As a result, inboxes are becoming more crowded with marketing messages and marketers are finding they must adapt to sustain gains made via their recent email marketing efforts. Permission-based, or "opt-in" email marketing, is seen as an important element in the unfolding strategies.
Willingness to Sign Up for Permission Email: Change Over Time | |
Willingness | % of Respondents |
Less willing | 52% |
More willing | 14 |
Unchanged | 34 |
Source: Merkleinc, February 2009 |
An inverse relationship exists between the emails that are valued by consumers pertaining directly to them such as transaction-related confirmations and account summaries and the quantities that they receive in which they are relatively less interested, such as news alerts and offers.
Permission Email Types Most Worth Reading vs. Number Received Monthly | ||
Email Type | Perceived As "Most Worth Reading" | Emails Received Monthly |
Transaction confirmations | 64% | 5.8 |
Account summaries | 55 | 5.0 |
News alerts | 20 | 5.8 |
News letters | 20 | 7.8 |
Promotional offers | 18 | 15.8 |
Source: Merkleinc, February 2009 |
The main reasons subscribers choose to opt out of email programs, 75% say perceived irrelevance and 73% cite sending too frequently, are problems most commonly associated with promotional email because these can be the most intrusive.
The subscribers that receive promotional permission email, says the report, estimate that they delete 55% without opening, and the majority of email believed to be "too much" or "moderate," by 44% of those who receive promotional permission, goes unopened.
27% percent of all respondents spend an hour or more with permission email weekly, statistically unchanged from last year, finds the report. Permission email continues to make inroads those who don't spend any time with commercial email. This group decreased from 12% of respondents last year to just 9% this year.
As a percentage of total email time, permission email increased by five points year-over-year, and permission email accounts for about 26% of the total time spent with email. 58% still believe that email is a great way for companies to stay in touch with customers, unchanged from last year.
Percent of Time Spent with Email by Category | |
Category | % Email Time Spent |
Permission Email | 26% |
Friends & family | 43 |
Work | 19 |
Other | 12 |
Source: Merkleinc, February 2009 |
While there was only a nominal percentage point gain in those checking email on a mobile device (currently at 11% of all respondents), the percentage of total permission email viewed on a mobile device gained five points since last year. For these mobile users, 16% of all permission email is viewed on a wireless phone or organizer.
The report concludes that the quality of a company's email program influences brand perceptions, both negatively and positively, acknowledged by 59% of permission email recipients, while 30% of permission email recipients have stopped doing business with at least one company due to their poor email marketing practices.
The margin of error for the study is said to be +/- 2.0% and the confidence level used to report comparisons between sub-segments of respondents is 95%.
Please visit Merkle here for the free report in PDF format.
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