• by Jess Nelson , May 2, 2017

Email is just as ubiquitous in Australia as it is in the United States, so Litmus and Vision6 collaborated on a recent study investigating how Australians react to email marketing messages.

Litmus, an email development and testing platform, partnered with Vision6 -- an email marketing automation solution -- to evaluate more than 1.8 billion emails sent to Australian subscribers between 2014 and 2016.

As is the case in the United States, mobile dominates the email market as the most preferred platform for reading emails. Half of all emails opened in Australia are read on mobile devices, according to the report, with 28% of emails opened in a Web browser and 22% on a desktop computer.

Gmail is the most popular Australian email client, with 40% of email opens, while Outlook (Desktop) and Apple Mail distantly round out the top three email clients -- accounting for 27% and 16% of email opens, respectively. Outlook.com/Hotmail accounted for 9% of email opens in Australia, Yahoo Mail 2%, and Telstra BigPond -- an email client by Australia’s largest telecommunications company -- accounts for 1% of email opens.

Each email client renders messages and images in different ways, so it’s important for email marketers to A/B test their email campaigns to ensure that messages can be read on any screen or device. Some marketers may be tempted to send image-heavy emails to Australian mobile readers -- but that may not be advisable, since slow Internet speeds can be a challenge in Australia, according to Litmus and Vision6.

Furthermore, Australia has strict anti-spam laws thanks to the 2003 Australian Spam Act, so Litmus and Vision6 highlight the importance of complying to consent requirements outlined in the law. The Spam Act 2003 forbids unsolicited commercial emails, so email marketers must make sure they are only sending emails to individuals who have requested to receive them by subscribing to an email list.