The death of email has been greatly exaggerated

10 April 2023

It’s been on the edge of extinction for years

But it’s still very much alive and kicking

But it’s still very much alive and kicking

• Consumers prefer it

But it’s still very much alive and kicking

• Earlier this year, 68% of companies rated the channel as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ in terms of ROI. This marks a 3% increase since last year

Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014

But it’s still very much alive and kicking

• ROI recently hit 2,500%

DMA: National Client Email Report 2014

But it’s still very much alive and kicking

• Companies are attributing 23% of their total sales to email, up from 18% in 2013

Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014

But it’s still very much alive and kicking

• Companies are attributing 23% of their total sales to email, up from 18% in 2013

• And plan to spend more on it

Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014

DMA: National Client Email Report 2014

Email isn’t dying, it’s evolving…

The question is, are we?…

• The evolution of email in 8 stats

• Delivering a better email experience

• How to measure the success of emails

• Where email is heading next

Today we’ll be covering…

The evolution of email in 8 stats

• In 1971 Ray Tomlinson send the first email• In 1978, Gary Thuerk, a Marketing Manager at Digital Equipment Corp sent the

first mass email (promoting DEC machines) to 400 users via Arpanet. It resulted in $13 million worth of sales

• In 1992, the first smart phone was launched enabling email access through a mobile

• In 1996 Hotmail (then known as HoTMaiL) launched as the first free web based email service, giving marketers a whole new way to reach customers. Previously email was only available to students or employees. The introduction of personal email addresses (that were free and available to all) transformed direct marketing

• In 1998 the Data Protection Act was updated to ensure all email marketing included an opt-out;

• In 2001 the first ever behavioural email was sent. By 2010 it was reported 48% of online marketers were using triggered emails.

• By 2012, it was reported over 40% of marketing emails were opened on a mobile device

• In 2014, 56% of client marketers plan to increase their email budget allocation

The stats

Delivering a better email experience

What makes for a better experience?

Delivering a better email experience

Delivering a better email experience

Relevance

Delivering a better email experience

Relevance

TimelinessImpact

A more engaging and better performing

email

Delivering a better email experience

Relevance

TimelinessImpact

Xxxxxxxxx

DMA: National Client Email Report 2014

Relevance

Why is it important to be relevant?

• 58% of consumers won't open emails if they seem unrelated to their needs

• 40% won't open emails if the subject lines seem irrelevant

• 71% of consumers surveyed would be more likely to purchase from a brand if their emails were tailored to their likes and preferences

• Personalizing a subject line results in 26% higher unique open rates

• Personalizing an email body has been shown to generate transaction rates 6X higher than their impersonal counterparts

Silverpop: Best Friend Brands studyExperian: 2013 Email Marketing Study

Quick aside…

If we’re not relevant…

Brands aren’t giving up easily though…

Relevance in action

Follow up to in-store experience

Relevance in action

Relevance in action

Relevance in action

Subject line:Kendal is awesome…

Timeliness

What do we mean by timely?

• Current events: news, holiday seasons

• Retargeting emails

• Abandoned basket emails

• Replenishment emails

• Birthdays

• Milestones in a relationship

Why is it important to be timely?

• Automated messages achieved, on average, an open rate 15% higher and a click-through rate 79% higher than their manual counterparts

• Largest click rate differences between BAU and triggered emails were in retail apparel (332.8% increase)

• Automated triggers based on behavioural data can double total email revenues

Silverpop: 2014 Email Marketing Benchmarks StudyEpsilon: Email Trends Benchmark studyRedEye

Adobe

A timely prompt could be highly profitable

• Nearly half (46%) of basket abandonment emails are opened

• Over an eighth (13.3%) of basket abandonment emails are clicked

• Average order value of purchases from basket abandonment emails is 19% higher than typical purchases

SalesCycle

Business Insider

When are people most receptive?

• While metrics are different for everybody, as a general rule, the best open rates tend to be seen in emails that are sent around lunch time (noon or 1:00pm)

• And most studies support that sending emails on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday will yield the best results

• So, if you boil it down, you want to send your email campaign on a midweek day in the afternoon

Emailmarketing.com

Subject line:We’re royally excited

Timeliness in action

Timeliness in action

Subject line:A note for naughty email readers

Timeliness in action

Timeliness (and relevance) in action

Limit on number of fare alerts to not get too annoying

Timeliness (and relevance) in action

Black Friday

Impact

Why is it important to have impact?

• Over 191 billion emails are sent and received around the world every day

• 80% people will delete an email if it doesn’t look good on their device

• 47% of email is now opened on a mobile device. Some brands see upwards of 70% of their emails opened on mobile

• Amazingly, the same Litmus report from above found that 58% of email marketers still aren’t designing for mobile!

Radicati GroupLitmus: Email Analytics 2014

A few things to think about…

• Will your subject line stand out? Is it interesting, enticing, intriguing?

• Does it link to and work seamlessly with the pre-header, headline and content of the email?

• 40% of people respond better to visual content than plain text

• 88% of businesses reported that video embedded emails improved their campaign performance

• Is your content easily scannable? Sub heads and bullet points can help readers pick up your key features and benefits at a glance

• Design for touch: minimum button size = 44px

• Have you thought about what happens if your audience has their email images turned off?

• Boost the contrast: iPhone battery = low brightness

ZabiscoHubspotLitmus

Subject line:Save Cybertron with an exclusive PS store offer

Impact in action

Embrace the scroll…

Impact in action

Impact in action

Impact in action

Subject line:5 fantastic reasons not to miss this month's issue of woman&home

Impact in action

That colour looks good on you…

The perfect email?

Pushing the format

Bring the email to life• Videos• Gifs

Pull in personalised, live and streaming content• Countdown timers• Localised content: weather forecasts• Breaking news• Number of tickets remaining to a concert• Maps showing store closest to customer

Some thoughts to get the juices flowing…

Video background

Gif potential

Video and instagram

Live news

Nearest jobs

Countdown

How to measure the success of emails

1. Open rate – number of people who opened your email

2. Click-through rate (CTR) – Number of total clicks divided by number of e-mails delivered. A demonstration of interest but not much else…

3. Click-to-open-rate (CTOR) – This metric answers the question, "Of the unique e-mail opens, how many individuals clicked through from the email? Gives a more accurate view of how engaging your content is and how well it’s performing

4. Conversion rate – Number of clicks divided by the number of conversions or intended actions. Can be influenced by a range of factors though…

5. Price per email sent – this tracks the ROI of your email marketing, essential for working out the profitability of your campaign

6. Unsubscribe rate – % of people who opt-out of email comms. 0.5% or lower is good (although this can vary between industries)

7. Bounce rate – number of emails that were unsuccessfully delivered due to an invalid or non-existent email address (people change email addresses, so make sure you’re checking in with them at least once a quarter)

7 measurements to keep an eye on…

Measuring clicks doesn’t necessarily give you the full picture

1 more thing to think about…

In a DMA Consumer Tracking report from 2013…

• 23% of respondents mentioned "visiting the company’s website via another route" as a likely response to an interesting email

• 25% said a likely response would be "visiting a shop or retail outlet”

What does the future hold for email?

The majority of email campaigns will be automated

In the future…

Emails will contain richer and more interactive content

Greater mobile usage will change the way we send emails

Thanks!