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Email Marketing Best Practices to Get More Business! (Infographic)

Posted by Christine B. Whittemore on Nov 7, 2017 8:30:00 AM

This is a 7 minute read.

Email Marketing Best Practices to Get More Business! (Infographic)If you're a business marketer and wondering about email marketing best practices, here are 119 facts worth exploring captured in an infographic.

 

Email remains particularly effective. Yes, that's right. Email hasn't disappeared and isn't about to. Think of all the applications and social networks which depend on email for verification, interaction [think notifications] and even as reminders to return to individual networks.

 

From a business perspective, emails are the most valuable customer asset available - when obtained legitimately and respected - for engagement, loyalty, relationship building and even sales.

Did you know that consumers who make purchases through marketing emails wind up spending 138% more than those who don't receive email offers?

 

 

Why Email isn't Dead

 

Per "119 Facts You Don’t Know About Email Marketing" (see Infographic below), 77% of consumers prefer receiving email for marketing communications and 85% of retailers consider email to be their most effective tool for acquiring new customers. 64% of decision-makers depend on email. Not only is email three times more likely to convert than social media, but with the ubiquity of mobile devices, you can read emails at any time and place and at your convenience. And plenty do: 91% of internet users check email at least once a day on mobile.

 

Although email is particularly effective for retailers, it's equally valuable for other type businesses: 89% of marketers say that email is their primary source for lead generation.

 

In other words, email is here to stay. Given my previous post titled Top Tips for Avoiding Spam Filters or How To Make it to the Inbox, it's time to explore these email facts in more detail to determine how to successfully get more business using email.

 

Email Marketing Stats and Trends

 

You'll find plenty of interesting stats and best practices in the infographic below. (Hat tip to MarketingProfs for highlighting the data.) Here are ones that looked particularly interesting:

 

  • The biggest email marketing trends in 2017 (interactive emails, big data personalization, html5 videos in emails, automated emails, omnichannel and encryption)

 

  • Check out a table comparing open rate, click rate, and conversion rate data for newsletters, order followup, inactive customer, abandoned cart and member followup 

 

  • The most used techniques include: email automation, personalization, advanced segmentation, broadcast timing based on location, basic profile-based targeting, lead scoring, responsive email design (device detection) and social media integration 

 

What your email recipient tends to prefer

 

From a persuasive email marketing perspective, this infographic includes valuable insights:

 

  • Emails with 6-10 words in the subject line see the highest open rate (21%).

 

  • Open rates for emails with movie titles or song lyrics in subject line increased by 26.2%.

 

  • Red links drew 52% more clicks than blue links.

 

  • Millennials want to see 39% fewer emails and 32% fewer repetitive emails from brands (me, too). 

 

  • Including a call to action button instead of a link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28%. (Why not include both?)

 

Email best practice: personalization

 

Personalization ranks high when it comes to persuasion and generating email results:

 

  • Personalized subject lines result in a 26% higher open rate.

 

  • Using the person's first name in the subject line increases the chance of the email being opened by 14.68%.

 

  • Personalized emails improve the click-through-rate by 14% and conversion rates by 10%.

 

Only send emails that your recipient will consider relevant. This is your opportunity to truly write a persuasive email that sets the stage for further interactions and, ideally, a long relationship.

 

Email best practice: segmentation 

 

Segmented lists perform well. They generate:

 

  • 39% higher open rates.
  • 28% lower unsubscribe rates
  • 24% better deliverability
  • And more revenue.

 

The better you can segment your list, the more you can customize your email message and increase its relevance. 

 

What about email send time and day?

 

Picking the day and time of your email send matters because emails have the best chance of being opened within one hour of reaching the inbox. Which day and time, though, depends on the dynamics of your own list.

 

If you don't have data, try Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Monitor what happens and then adapt what you learn to your own dynamics.

 

Think about your customer personas, what you know about their lives and your industry.

 

Note that some email tools will suggest best times (e.g., MailChimp).

 

Mobile and email

 

Email read on mobile devices accounts for 15 to 70% email opens depending on your industry, audience, product and email type.

 

  • 55% of email is opened on a mobile device
  • 91% of internet users check email on mobile devices at least once per day
  • Replies sent from mobile devices are 54% faster than those sent from desktops

 

What about email spam?

 

  • 21% of email recipients report email as spam even if they know it isn't
  • 43% of recipients click the spam button based on the email name or address
  • 69% report email as spam based on the subject line

 

And email unsubscription

 

  • The average unsubscribe rate is .25%.
  • 66% of unsubcribes happen between 5 pm and 10 pm.
  • 78% of consumers have unsubscribed because a brand was sending them too much email.
  • 52.9% never 'opt down' or change email frequency or type after unsubscribing.
  • 35.4% unsubscribe because emails were sent too frequently.

Their reasons for unsubscribing include:

  • Relevancy 24.5%
  • Received too frequently 35.5%
  • Inbox is overbloated 23.5%
  • Tired of the brand 13.5%

 

So, don't overdo it [read How Not To Get More Business: 7 eMail Retail Experience Horrors! for ideas].

 

Another fact to keep in mind: 30% of your subscribers to your list change their emails on a yearly basis. What that means is that if you have a list of 100 names, after one year only 70 of them will be valid.

 

Email automation stats

 

  • 82% of B2B and B2C companies use email automation
  • B2C companies who have leverage email automation have seen conversion rates as high as 50%
  • Automated email messages average 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through-rates than regular emails.

 

Perspective on email engagement

 

  • You are 6x more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than from a tweet
  • 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email compared to 17% who prefer social media
  • A message is five times more likely to be seen in email rather than Facebook

 

This infographic ends with several case studies on:

 

  • Behavioral segmentation
  • Personalization
  • Target audience
  • Offers and discounts
  • Adding visuals
  • CTAs
  • Others

 

Definitely a goldmine of facts and stats about email!

 

119 Facts You Don’t Know About Email Marketing

 

In terms of big picture takeaways about using email for your marketing communications:

 

  • Segment your list,
  • Send messages regularly - but not too often - and,
  • Make sure your message is relevant!

 

Subscribe to Content Talks Business Blog

 

What will you do differently when you next use email as part of your marketing?

 

What do you think of these email stats? Do they inspire you to do more with your marketing? What might you try first?

 

Thanks for reading! 

 

Explore a Content Pillar Page  about Successful Inbound Marketing

 

 

 

This article was originally published on Sept 12, 2012 and has been updated.

Topics: customer experience, email marketing

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