• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 5, 2024

Here’s a sobering thought for B2B marketers trying to reach prospects by email at work: People are afraid to read their emails. 

To be specific, 78.7% of employees dread opening their work email inbox, and 58.5% fear it on a regular basis, according to a new study by Emailtooltester.

It does not automatically follow that the respondents also fear marketing emails -- indeed, not every respondent has authority or any role at all in the buying chain.

But the average person has 30 unread emails in their work inbox -- yours might be one of them.  

As it is, people think only 41.7% of work emails are relevant. 

And there’s good reason for fear: 65.1% say they have gotten into trouble over a significant email mistake. 

This raises troubling concerns about use of email as a B2B sales/marketing tool. The average worker spends two hours and 45 minutes on work communications each day. And that may not be enough -- 71.1% feel they have to respond to work emails even when not at work. 

The result is that 73.6% are so burned out by work emails that they communicate with loved ones less. 

No wonder 90.4% want to see a right-to-disconnect law.    

The irony is that 74% prefer working remotely and solving problems through digital communication rather than in-person. And that unwillingness to read emails extends to the personal inbox: the average person has 41 unread private emails.

Maybe it would help to put laughing emojis on your email, or your brand logo via BIMI. Or maybe you should just call on the phone.  

“The company surveyed 1,125 U.S. respondents.