A Wake Up Call for Email Marketers

This week we released our Q1 2012 Email Trends and Benchmarks report in conjunction with the Email Experience Council.

This quarter we noted an important trend that email marketers shouldn’t ignore. Over the past three quarters, open rates have increased while click-through rates have decreased.

This emerging trend is likely the result of two significant developments:

1. 1.  Consumers checking email via mobile devices. As we continue to see an increase in mobile usage, it’s not surprising that email open rates increase because mobile users check their email more frequently throughout the day on their devices.

A recent Return Path study found that email opens on mobile devices grew by 82.4% year over year. As of May 1st, email readership on mobile accounted for 30% of all opens. The study predicted that mobile devices will be the primary platform for email consumption by the end of 2012.

While mobile usage is positively impacting open rates, it may be adversely affecting click rates. This is likely because emails are not always optimized for a high quality mobile experience.

1. 2.  An increase in the volume of triggered and targeted messaging. In Q1 2012 triggered messages accounted for 2.3% of total email volume. This is a 14.5% increase over Q1 2011. However, business as usual (BAU) messages still remain the predominant email strategy by many brands.

Although BAU messages continue to comprise the bulk of total email volume, consumers are receiving an increasing number of highly targeted messages, delivered in real-time. Triggered messages reported a 119% higher click rate than BAU messages in Q1 2012, demonstrating their success at engaging consumers.

With the increase in volume of triggered messages and as consumers become more accustomed to receiving tailored content, BAU messages may become less impactful, which corresponds with the drop in overall click rates that we observed this quarter. Until triggered messages capture a larger portion of total email volume, click rates may continue to fall under the weight of less relevant BAU messages.

To combat the decline of click rates, email marketers should focus on optimizing their email content and creative to be more relevant to their consumers. This includes tactics such as HTML optimization, following the 80/20 text-to-image ratio and descriptive calls to action.  It is imperative that your headline be HTML optimized for both preview pane views and mobile device viewing. Today this tactic is even more critical than a compelling subject line.

Email marketers should also tailor messages for consumers’ mobility. Email messages and the websites that consumers are driven to through these messages should be mobile optimized.

Two simple changes can be made to create more mobile friendly emails:

1. 1)    Provide a touchable 1-800 number in your email header. This enables consumers to simply purchase products seen in the email directly through the call center.  

2. 2)    Include a hyperlink to a mobile optimized website within the pre-header text that is a descriptive call to action supporting the primary purpose of the email.

Marketers who understand consumers’ behaviors and preferences, as well as the latest marketing channel considerations, will be more successful in engaging with relevance and building one-to-one relationships.