Online marketing with e-mail is a high-stakes, fast-paced survival game.
– According to Merkle Interactive Services, about 55 percent of the subscribers who receive promotional, permission-based e-mails delete them without even opening them (http//www.techradar.com/news/computing/spammers -get-1-response-to-12-500-000-emails-483381?src=rss&attr=all). One study by Salted Services indicated that more than 50 percent of e-mail recipients delete messages within two seconds of opening them (http//www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID =/20100701/ FREE/100709996/1115/FREE#seenit).
– If an organization deploys best practices, then 77 percent of recipients will spend 10 seconds or more reading the e-mail.
– If the e-mail avoids being deleted, another study (by Experian) showed that 75 percent of opens and clicks yield 47 percent of transactions occurring the same day (especially when paired with a limited time offer; http//www.bizreport.com/2010/07/experian-fi rst-24-hours-after-email -campaign-dispatch-busies.html#).
– Your own success rate will depend on your commitment to continually refining your messages to motivate different audiences. As with all forms of online marketing, “quick and dirty is always quick, but also always dirty.” Taking the extra time to employ e-mail marketing best practices can perfect the online marketing survival game and help an organization thrive.
Despite the tough inbox competition for a reader’s attention, e-mail marketing works.
