Branding
A recent study reported that 40% of Internet users in the US changed their opinions of brands due to information they gathered online. This data is reinforcement that it’s more important than ever to make sure that the image you are portraying online, and especially in your email marketing, is an accurate reflection of your brand.
SubscriberMail, 2009
Nearly a third of survey respondents (32%) said they have stopped doing business with at least one company altogether as a result of its poor email practices. – Merkle (Feb. 2009)
50% said they’re more likely to buy products from companies who send them email, whether their purchases are online or at a place of business. – Epsilon “Branding Survey” (Feb 2009)
Deliverability
Twenty percent of email in the United States and Canada is still not making it to the inbox while 3% of email goes to the “junk” or “bulk” folder and another 16% goes missing. – Return Path (2010)
On average, 27.6% of commercial emails sent to business addresses don’t reach the inbox. – Return Path (2009)
Only 28% of those between ages 18 and 24 say the email they currently get from companies is relevant to them. – PMN and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’(IDM) Lab (2009)
75% of respondents say lack of relevance is the biggest reasons subscribers choose to opt out, followed closely by sending too frequently (73%). – Merkle Interactive Services (2009)
Deployment Times and Days
People are receptive to marketing emails during the first hour of their work day. Pure360 reports 16.5% of emails in the study were opened between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.. – Pure360 (2009)
42.6% of financial emails were opened after lunch, indicating that workers are more receptive to so-called bigger-picture or life-changing messages in the afternoon. – Pure360 (2009)
Friday is the most popular day of the week to send out promotional emails, with 42% of US Online Retailers sending at least one promotional email.- Smith-Harmon “Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study” (2010)
Tuesday was retailers’ favorite day to email, followed by Thursday, Monday, Friday, Wednesday, Sunday and Saturday. While 33% of retailers email on Tuesdays, only 8% sent emails on Saturdays. – Email Experience Council/RetailEmail.Blogspot, “Choosing The Best Day Of The Week To Email” (July 5, 2007)
The highest open rates (read rates) during Q2 2007 were Wednesday (27%), Monday (26%) and Thursday (26%). – eROI, “Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time” (July 2007)
Design
Only 33 percent of those surveyed have images turned on by default in their email client. This is a vast difference from 2006, when the figure was a still concerning 55 percent.- MarketingSherpa, (2010)
Visual appeal is an important factor for retail customers- and accordingly HTML formatting was favored by 95% in 2009, up from 86% in 2008. – E-Tail Group “More Merchants Rely on Email to Minimize Cart Abandonment”(2010)
37% of major online retailers provide a link to change or manage subscription preferences and 22% provide a “change email address” link. Looking to capitalize on forwards, 18% of retailers also include a subscribe link. – Smith-Harmon “Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study” (2010)
Over 80% of respondents plan to use video emails in 2010, while in 2009 only 15.7% of responders used video in their email campaigns.- GetResponse “2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey” (2010)
64% of marketers plan to use video in e-mail for the first time in 2010. – GetResponse “2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey” (2010)
Frequency
Consumers aged 18-26 receive an average of 12.4 emails per day from companies, compared with 14.9 emails per day for those aged 27-38 and 15.9 for those aged 39-54. – IDG Connect and MarketingSherpa (2010)
89% of retailers cited email is the most mentioned successful tactic overall. – Merkle “View From The Inbox” (2009)
2009 saw a 12% overall increase in promotional e-mail messages from top online retailers. – Smith-Harmon”Retail Email Year-End Trends for 2009″ (2010).
Lead Generation
Lead generation is marketers’ first priority, with 66% saying it is their greatest concern for 2010, compared with just 17% who chose brand awareness. -Unisfair “The Future of Tech Marketing” (2010)
Social media is the top emerging channel for lead gen among technology marketers surveyed in May 2010. -Unisfair “The Future of Tech Marketing” (2010)
61% of US marketing professional said the main reason for implementing a Social Media Strategy is to increase lead generation. -R2integrated “Social Media Survey” (2010)
B2B marketers said their top two goals for 2010 were to move prospects/leads faster through the sales pipeline (51%) and to increase contact database (41%) – Silverpop “Exploring the Differences and Similarities of B2C and B2B Marketing Tactics” (2010)
Response Metrics
More than one-half of adults said they were likely to open an e-mail containing promotions or coupons, and 30% said they would forward such an e-mail to others, up from 28% in 2008. -Experian Marketing Services “The 2010 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report” (2010)
83% of marketers place their share-to-social links at the bottom of their messages. – Silverpop “Emails Gone Viral: Measuring ‘Share to Social’ Performance” (2009)
32% say they’d share promotional l email offers with members inside a social network and open emails from others. – PMN and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’(IDM) Lab (2009).
Subscribers who receive promotional permission-based email estimate that they delete 55% without opening. – Merkle Interactive Services (2009)
ROI
Consumers who receive both email and direct mail on average contribute about $17 in revenue and $4 in margin per household.- Merkle “Driving Successful Email and Direct Mail Integration” (2010)
Consumers who only receive email contribute an average of a little more than $15 in margin and a little less than $4 in margin per household.- Merkle “Driving Successful Email and Direct Mail Integration” (2010)
‘Social media ROI’ was an important buzzword for 36% of executives. – Anderson Analytics and Marketing Executives Networking Group “Marketing Trends Report 2010″ (2010)
58% of US Marketing Executives feel ‘Marketing ROI’ is currently the most important buzzword/trend to pay attention to. – Anderson Analytics and Marketing Executives Networking Group “Marketing Trends Report 2010″ (2010)
Segmentation
59.4% of SMB marketers worldwide plan on using interest-based segmentation in upcoming email campaigns. – GetResponse “2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey” (2010)
34.9% of SMB marketers worldwide plan on using recent open or click-rate activity as a segmentation tool in upcoming email campaigns. – GetResponse “2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey” (2010)
44.8% of SMB marketers worldwide believe using behavioral targeting segmentation can result in a significant increase in email marketing effectiveness. – GetResponse “2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey” (2010)
Among marketers worldwide surveyed in 2009, 93% believe segmentation was at least somewhat valuable for improving conversion rates.- Econsultancy (2009)
Less than one in five marketers (16%) measured their social media ROI in 2009. Mzinga and Babson Executive Education (2010)
Email marketing will generate an ROI of $43.52 in 2009. DMA (2009)
42% percent of email marketers do not know their return on investment from email marketing. Econsultancy and Adestra. Email Census (2009)
Social Media
Social media is the top emerging channel for lead gen among technology marketers surveyed in May 2010. -Unisfair “The Future of Tech Marketing” (2010)
54% of US marketing professionals perceive social media to be innovative and invaluable to their business, while less than 3% said that social media is ‘complicated and not worth the investment’. -R2integrated “Social Media Survey” (2010)
36% of US marketing professionals said 61% of US marketing professional said the main reason for implementing a Social Media Strategy is to increase lead generation. -R2integrated “Social Media Survey” (2010)
42% of B2C marketers said that including links to social networking sites in emails is a marketing tactic that works particularly well, compared to 29% of B2B marketers. -Silverpop “Exploring the Differences and Similarities of B2C and B2B Marketing Tactics” (2010)
In 2010, 60% of US Internet users ages 35 to 44 and one-half of those in the 45-to-54 age group will use social networks at least once a month. – eMarketer “Social Network Demographics and Usage” (2010)
57.5% of U.S. Internet users, or 127 million people, will use a social network at least once a month in 2010. – eMarketer “Social Network Demographics and Usage” (2010)
72.3% of B-to-B and B-to-C agencies and Markets have a Facebook page, while 72.0% have a Twitter account.- Datran Media “Marketing and Media Survey” (2010)
27% of business executives worldwide said they had already integrated social media strategy into the email marketing strategy. An additional 24% said they have formulated an integration strategy and are currently researching implementation tactics. – eMarketer “2010 Marketing Trends Survey” (2010)
