It’s the No. 1 sharing channel in the world
4,300%.
That’s the average ROI on email marketing, according to the Direct Marketing Association.1 And that, says Inc., is a better return than for any other marketing channel.2
It’s been more than 45 years since Ray Tomlinson sent the first email in 1971.3 It announced the existence of email and told readers how to use the @ symbol in email addresses.
“4,300%. That’s the average ROI on email marketing.”
— Direct Marketing Association
Since then, we’ve seen the emergence of social channels ranging from Facebook to Flickr, from Tumblr to Twitter, and from Yelp to YouTube.
But when it comes to moving the needle on the bottom line, email remains king.
“Email may well be your most productive marketing tool,” says Dan Zarrella. He should know. The HubSpot viral marketing scientist analyzed 9.5 billion MailChimp emails to find out.4
Why email?
So why email? E-zines and email marketing are:
1. Popular
More than 3.7 billion people will have email by the end of 2017.5 That’s about half of the men, women and children in the world.6
These folks prefer email:
- Some 86% of U.S. professionals prefer to use email for business communications.7
- More than 60% of working Americans consider email “very important” to their job. That makes email the top digital tool in the American workplace today.8
- Sending or receiving email remains Americans’ No. 1 online activity; 85% of U.S. adults use it every day.9
“Sending or receiving email remains Americans’ No. 1 online activity. Some 85% of U.S. adults use it every day.”
— Statistica.com
2. Convenient
People can read emails wherever they take their phones — from the barroom to the bathroom. Indeed, people open two-thirds of emails on mobile devices.10
“People read 42% of emails in the bathroom.”
— Adobe Campaign Survey
Where they read e-zines: Subscribers mostly read their e-zines at home, at work or on their commutes, according to Kim Flaherty, Amy Schade and Jakob Nielsen, authors of Marketing Email and Newsletter Design to Increase Conversion and Loyalty. However, 7% read their e-zines in the bathroom.
Where they read emails: As for general email consumption … outside of work, Americans most commonly check their email:11
- While watching TV (70%)
- From bed (52%)
- On vacation (50%)
- While on the phone (43%)
- From the bathroom (42%)
- While driving (18%)
3. Viral
If your email readers like what they see, they forward the message to an average of 11 people, according to the Direct Marketing Association.
“Email is the No. 1 social channel for sharing.”
— Chadwick Martin Bailey
That makes email the No. 1 social channel for sharing, according to Chadwick Martin Bailey.12 Eighty-six percent of people surveyed use email for sharing; 62% use it most often.
4. Cheap
Emailing a company’s own list costs only $1 a sale, according to Forrester Research. That compares with $20 a sale using snail mail.
5. Effective
Finally, email has a 66% conversion rate. That’s the highest of any channel, including social media, direct mail and more.13
“Email has a 66% conversion rate. That’s the highest of any channel, including social media, direct mail and more.”
— Data & Marketing Association
And let’s not forget that 4,300% ROI.
But remember: That return is an opportunity — not a promise. And taking advantage of that opportunity isn’t easy. Email has some built-in problems that make it easy to annoy, rather than convert, subscribers.
Overcome the obstacles to reaching readers via email.
______
Source:
[1] “Email Marketing: How To Push Send And Grow Your Business,” Copyblogger,
[2] Inc. Staff, “Writing an E-Newsletter that Gets Results,” Inc., July 30, 2010.
[3] Heinz Tschabitscher, “The First Email Message: Who sent it and when?” Lifewire, Oct. 11, 2017
[4] Dan Zarrella, “The Science of Email Marketing,” HubSpot, Feb. 9, 2011
[5] Email Statistics Report, 2017-2021 (PDF), The Radicati Group, February 2017
[6] World Population Clock, Worldometers.info
[7] Mimi An, “Native Advertising Rises As Consumers Opt Out,” HubSpot Research, Feb. 8, 2016
[8] Kristen Purcell and Lee Rainie, “Technology’s Impact on Workers,” Pew Research Center of Internet and Technology, Dec. 30, 2014
[9] “Most popular daily online activities of adult internet users in the United States as of February 2017,” Statistica.com
[10] Greg Sterling, “Majority of Emails Opened on Apple Devices,” Marketing Land, Jan. 28, 2015
[11] Kristin Naragon, “Subject: Email, We Just Can’t Get Enough,” Adobe blog, Aug. 26, 2015
[12] Josh Mendelsohn and Jeff McKenna, “Social Sharing Research Report: How, Why, and What Content People Share Online” (PDF), Chadwick Martin Bailey, September 2010
[13] Casey Hampsey, “Saturday Stat Series: The Influence of Email Marketing Messages,” Data & Marketing Association, Aug. 3, 2013
Get opened with stellar subject lines
Some 68% of emails don’t get opened — let alone read. In fact, an average of 276 emails languishes unread in inboxes at any given time. That’s an increase of 300% in just four years.
In this environment, how do you write subject lines that get opened, read, clicked through and shared?
Learn how to grab attention in the inbox — and boost your open rates — at our subject line-writing workshop.
Leave a Reply