This year’s Marketing Email Benchmark Study from Blue Mailchimp is the most comprehensive look at the state of marketing emails to date. The results are fascinating and offer a clear picture of the future of digital marketing.
Here are the top three key takeaways from the 2017 Marketing Email Benchmark Study:
1. Recency Beats Impressions For Maximum Engagement
When it comes to keeping people interested in a brand or offering, recency — rather than impressions — is the key. When someone opens your email, they’ve just experienced your brand. Whether or not they respond positively to that experience has little to do with your email — they’ve just experienced your brand in the first place. So while you want to ensure that your email is delivered to the inbox, you also want to ensure that it is both relevant and engaging.
2. Personalization Triggers Greater Engagement And Click-Throughs
When it comes to personalization, consumers have grown accustomed to receiving information that is both relevant and engaging — as long as that information is delivered in a way that is personal. According to the Marketing Email Benchmark Study, the response to personalized emails is much higher than to those that are not.
The optimal strategy for driving engagement and click-throughs is to use a combination of data — such as demographics and behavior — to craft an email that is both unique and valuable to that particular consumer.
3. Mobile Traffic Is On The Rise, So Ensure Your Email Looks The Same (No Matter What Device)
This year, more people than ever before are shopping on the go. Thanks to mobile phones and other devices like tablets, the digital shopper is no longer confined to a desk. Therefore, marketers must ensure that their email looks the same (or at least similar) across all devices.
To ensure the best possible UX on any device, create separate templates for email campaigns on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. Test different types of emails on all platforms to determine which one performs best and adapt it for future use.
This way, when a consumer receives your email on one device, they will instantly know what to expect on other platforms. Ensure that all of your emails look the same and fit the design of your website — no matter what device they are opened on. You can also use a service like Litmus to quickly test the appearance of your email across various devices.
What Type Of Email Marketing Strategy Do You Use?
The Marketing Email Benchmark Study results reveal some interesting trends that marketers should keep in mind as they continue to develop their strategies.
First, while the vast majority of marketers (85%) use a traditional email marketing platform like Mailchimp, HubSpot, or Hubber, a smaller group use a tool designed specifically for inbound marketing (31%).
Second, automated emails with images perform significantly better than those without (20% vs. 14% open rate, respectively). This makes sense since automated emails save marketers a lot of time and allow them to focus on other tasks. Additionally, those with images attract attention more effectively than those without (55% vs. 40% noticed/showed interest rate, respectively).
Third, although mobile traffic is becoming more important, desktops still account for the largest share of online activity (45%). This suggests that, for the time being, marketers should continue to focus on making their desktop experience as effortless and convenient as possible.
Takeaway
Marketers can use these results to develop a clear picture of the type of engagement their emails are capable of producing. Since people are now receiving the bulk of their information on their mobile phones, making sure that their emails look as good — if not better — on those devices is essential.