Thursday 13 November 2014

50 Email Marketing Tips and Stats for 2014

Our friends over at Salesforce.com have written a ton of posts that deal with email marketing tips and tricks for your success. We thought it would be great to compile some stats, tips and suggestions in one post for your reading pleasure.

Email Marketing Stats

  1. On average, subscribers receive 416 commercial messages a month. (Return Path)
  2. There are more than 3.2 billion email accounts.
  3. Email ad revenue reached $156 million in 2012. (Interactive Advertising Bureau via Salesforce.com)
  4. 95% of online consumers use email.
  5. 91% of consumers reported checking their email at least once a day. (ExactTarget)
  6. US internet users will average 3.1 email addresses this year, according to a July 2013 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of MyLife. 
  7. According to eMarketer there will be around 236.8 million US email users by 2017.
  8. Worldwide, market research firm The Radicati Group forecasts the email audience will grow from 2.42 billion this year to 2.76 billion by 2017.
  9. Purpose of email marketing programs according to UK brand marketers? 78% said retention.
  10. 64% of decision-makers read their email via mobile devices. (TopRankBlog)
  11. 89% percent of UK brand marketers polled by the UK’s Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in December 2012 said email was important to their business strategies. 
  12. For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment.
  13. 56% of businesses say they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2013.
  14. In Q4 2012, more than nine out of 10 UK internet users sent or received email at least once a week, according to data from Deloitte.
  15. 70% say they always open emails from their favorite companies. Conversely, only 18% say they never open commercial emails.
  16. 55.2% of global users use the desktop to open email (Harland Clarke)
  17. eMarketer estimates the US adult email audience will reach 188.3 million in 2013 and will continue to climb to 203.8 million by 2017. 
  18. 93% of consumers also get at least one permission-based email daily.


Mobile Design

  1. A whopping 66% of Gmail opens occur on mobile devices, with only 19% opened in a web browser (Litmus)
  2. When planning content for a multi-device experience, your most important content should come first. Think back to the top-down hierarchy taught in basic journalism—what do you most want your readers to see?
  3. We recommend using text of at least 13px for body copy. In order to avoid having to zoom in, try starting at 15-16px (depending on the actual font) and preview it on your mobile device.
  4. The mobile experience is highly interactive and every email is viewed in stages. Plan for each stage, using both the design and content strategically. (Designing for the Mobile Inbox) 
  5. According to Bridget Dolan, vice president of interactive for cosmetics retailer Sephora, the percentage of email messages opened on mobile devices is already in the 50% range.
  6. 43% of all emails are now being opend via a mobile device. (Return Path)
  7. Know your audience—it’s the most basic of all marketing principles. If your brand’s mobile audience is at or above 10%, it’s time to start optimizing for mobile.
  8. The #1 email client for Gmail users is the iPhone’s built-in mail program, with 34% of all Gmail opens. (Litmus)
  9. In a world where smartphone penetration in the US has reached 55%, marketers can no longer afford to think of email messages in terms of “mobile” and “non-mobile.” The reality is that subscribers will likely view your messages on a wide variety of devices—including desktops, laptops, smart phones, and tablet computers.
  10. Don’t focus solely on click-based interaction—instead, try to think in terms of swipes and taps. As with any good design, grid-based layouts ensure content is easy to read and digest.
  11. Rather than asking for name, address, company, and so on, keep it simple. Try limiting your form to one field: the email address. (Salesforce.com)
  12. A one-column layout works best in both aware and responsive design. If you have a  multi-column layout, carefully plan how elements shift or stack, using a grid to ensure the technical aspect is possible.

Mastering the Inbox
  1. Do you want to help your bounce rate? Locate the emails that generated the high number of bouncebacks and investigate the source of the list. 
  2. Comply with the guidelines in the federal CAN-SPAM legislation. Most importantly, make sure that all requests for removal from your mailing lists are honored. 
  3. 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. (Convince & Convert via Salesforce.com)
  4. More people read emails that deal with their finances and travel than any other category. (Return Path)
  5. Desktop and smartphone email opens happened most often between 10am and 4pm—during the typical workday. (Harland Clarke)
  6. Recipients often only read the subject line or the first few lines of an email. Include your CTA early on in your email. 
  7. Subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%. (Adestra July 2012 Report)
  8. According to Google, there were over 425 million active Gmail users as of June 2012. According to email testing and tracking service Litmus, approximately four percent of all email opens can be attributed to Gmail webmail users, as of June 2013.

  1. 61% of B2B marketing professionals worldwide said CTR was the most useful metric for analyzing email campaign performance, compared with 48% of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers. (Ascend2)
  2. Use autoresponders to automate simple, recurring emails. Since welcome and thank-you emails will be sent over and over again as you gain new subscribers and followers, they are perfect for testing the marketing automation waters. (Mastering the Art of Marketing Automation) 
  3. Bold, beautiful imagery is slowly taking over our inboxes, as we take cues from Pinterest and social hubs like Facebook and Twitter. Images help tell your brand’s story, so consider taking the time to choose artful shots that complement your message. For B2B emails, think outside the realm of traditional stock photography to make your messages are unique. 
  4. The smart B2B marketers are personalizing their communication based on a prospect’s interests—using behavioral data and a whole new generation of online personalization technology.
  5. Start building your landing pages, forms, and email templates using industryaccepted best practices. Many automation providers offer implementation services that will walk you through creating these assets, from template design to the content included in each. 

Data. Data. Data. 
  1. Get accurate and detailed data from people who want to hear from you, then automate the numerous steps involved in sending them relevant messages. (eMarketer)
  2. One of the top benefits of e-mail marketing is that it yields reams of data about who a company’s best customers are. Marketers can target those people in the social realm and offer incentives or discounts to encourage them to share with their friends and advocate on behalf of the brand. (eMarketer)
  3. There’s a Big Data disconnect. In a recent study from Econsultancy, 77% of marketers said purchase history had a very high impact on return on investment (ROI), meaning they are leveraging that data for lead nurture and to aid the buyer’s decision-making process. (Joel Book)
  4. 7 in 10 people say they made use of a coupon or discount from a marketing email in the prior week. (2012 Blue Kangaroo Study)
  5. If the addresses were acquired organically via form submissions, consider using a Confirmed Opt-In process. With Confirmed Opt-In, an individual is required to enter an email address to access your site or content. Upon registering their email address, a verification email will be sent to the address provided. This way, new subscribers can only submit valid, active email addresses.
Social Media and Email
  1. Email sharing is extremely important to any digital marketing campaign. It is important to include social sharing buttons at the top of your email. When the recipient clicks the share button, have the social post populated with interesting copy and a shortened link.
  2. A May 2013 survey of US internet users, conducted by ad agency The Buntin Group and survey research firm Survey Sampling International (SSI) on behalf of disposable tableware company Chinet, showed respondents spent more time per week with email than any other digital activity—an hour more than popular digital diversions such as Facebook and texting.
Source : http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/50-email-marketing-tips-and-stats-for-2014/

2 comments:

  1. Nice post! Now days, the competition has risen and people are opting for good SEO and facebook ad management services. This will help in promoting a business on social media as well. My sister is planning to begin with a new business and I am glad I found some help for her.

    ReplyDelete