New Research Sheds Light on Marketing Email Engagement Trends

Email helps marketers maintain communication with prospects and customers, but new research indicates that there is room for improvement. The “Inbox Report” published by Fluent discovered that 40.5 percent of respondents only want to receive marketing emails once a month or less. Nearly 35 percent end up unsubscribing altogether because they receive them too often.

About 36 percent claim that they “never” find marketing emails to be helpful. Approximately 42 percent said that the reason they subscribe to the emails in the first place is to cash in on discounts and savings, while 19.8 percent state that they want to learn about new products.

When recipients choose to open marketing emails, the majority (61.6 percent) said that they do so on a smartphone, highlighting the need for mobile compatibility. Just over a quarter (27.3 percent) of respondents stated that they read marketing emails on a desktop computer, while 11.2 percent do so on a tablet. Nearly half of respondents (40.7 percent) only check their email once per day.

Email Marketing for Smartphone Users

This is not the first piece published in 2015 to indicate that customers are tapping into marketing resources more frequently on their smartphones. In the “Year of the Smartphone” report released by Yesmail, statistics showed a distinct closure in the gap between desktop and mobile open rates.

In the third quarter of 2015, the average mobile CTO rate was 13.7 percent, while the median desktop CTO rate was 18 percent. This 4.3 percent gap is smaller than the 11.7 percent one observed in the same quarter of 2014.

“Marketers must continue to propel their mobile strategies with strong, personalized content and responsive design in order to reach consumers at the opportune moment they are ready to purchase,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing.