Social, direct mail, inbound, content — marketing strategies come and go as lifestyles and trends change. One thing that's remained steady over the last decade? Email.
Love it or hate it, your inbox isn't going anywhere. But how relevant is email marketing? And most importantly, is it relevant for your small business? Marketing strategies are most effective when they're based on sound data, so let's demystify email by breaking down the numbers.
How many people are checking email?
Latest statistics reveal that 4.3 billion people have email — or approximately one-half of the world's population. This means that your list growth is only inhibited by your own ambition. Think about it, what other marketing method do you know of where it would be even plausible for you to reach half of the people on the planet?
How many emails are sent in any given year?
To put this next statistic in perspective, consider for a moment that there are around 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. Can you imagine all those beautiful twinkling lights up in the sky? Great. Now last year, over 205 billion emails were sent and received. You read that correctly. Humans generate twice as much email as there are stars in the galaxy!
How much time do we spend on email?
With billions of messages floating through the ether, you might wonder just how much of our lives are tied up with email? According to a survey of white-collar, adult workers, the average time spent checking messages is 6.3 hours per day—including both business and personal messages. And most shocking? That time is only expected to increase.
Six hours might sound crazy, but considering 45% of all messages are received on a mobile device, it's not unreasonable to think that many of us are checking and sorting email on the go, after work, and on breaks, and all those interactions with our inboxes add up.
How many emails is that?
The average daily email count for an office worker is around 121 emails per day. That's a little over fifteen new messages every hour during a typical workday. If you spend four minutes on each message, it's entirely possible that checking email is all you ever get done!
So do all these emails equal opens? Clicks?
Despite an increase in frequency, average open rates are hovering between 30% and 35%. That means that every email a person receives has a 1 in 3 shot of ever being opened (protip: Write awesome subject lines). Once that email is opened, the average click rate for links and call-to-actions is 3.26%.
Feeling discouraged?
Don't. Despite the sheer numbers of emails sent and received, click-to-open rates, and average clicks per email, the return on investment for email marketing is 4300%.
Let that sink in. For every dollar you invest in your list, you can expect $43 in return. If you just have an email list, you'd almost have to work at not making sales with it! The biggest investment in email marketing will always be in terms of time spent writing your campaigns and growing your list. The costs associated with sending out email itself are negligible at most.
Consumers want your email.
In addition to the staggering numbers associated with email use and trends, surveys show that your customers and clients want to hear from you via email. In fact, consumers prefer email over any other communication channel when it comes to brand interaction. By contrast, direct mail is slow and expensive; social media marketing is easier to miss and harder for fans to filter brands they want to engage with. Email is easy to manage, faster to implement, and has a greater impact on relationship marketing. With a finely tuned workflow and email list, you can cook up a sale or promotion in the morning and launch it by early afternoon.
Email is a no-brainer for small businesses and an absolute must for brands.
Over half of B2B (that's business to business) marketing professionals rank email as the #1 revenue generating tool in their box. While 49% of those spend more time and resources on their lists than any other marketing activity. What do the pros know that you don't? Your competition is already using email marketing, and by not nurturing a list of your own, your leaving money on the table.
Bottom line: The numbers don't lie! With a huge ROI and the limitless potential for reaching new customers and clients, email marketing is not only still relevant, it's the most effective marketing entry point available to small businesses and entrepreneurs today.
Enjoy all these numbers? If you're ready to apply this information you can start your own email marketing campaign for free with Weebly Promote.
How many people are checking email?
Latest statistics reveal that 4.3 billion people have email — or approximately one-half of the world's population. This means that your list growth is only inhibited by your own ambition. Think about it, what other marketing method do you know of where it would be even plausible for you to reach half of the people on the planet?
How many emails are sent in any given year?
To put this next statistic in perspective, consider for a moment that there are around 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. Can you imagine all those beautiful twinkling lights up in the sky? Great. Now last year, over 205 billion emails were sent and received. You read that correctly. Humans generate twice as much email as there are stars in the galaxy!
How much time do we spend on email?
With billions of messages floating through the ether, you might wonder just how much of our lives are tied up with email? According to a survey of white-collar, adult workers, the average time spent checking messages is 6.3 hours per day—including both business and personal messages. And most shocking? That time is only expected to increase.
Six hours might sound crazy, but considering 45% of all messages are received on a mobile device, it's not unreasonable to think that many of us are checking and sorting email on the go, after work, and on breaks, and all those interactions with our inboxes add up.
How many emails is that?
The average daily email count for an office worker is around 121 emails per day. That's a little over fifteen new messages every hour during a typical workday. If you spend four minutes on each message, it's entirely possible that checking email is all you ever get done!
So do all these emails equal opens? Clicks?
Despite an increase in frequency, average open rates are hovering between 30% and 35%. That means that every email a person receives has a 1 in 3 shot of ever being opened (protip: Write awesome subject lines). Once that email is opened, the average click rate for links and call-to-actions is 3.26%.
Feeling discouraged?
Don't. Despite the sheer numbers of emails sent and received, click-to-open rates, and average clicks per email, the return on investment for email marketing is 4300%.
Let that sink in. For every dollar you invest in your list, you can expect $43 in return. If you just have an email list, you'd almost have to work at not making sales with it! The biggest investment in email marketing will always be in terms of time spent writing your campaigns and growing your list. The costs associated with sending out email itself are negligible at most.
Consumers want your email.
In addition to the staggering numbers associated with email use and trends, surveys show that your customers and clients want to hear from you via email. In fact, consumers prefer email over any other communication channel when it comes to brand interaction. By contrast, direct mail is slow and expensive; social media marketing is easier to miss and harder for fans to filter brands they want to engage with. Email is easy to manage, faster to implement, and has a greater impact on relationship marketing. With a finely tuned workflow and email list, you can cook up a sale or promotion in the morning and launch it by early afternoon.
Email is a no-brainer for small businesses and an absolute must for brands.
Over half of B2B (that's business to business) marketing professionals rank email as the #1 revenue generating tool in their box. While 49% of those spend more time and resources on their lists than any other marketing activity. What do the pros know that you don't? Your competition is already using email marketing, and by not nurturing a list of your own, your leaving money on the table.
Bottom line: The numbers don't lie! With a huge ROI and the limitless potential for reaching new customers and clients, email marketing is not only still relevant, it's the most effective marketing entry point available to small businesses and entrepreneurs today.
Enjoy all these numbers? If you're ready to apply this information you can start your own email marketing campaign for free with Weebly Promote.
Melissa Haney Melissa is a writer specializing in social media and web development.
