Email marketing: Consumers love for the inbox remains

As more communication platforms pop up providing new ways for businesses to connect with consumers, marketers everywhere have been asking themselves, “is it still worth sending an email?”

While many naysayers have heralded email marketing as “dead”, a recent Adobe survey suggests that this form of marketing still matters a lot for brands.

The survey of over 1,000 white-collar workers in the U.S. found that time spent checking emails is up an impressive 17 percent year-over-year (YoY).

The results show that for these respondents, the checking of emails is an integral part of their daily routine. Ninety percent of respondents check personal email during work. Eighty-five percent check it before they get to work, and almost a quarter take a look before they even roll out of bed in the morning.

The survey also suggests that consumers are happy to engage with brands via email. Of the respondents, half said they prefer to communicate with brands by email, beating other communication channels such as direct mail (20 percent), social media (7 percent) and phone calls (7 percent).

While consumers have shown a preference to converse with brands via email, they aren’t afraid to hit the unsubscribe link if they feel that brands are being too much.

According to the survey, respondents were likely to unsubscribe to an email if the brand:

• Sends emails too often (45 percent of respondents).
• Do not recommend products that match their interests (33 percent).
• Send offers that have already expired (22 percent).
• Misspell their names (17 percent).

So, since email continues to reign as one of the most valuable communication investments a brand can make, it’s important to get it right.

The top wishes of respondents regarding receiving marketing emails from brands are for them to be less promotional and more informational.

Consumers also expressed wanting to receive emails that are personalized and tailored to the recipient’s interests.

Is AI the key to an effective email marketing strategy?

It seems the key to great email marketing is to ensure that you’re crafting content that consumers actually want in their inbox and one which speaks to each individual customer. Sending a bulk-load of generic emails to your whole contact list will most likely fail to attract customers.

A study by Marketo shows that personalized emails based on behavior are three times as effective than “batch-and-blast” emails. Furthermore, they improve click-through rates by 14 percent and conversion rates by 10 percent.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a key role in helping to deliver personalization to customers, enabling brands to deliver the right message to the right audience in an automated fashion.

So, is email dead? Certainly not.

However, marketers should consider using emerging technology such as AI to create a more personalized strategy to ensure the consumer doesn’t hit that subscribe button.