I just finished an invigorating panel discussion at the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer. Moderated by Aaron Kahlow from Online Marketing Summit, the session was titled “What Your Customers Really Think of Your Email Program.” (click here for the presentation at Slideshare)
I was joined on the panel by Katrina Anderson of iPost, and Annie Kinnaird of Emma. Stephanie Miller of ReturnPath was the brains behind the format.
The idea was to wade through the ton of email data being published seemingly every day, and focus on the really juicy stuff – subscriber studies – that’s impacting how the email marketing industry is evolving.
Which of These Email Marketing Stats Scare You Most?
1. 21% of email recipients report email as Spam, even if they know it isn’t
2. 43% of email recipients click the Spam button based on the email “from” name or email address
3. 69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line
4. 35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone
5. IP addresses appearing on just one of the 12 major blacklists had email deliverability 25 points below those not listed on any blacklists
6. Email lists with 10% or more unknown users get only 44% of their email delivered by ISPs
7. 17% of Americans create a new email address every 6 months
8. 30% of subscribers change email addresses annually
9. If marketers optimized their emails for image blocking, ROI would increase 9+%
10. 84% of people 18-34 use an email preview pane
11. People who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people that do not receive email offers
12. 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email
13. Subscribers below age 25 prefer SMS to email
14. 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device
15. 80% of social network members have received unsolicited email or invites
What Do You Think? Is the Future of Email 1:1 Communication? Leave a Comment
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Wow – the numbers are amazing. I guess #3 69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line – scares me the most. Subject lines are so important and you write them to attract attention and generate a response, but you certainly don’t want it to generate the wrong response.
The other numbers scare me too….
[...] I was reading a post by Jason Baer at Convince and Convert about email marketing. He had listed some interesting statistics that came out of a panel discussion at the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer. He has a list of 15 Email Statistics That Are Shaping The Future. [...]
Interesting – but I’m missing where these statistics come from?
#11 is questionable at best. I’ve never once bought something that was advertised in an email (nor will I) and loath UCE – but I’d wager that I spend considerably more than the average person who does.
Sorry – but while these are interesting numbers – where did they come from? How many people surveyed? What was the sampling method? What’s the margin of error.
This is questionable at best without that information.
Lucretia -
Thanks for the comment. Apologies for not attributing the stats. If you click on the link at the beginning of the post, it will pull up the presentation in SlideShare. All the stats are attributed there to various reputable research organizations. I believe the one you mentioned is from a Direct Marketing Association annual study, and has been widely cited in the email marketing world.
I should have put the attribution in the post.
Thanks for pointing it out.
j
The one that scares me the most isn’t even listed:
16. There are still marketers who think that sending unsolicited commercial e-mail provides a long-term positive effect.
Sure, you may make a few quick bucks off the few fools who click on your e-mail and buy, but what about the 99.9% who don’t? How many of them have just relegated your company or client to their mental “Spammers” group. How many potential long-term customers have you just lost by using annoying unsolicited e-mail to lists of people who consider it spam?
[...] October 25, 2008 5:30 am RBrowne Email, Surveys If you do email marketing check out these 15 interesting email marketing stats from Jason Baer of the convinceandconvert blog. The stats are American so I wonder how Canada [...]
[...] U.S. email marketing stats from Jason Baer’s convinceandconvert [...]
Why are these stats scary? The stats (assuming they’re correct) represent reality. What scares me is that I may be making mistakes with my email marketing campaign!
Very insightful, it provides a terrific opportunity for companies to develop a model that sticks better than the “let’s cast a wide net and hope we snag something.” Also really hammers home the idea that opt-in is really where things are, so trust should be established first, then you are “invited” into the cocoon, rather than trying to get through and be potentially blocked…that is scary.
I found that this session provided a huge amount of useful information on how to make sure that your email program is not failing due to the implications of these statistics.
Some of the items like making your unsubscribe options very visible and purging your list are fairly obvious, but some others like having a secondary email address that will get a trigger email when the primary address bounces or a postcard to a physical address (loved that idea) were a bit less apparent.
Thanks for participating on such a valuable panel session Jason!