• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 2, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis is driving people to click through emails. And no topic is engaging them more than faith, according to stats furnished by PowerInbox.

Faith-related CTRs have grown by over 50% since March 11, compared with the prior period. “People are anxious and looking for things that give them comfort,” says Jeff Kupietzky, president of PowerInbox.

Second in CTR growth is the local category, which exceeds 40%. This includes “email alerts for your neighborhood, what’s happening in your community,” Kupietzky says. “There’s a big spike right now.”

Those topics are followed by Hobbies & Leisure, which tracks at just under 40%, and down the list by Politics, Humor and News.

However, email volume growth is slightly different. Local shows the greatest growth, exceeding 100%. Faith is a distant second, running at around 30%, followed closely by  Humor.

Humor? Yes. Jokes. Some of us rely on gallows humor to get through these situations.

Once again, News and Politics are in the basement, and Hobbies & Leisure emails have declined in volume. 

Overall, there has been a 20% increase in email volume and a roughly 22% hike in CTRs.

As we reported on Tuesday, publishers have seen a 20% increase in email open rates and a 102% boost in engagement with regional publications since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic two weeks ago.

What accounts for this uptick? The fact that “email is a trusted platform,” Kupietzky says. People are anxious, and are opting in to receive notifications. Also, they have more time to spend on reading content

PowerInbox is an ad-tech platform that puts email newsletters together with paid ads.

Publishers have enjoyed a 24% increase in revenue during the crisis, the main ad categories being finance, including credit card offers, and health. 

But publishers, take note: Consumers now love email because it’s like a “safe harbor, shelter in the storm,” Kupietzky concludes.