Do You Follow the Trends in Email Marketing?

One of the most overlooked Internet marketing campaign tool is the email marketing campaign. Many of us assume that because we have no patience for spam emails in our inbox, that everyone shares the same sentiment. This is a common mistake made by many small business owners. We design our marketing campaigns around our wants, needs, and goals.

Take a look at the following information before embarking on a Do-It-Yourself list building campaign, or try using an Open Source tool for your campaign. A good email marketing service may have fees attached, but that money can be recouped in increased ‘open’ rates, and  increased Conversion Rates.

Email Marketing Trends

The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported some amazing statistics concerning spam and email:

18%: Spam is a big problem (25% in 2003)
51%: Spam is annoying (57% in 2003)
26%: Spam is not a problem (16% in 2003)
68%: Almost never unintentionally open spam (63% in 2003)
27%: Sometimes open spam email by accident (34% in 2003)
69%: Base decision to use the Report Spam Button, or dump in Junk file based on the subject line

Several elements of an email marketing campaign can have an effect on the campaign’s ‘open’ and ‘click through rate’ (CTR).

Study the Metrics (Statistics)

Email marketing works. Amazingly, email marketing is a numbers game. Statistically, most people open emails between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. while the emails sent through traditional business hours have less than a 50% chance of being opened. Equally, There is more response from Yahoo and ‘other’ email domains, than from AOL, Earthlink, or Hotmail. 

Statistically, Wednesday is the day most people open emails, while Thursday and Friday are the biggest ‘delivery’ days. Part of this is because these email companies block emails before they reach the recipients.

These statistics are not meant to be used as guidelines. The purpose is to encourage email marketers to keep a close eye on their statistics. A successfully designed email marketing campaign may fail due to the day, and time, the emails were delivered.

However, marketers should pay attention to a couple statistics:

• 21% of email messages show up as ‘blank’ when the recipient turns of their images feature.
• 28% of email messages are sent with nonfunctioning links.

Source: “The 2007 Rendering Report,” published January 2007, the Email Experience Council.

There are many marketing tools that fail when one or two elements are ‘off.’ Email marketing is no exception. The secret to success is simple. Know the market. Know the audience’s behavior. And, then know how to use it in your favor. For example, look at the following independent report on users.

How targeting affects campaign performance:

Untargeted broadcast emails
Open rate: 20%
Avg. CTR: 9.5%
Avg. conversion rate: 1.1%

User-triggered campaigns
Open rate: 27%
Avg. CTR: 9.3%
Avg. conversion rate: 2.3%

Lifecycle messaging campaigns
Open rate: 26%
Avg. CTR: 9.3%
Avg. conversion rate: 2.3%

Clickstream-based campaignsOpen rate: 33%
Avg. CTR: 14%
Avg. conversion rate: 3.9%

Source: David Daniels, Jupiter Research.

(A clickstream-based email is a message takes into account a user’s clickstream data. Whereas a personalized email might include up-selling data (because you bought X, we recommend Y), an email that includes clickstream data can be more specific.