Marketers continuously overlook email as a content type to include in their internet outreach programs. Content marketing is making positive growth as brands focus on maintaining company blogs and producing engaging visual media to pique consumers interests. However, email marketing remains an effective tactic to reach new and existing customers, and new data from Knotice and ExactTarget suggest brands should include high-quality email strategies in their ongoing digital marketing efforts.
Knotice conducted its latest bi-annual report, evaluating a sample of 500 million emails sent in 11 different industries. The agency found that 41 percent of commercial emails were opened via mobile devices in the second half of 2012 – up from 27 percent the year before and 13 percent at the end of 2010. Knotice expects more than 50 percent of emails to be opened via smartphones and tablets by the end of 2013. Interestingly, devices running iOS (both smartphones and tablets) account for approximately 33 percent of all email opens, with Android devices making up about 6.6 percent of opens.
As more Americans turn to mobile technology to access the internet and personal email accounts, marketers will return to this direct marketing practice, but with a new point of view. Personalization technology and a new outlook on quality, custom content keeps email relevant, and a new study from ExactTarget shows the tactic still converts leads.
The report “Marketers from Mars” notes that 96 percent of people with smartphones subscribe to email lists to receive information from their favorite brands. More, 56 percent of these connected consumers purchase products or services as direct results of email content. As for when to reach consumers with branded content, ExactTarget shows that 69 percent of people check their accounts in the morning and 46 percent of respondents review their messages at night.
Marketers must craft email content with the same editorial eye used for writing web content. In fact, the personal and direct nature of email makes it all the more essential for professionals to put their best feet forward when developing new strategies – a poorly written email could compel leads to unsubscribe or label a brand as spam, shutting off the lines of communication permanently. As mobile technology takes center stage, it will bring about the resurgence of email marketing, and companies should reinvest in the direct marketing practice today to remain competitive long term.
