It’s no secret that smartphones and tablets can no longer be ignored by email marketers—and there aren’t many more marketers out there doing so. It is a massive part of customer communication and revenue, but do you know just how massive?
The following statistics come from all corners of the globe, and from many different industries. While they keep changing everyday, some are quite shocking.
Here’s a brief description of everything you need to know about the power of email marketing, starting with why you can’t ignore it:
According to eMailmonday’s “The Ultimate Mobile Email Stats” of 2016, 15-70% of emails will be opened on mobile, depending on your audience and email type.
It’s just as powerful when you look at Australia alone: currently 50% of device and email client usage is mobile in Australia, and smartphone and tablet usage make up 63% of Australian’s time spent on devices as of September 2015.
Email usage is clearly growing — here are a few things the most powerful email marketers need to keep in mind as the mobile boom moves forward.
The number of people using email will continue to grow exponentially.
The next generation is going to continue using email in a big way, and as it continues to grow, the brands taking notice are the ones that will succeed.
Adestra’s “Consumer Adoption & Usage Study” of 2016 shows that consumers aged 14 to 18 read emails first on mobile 25.6% of the time.
Moosend’s recent “Mid-season year report” shows that 34.1% open their mail on their mobile devices, and that number is only expected to grow.
Mobile email usage isn’t just a fad—if you’re not leveraging email marketing for all types of customer communication such as lead generation, product announcements and executive announcements, your marketing efforts will start to wane.
A study by Google and Galaxy showed 74% of Australians rely on their phones at least as much as on their desktops, when searching for information, ideas or advice.
Increased email use on mobile means you’re going to have to get responsive.
What does this mean to you, the brand marketer? It means your email design is going to have to start taking mobile usage into account — you’re going to have to get responsive if you haven’t already done so.
The motivation behind responsive design goes beyond looks; responsive emails perform better than those that are unresponsive. And it’s all because of the prevalence of mobile usage.
Litmus and MailChimp’s “The Science of Email Clicks: The Impact of Responsive Design & Inbox Testing” shows that responsive design results in a nearly 15% increase in unique clicks for mobile users from a 2.7% average to 3.3%.
If you’re not convinced by the number of clicks, you might want to consider the number of people deleting your emails because they’re not easy to read. BlueHornet’s “Consumer Views of Email Marketing” reports that 71.2% will delete an email immediately if it’s not easily read.
Not that this is news to some marketers. Litmus and Salesforce Marketing cloud “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends” shows responsive design has increased to 50% in 2016, while 72% of enterprise email marketers say they’re already using it.
But it’s not just about ease of use that motivates the email marketing boom, it’s how mobile is changing the way people receive information while on the go.
Keep your emails short—people are on the move when they’re on their mobile devices.
Recent studies have shown that those reading emails on mobile devices are spending less time doing so.
According to Movable Ink’s “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q2 2014”, iPad and iPhone users read emails in 0-3 seconds.
Replies are faster too: Yahoo’s “Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload”, shows that emails are sent 54% faster on mobile than on desktops, meaning that people are interacting with their emails for less time on mobile devices.
The key to successful email communication is to keep your emails as short and punchy as possible. With less attention being given to emails at one time on mobile devices, you’ll lose your consumer if your message is buried.
Your website has to align with your mobile email marketing strategy.
Finally, your email marketing strategy needs to extend beyond just your emails—the links and information presented in your emails need to be mobile-friendly as well. If not, you could lose customers:
Litmus and Fluent’s “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends”, 45% of consumers have unsubscribed from promotional emails because the emails or website didn’t work well on their smartphone.
Some of the best things you can do to ensure your reader’s mobile experience extends beyond just the email itself—use pre-header text for promotions, optimise subject lines, keep web pages responsive and reduce the number of navigation items on your webpage. These tactics work, and marketers are taking notice:
eConsultancy’s “Email Marketing Industry Census” shows 32% of marketers are optimising pre-header text, and 28% optimising subject lines.
StyleCampaign’s “Responsive email navigation” show that 30% reduce and hide navigation bars, and keep email campaigns responsive.
The most important change you can make to your email marketing strategy is to make the reading and reacting experience easier and faster for your recipients.
That assumes that all other aspects of your email marketing strategy are correct of course.
Image Sources:
Emailmonday, The ultimate mobile email statistics overview
Litmus, The Science of Email Clicks
Litmus, 2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends