Hubspot recently released an extensive study on how email marketing can be effective. There is a great deal of terrific information in the document, but some of the highlights are here.
My favorite point of the study is that people believe they handle email differently than they do. Years ago there was a study where people asked managers how they would like to receive information. Overwhelmingly they indicated phone calls. But in reality, they didn’t return the phone calls. They did read email. With this study people indicated they prefer lots of pictures in their emails. In reality, it was found that more pictures caused the email to be ignored.
Over half of the respondents use email filters in addition to spam filters so they have help determining which emails they should read. It was also determined that while email is still opened on desktops/laptops, 37% were opened on mobile devices. More affluent people read email on tablets but it was the smallest percentage.
The best days to send an email turned out to be Saturday and Sunday. It appears during the week people are focused on what needs to get done but on the weekend clean out their email and are more inclined to open yours. And if your email isn’t opened within 24 hours, it probably won’t be. Shorter emails (between 300 and 500 characters) were more likely to be opened as well.
In terms of subjects, there were several key points on what to include and what to leave out. The following words in the subject generated more “click throughs” or people who open the email and click on the links:
- First name of the person
- You
- Thank you
- Download
- Free
- Tomorrow
Words that hurt click throughs included:
- Quick
- Meeting
The last point I thought was important was the “from” should be a person. In any email client you can determine what name shows in the “From” field on the receiver’s end so be sure to use a real person’s name.
Email marketing should definitely be part of your strategy but being smart about it is crucial.
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