to the forefront.
Email rarely receives the notoriety it deserves. It seems that you cannot go a day without hearing about social media like Facebook and Twitter, yet email receives claims about it losing popularity and importance.
According to ExactTarget’s “Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Social Break-Up”, 95% of US online consumers use email and 93% are subscribers to at least one permission-based email a day. This is the true reason for daily, permission-based email.
When it comes to email activity, 83% of US online consumers reported checking their email at least once daily while 64% said they checked their email several times each day.
A statistic that online publishers will find worthy is that 70% say they always open emails from their favorite companies.
Although US online consumers often use email, 91% did report subscribing to a company’s email newsletter and then unsubscribing when they decided they no longer wanted the content. Additionally, 77% said they have become more cautious about giving companies their email address in the past year.
Finally, only 18% of US online consumers reported never opening email from companies.
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What this means for publishers and email marketers
Email has strength. It can be used for personal and marketing communications. The medium has been around for years and is still heavily used by US online consumers.
In order to achieve desired results, eMarketer outlined six factors that should be considered for effective marketing. These include:
-Effective emails need to be delivered to a recipient’s inbox when they might be read.
-A balance needs to be found between in-house and outsourcing email.
-Automate customized emails based on the recipient’s interests and activities.
-Optimize email and landing pages for multiple devices, especially mobile.
-Persuade recipients to share emails with others.
-Test and continuously retest to boost email open rates, click and other factors.
Strong email campaigns should strike a chord with those Internet users who love sharing content online and consumers interested in buying products that fit their lives.
For more information on this topic, take a look at this article from eMarketer.
