2014 Stats and Tips for Email Marketing

Salesforce.com has provided a ton of posts sharing tricks and tips to improve your email marketing campaign for 2014. This post actually covers not only the best tips and tricks from their blog but also some important stats as well.

Below are a total of 35 out of 50 tips, tricks and stats to help you strengthen your email marketing campaign:

Email Marketing Stats

On average, subscribers receive 416 commercial messages a month. (Return Path)

There are more than 3.2 billion email accounts.

Email ad revenue reached $156 million in 2012. (Interactive Advertising Bureau via Salesforce.com)

95% of online consumers use email.

91% of consumers reported checking their email at least once a day. (ExactTarget)

US internet users will average 3.1 email addresses this year, according to a July 2013 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of MyLife.

According to eMarketer there will be around 236.8 million US email users by 2017.

Worldwide, market research firm The Radicati Group forecasts the email audience will grow from 2.42 billion this year to 2.76 billion by 2017.

Purpose of email marketing programs according to UK brand marketers? 78% said retention.

64% of decision-makers read their email via mobile devices. (TopRankBlog)

89% percent of UK brand marketers polled by the UK’s Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in December 2012 said email was important to their business strategies.

For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment.

56% of businesses say they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2013.

In Q4 2012, more than nine out of 10 UK internet users sent or received email at least once a week, according to data from Deloitte.

70% say they always open emails from their favorite companies. Conversely, only 18% say they never open commercial emails.

55.2% of global users use the desktop to open email (Harland Clarke)

eMarketer estimates the US adult email audience will reach 188.3 million in 2013 and will continue to climb to 203.8 million by 2017.

93% of consumers also get at least one permission-based email daily.

Mobile Design

A whopping 66% of Gmail opens occur on mobile devices, with only 19% opened in a web browser (Litmus)

When planning content for a multi-device experience, your most important content should come first. Think back to the top-down hierarchy taught in basic journalism—what do you most want your readers to see?

We recommend using text of at least 13px for body copy. In order to avoid having to zoom in, try starting at 15-16px (depending on the actual font) and preview it on your mobile device.

The mobile experience is highly interactive and every email is viewed in stages. Plan for each stage, using both the design and content strategically. (Designing for the Mobile Inbox)

According to Bridget Dolan, vice president of interactive for cosmetics retailer Sephora, the percentage of email messages opened on mobile devices is already in the 50% range.

43% of all emails are now being opend via a mobile device. (Return Path)

Know your audience—it’s the most basic of all marketing principles. If your brand’s mobile audience is at or above 10%, it’s time to start optimizing for mobile.

The #1 email client for Gmail users is the iPhone’s built-in mail program, with 34% of all Gmail opens. (Litmus)

In a world where smartphone penetration in the US has reached 55%, marketers can no longer afford to think of email messages in terms of “mobile” and “non-mobile.” The reality is that subscribers will likely view your messages on a wide variety of devices—including desktops, laptops, smart phones, and tablet computers.

Don’t focus solely on click-based interaction—instead, try to think in terms of swipes and taps. As with any good design, grid-based layouts ensure content is easy to read and digest.

Rather than asking for name, address, company, and so on, keep it simple. Try limiting your form to one field: the email address. (Salesforce.com)

A one-column layout works best in both aware and responsive design. If you have a multi-column layout, carefully plan how elements shift or stack, using a grid to ensure the technical aspect is possible.

B2B Email Marketing

61% of B2B marketing professionals worldwide said CTR was the most useful metric for analyzing email campaign performance, compared with 48% of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers. (Ascend2)

Use autoresponders to automate simple, recurring emails. Since welcome and thank-you emails will be sent over and over again as you gain new subscribers and followers, they are perfect for testing the marketing automation waters. (Mastering the Art of Marketing Automation)

Bold, beautiful imagery is slowly taking over our inboxes, as we take cues from Pinterest and social hubs like Facebook and Twitter. Images help tell your brand’s story, so consider taking the time to choose artful shots that complement your message. For B2B emails, think outside the

realm of traditional stock photography to make your messages are unique.

The smart B2B marketers are personalizing their communication based on a prospect’s interests—using behavioral data and a whole new generation of online personalization technology.

Start building your landing pages, forms, and email templates using industryaccepted best practices. Many automation providers offer implementation services that will walk you through creating these assets, from template design to the content included in each.

I only included the ones that should be focused on in a more advanced and mature email marketing campaign. If you are just starting off then by all means read the full article. Otherwise check out our other blogs on this topic and master email marketing for your business.

What do you feel were the most important steps from the 35 tips above and why?

Article Source: The Exact Target

Image Source: Flickr