We can think of various channels to market our business and convert customers. New ways of reaching people have emerged. Chatbots, retargeting, influencer marketing - to name a few.
Of all these strategies, email marketing has stood the test of time. ⌛
Did you know that the first email promotion was sent in 1971? And when Hotmail launched as the first free online email service, it impacted marketers’ ability to reach prospects.
You may have heard the misguided forecast that “email marketing is dead.”
People even ask, "Is email marketing still effective?"
The truth is, email is not dead. Rather, it is constantly evolving and adapting to technology.
Let me ask you a question… Have you planned a solid email marketing strategy this year?
To guide your efforts, my team and I have rounded up a list of email marketing stats for a successful 2020 - and beyond.
We’re going to cover the following:
- Email user growth
- Mobile experience
- Email marketing ROI
- Integration with other channels
- Personalization
- Interactive content
- Data protection
- Video in email
Bonus: How to Double Your Email List Easily (Free PDF Guide)
Email Marketing Stats That Will Shape Your Strategy In 2020
1. Email user growth
How many people use email? Statista reveals that in 2018, there are 3.8 billion email users. This number is expected to increase to 4.4 billion in 2023.
How many emails are being sent each day? About 281 billion emails were sent and received daily worldwide in 2018. This number will likely rise to 347 billion in 2023.
For marketers, this means an opportunity to reach more prospects. And with a higher number of prospects, we can also expect our ROI to grow.
2. Focus on a mobile experience
With more people owning a mobile device, it’s no surprise that they’re also likely to use the internet.
Pew Research Center revealed that one in five Americans are smartphone-only internet users. They may own smartphones, but do not have access to a traditional broadband service.
Since people have shifted to mobile usage, it’s also natural for them to open their emails using their mobile device. As a matter of fact, 61.9% of emails were opened on mobile in 2019.
As an email marketer, you need to ensure that your emails are mobile-friendly. Here are ways to do it:
- Watch your subject line length. Email clients limit subject line characters between 30-40 characters. You want to make sure that your subject lines look great on mobile.
- Make your CTA visible. What action do you want readers to take? Get your point across quickly by positioning your call-to-action upfront, where people can easily see it. Take this example from Posable (screenshot below):
- Create scannable content. keep your content digestible so people can read it on the go and take action. Write shorter sentences and paragraphs. Use bullet points and headers.
3. Return on investment
We found out that for each $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is generated. That’s a 4400% ROI.
But will email marketing still be profitable this year? In its 2020 report, Litmus shares that email will not just remain a high-ROI channel, but it will also integrate with other channels and make them successful.
This leads us to the next point.
4. Email integration with other channels
Email marketing used to be a separate activity — but we’re starting to witness this change now.
One way that email marketing has evolved is that it integrates with other marketing channels to drive prospects further down the sales funnel.
Marketers that combine 3 or more channels see their purchase rate (8.96%) rise 3.5x higher than single-channel campaigns.
38% of marketers strongly agree that email will be fully integrated with other marketing channels five years in the future.
A perfect example is combining email with social media to retarget people. It works this way:
A business owner shows relevant Facebook ads to his email subscribers based on their specific behaviors. (For instance, those who opened the email but didn’t click on the link inside the email).
Previously, I did an experiment where I promoted UpViral to a segment of my email list. I divided my list in half — A and B — and sent out the same emails to both groups. The difference was, I retargeted group B with Facebook ads.
Can you guess what the results were? Group B generated 50% more sales! 💰
5. More personalization
Speaking of personalization, have you considered it as one of your strategies in 2020?
The nature of email (a one-to-one, permission-based communication) calls for better personalization. Yet, many emails are still not tailored to the individual recipient.
SmarterHQ, a leading cross-channel personalization software firm, states that 72% of customers will engage with personalized marketing messages.
Open rates of personalized emails are also higher than non-personalized emails, according to Statista.
These email marketing stats prove how important personalization is. What are some ways to create a personalized campaign?
- Data collection. Don’t limit your efforts to online data collection. If you can, collect offline behavior (for example, in-store purchases) to create a holistic profile of your consumers.
- Relevant content. Send tailor-made content with offers and product recommendations that reflect their interests.
- Subject lines. Add the person’s first name or any detail about his recent behavior to catch attention. According to Oberlo, personalized subject lines generate a 50% higher open rate.
- Where are your email subscribers based? Send your messages according to their respective time zones. Since reading time preferences also differ, you’ll want to test and optimize for the best times.
6. Interactive content
What is interactive content? As the term implies, this refers to anything that people can interact with — click, swipe, watch, answer, and more.
According to Mailerlite, interactive content was one of the email marketing trends in 2019. When it comes to the most effective interactive content in emails, data reveals the following (screenshot):
As you can see, Contests rank the highest (75%) while Surveys rank the second highest (69%) in the awareness phase.
For the consideration phase, a Calculator is the most effective (51%). The same goes for the decision phase (25%).
Below is an example of an interactive email content, in the form of a survey, from Insurify:
Bottom line: Your prospects want to be entertained!
7. Data protection
Many email marketers were worried about the effect of GDPR on their business.
(Quick recap: General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR is a data privacy law implemented in 2018. This law ensures that customer data will be safely handled and disposed of by companies.)
“Will GDPR kill my email marketing campaigns?” Marketers have asked themselves.
As it turned out, GDPR increased engagement between brands and consumers. A survey revealed that 2 in 5 consumers said that GDPR has made them more confident in how brands use their personal information.
The report Data privacy: what the consumer really thinks also revealed that the number of people who are likely to provide their personal information in exchange for personalized offers has increased from 26% in 2015 to 34% in 2018.
Email marketers, and not just consumers, benefit in this post-GDPR era. Because consumers have more control, marketers are compelled to provide more relevant information that people are happy to receive.
This ultimately results in higher open rates, lower unsubscribe rates, and better conversions.
8. Video in email
Integrating video in your email marketing campaigns is a smart strategy in 2020. Why? Because more people watch videos every day!
(The average time spent watching videos has doubled to an hour each day, according to research by Common Sense Media)
Here’s what’s interesting:
Adding a video in your email can boost your click-through rates by 65%. This is impressive considering that the average click-through rate is below 3%.
So how do you include video in your emails? Consider these ideas:
- Add the word “video” in your email subject line. This tells your subscribers that your email contains a video.
- Know your audience first! Different people respond to different kinds of video. You might want to start a poll to ask them what type of video they would like to see.
- Create a video landing page. What’s your end goal for letting people watch your video? Instead of embedding the actual video in your email, embed a thumbnail image. When people click on the thumbnail, they will be taken to a landing page with the video and a call-to-action.
Bonus: How to Double Your Email List Easily (Free PDF Guide)
How Are You Going to Take Action In 2020?
Now that you’ve got these amazing email marketing stats, are you ready to crush your goals this year?
With all the changes that are happening, we can say that email marketing is not dying. It’s getting more powerful, and those who adapt will win.
A high-ROI channel that allows for higher engagement and personalization, there’s no reason to not include email marketing in your strategy.
On that note, I’d like to show you a better way to grow your email list...
If you’re looking to grow a quality email list faster, UpViral is the tool to do that. With UpViral, you can increase your list using the exact method that Dropbox, Airbnb, and Uber used - Viral marketing.
UpViral changes the way you grow your list in 2020. Learn more about how it works!
