Ah, Email. It’s easy to reminisce romantically about this longtime friend of a marketing channel, and it’s realistic to wonder if the old workhorse is losing some of its allure. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Those of us of a certain age will recall, seemingly centuries ago—before every hand held a smart phone or some other mobile device—the way we would engage in communications in ways that seem almost quaint today. Ask almost anyone over the age of 50 if he remembers traveling in that distant age, about how he’d pester his hotel concierge or host if he could use the boxy desktop to check the Email while en route. (We even know of one mature gent, all of 71 years of age, who’s taught himself to adapt to tech savviness even as he’s retained the same AOL address that he signed on with, way back in 1976.)
This is by no means to denigrate the channel, but rather to underscore how much a fiber it has woven into our communication lives. We’ve naturally evolved to accept texting and social media as ways of expanding our little Universes, but Email is firmly entrenched, and it will certainly be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. Smart marketers continue to recognize this.
Email Rules the World.
Email remains the most preferred channel of brand communications worldwide. SMS has attained respectable second-place status among consumers, a fact confirmed by a fresh survey contained in a Report of Global Messaging Engagement. Nearly 20% of consumers polled selected Email among the top three channels with which they interact most frequently. It’s noteworthy that more than three-quarters of those refresh their inboxes once a day, at a minimum, and nearly a third check on it up to five times daily to make they sure they aren’t missing out on vital messages or brand discounts.
As noted, SMS comes in second, the choice of 14% worldwide, with the notable exception of Germany, where residents have traditionally been wary of sharing personal data like phone numbers; Germans have come to prefer text only when they can be assured of security in their accounts, of if two-factor channels can be authenticated.
Email’s Still Big, Right Here at Home.
But that’s Germany. Email retains its most-preferred status in Brazil, Japan, France…and, notably, in the United States. Here, most generations continue to recognize the channel as the one of greatest engagement. As might be suspected, Boomers are vastly more likely to show preference in the Email camp. To be fair, Gen Z prefers social media ahead of Email by more than 10%, but this is the only demographic to demonstrate that kind of a discrepancy.
The reputation of the sender has tested as the primary consideration when they opt to open an Email, with content clocking in second. As they probably always will, subject lines wield considerable influence, and it’s worth noting here that nearly a fifth of those polled appreciate seeing their names in that introductory notification.
What does all this mean to you, as a marketing professional, with a product or service to promote? Data, as might be suspected when researching markets all over the globe, is, quite literally, all over the board. What might be preferred in one segment of the population lags in a demographic where similar results might be anticipated. And is Email really the best channel for your particular enterprise?
Now’s the time to ask nSightful. With our vast experience in monitoring and researching marketing avenues—both long-standing and upstart—we’ve come to recognize which solutions work best for which scenarios.
We’ve been around long enough to recall what it was like, as a houseguest, to ask if we could borrow a desktop, but we’re constantly on top of emerging trends that we see might better work in a particular situation. We’re experts in the areas of assembling lists that will generate the greatest consumer response, as well as in the areas of data management and even data hygiene.
We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss with you how best to approach these and other marketing challenges, and to present you with the most workable way to help you arrive at the happy conclusion of the satisfied customer. Who knows? That might just prove to be Email. Contact us today and find out for yourself.
