25 Powerful Email Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know
Here's a list of 25 must-know email marketing statistics, as well as content, and social media marketing statistics for 2016.
According to a survey, email is the most trusted vehicle for driving revenue. However, just knowing that emails work isn’t enough. How it works and where it works are two other equally important questions whose answers you should be familiar with.
This is why I’ve compiled this list of must-know email marketing statistics and how it would impact your business. In addition, I’ve also included some mind-blowing statistics on content and social media marketing to help you optimize your overall marketing efforts. Since I'm currently based in Brazil, I’ve included a special section on email, content, and social media marketing in Brazil.
Read on!
About Email Marketing
Email Marketing Worldwide
1. Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter. –McKinsey
What does this mean? It means that email marketing, although ancient, is nevertheless the most widely used marketing channel in the planet. If used wisely, this inexpensive technique will quadruple your sales and send your marketing ROI skyrocketing.
2. In the third quarter of 2015, 54 percent of all email opens occurred on mobile devices or tablets. – Experian
What does this mean? The world is going mobile. If you’re not investing on responsive templates for emails, then you’re going to be left behind. Responsive templates detect the screen size of the device and adjust the dimensions of the message accordingly. So, you will see a large template on your PC and a relatively smaller template on your smartphone, for the same message.
3. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. – Experian
What does this mean? The subject line is a deal breaker. If that’s not fascinating enough, all your marketing efforts amount to nothing. Read this post to find out more about the dos and don’ts of the perfect subject line.
4. Transactional e-mails produce an average open rate of 72% and a click-through rate of 30% — well above the averages for non-transactional emails, which have an average open rate of 40.8% and an average click-through rate of 9%. – IBM
What does this mean? Transactional emails are triggered by a customer’s action, like resetting a password, signing up for your services, or making a purchase. Since these emails have greater open and click through rates, you should invest sufficient time and resources in crafting and testing these emails. Making them highly personalized is an added bonus.
5. The most common topic among emails in the top 1% of viral emails was events and webinars. – Litmus
What does this mean? Emails about events and webinars, especially the ones that require registration or RSVP are more likely to go viral. This is because events are social in nature and urgent because of their deadlines. To find out more about viral emails, check out this amazing report from Litmus.
6. In 2015, just 79% of commercial emails lands in the inbox, as compared to 83% in 2014. The global email deliverability score has thus decreased by 4%. – ReturnPath
What does this mean? This means that for every five emails sent, one never reaches the intended recipient. Instead, it’s either sent to a spam folder or goes missing — most likely blocked by the mailbox provider.
Email Marketing in Brazil
1. 92 % of marketing professionals affirm that email marketing is essential for their businesses. Moreover, 44% report conversion rate as the most important email marketing metric. – Source
What does this mean? Brazilian marketers are highly aware of the importance of email marketing and know the importance of conversion rates in email marketing ROI.
2. 68% always/often use responsive design to build emails (a 31% increase from 2014).Source
What does this mean? A 31% increase in responsive email designs shows that Brazilian marketers know the importance of mobile in email marketing and are giving their international competitors a run for their money.
3. In Brazil, the email deliverability rates increased from a mere 60% in 2014 to 74% in 2015. – ReturnPath
What does this mean? Although global inbox placement rates have sharply declined, Brazil shows significant improvement and Brazilian businesses are faring quite well in email marketing, at least as far as spam filtering is concerned.
About Content Marketing
Content Marketing Worldwide
1. More than 80% of B2B marketers who say they have a content marketing strategy have never documented it. Only 35% actually have a documented content marketing strategy. – CMI
What does this mean? Write. It. Down. To be more successful with your content marketing efforts, you must move past the verbal discussion phase, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and clearly record your strategies and goals.
2. 81% of B2B businesses use blogging as a content marketing tactic. On an average, the length of these blog posts is 750 words or more. Additionally, long-form blog posts generate 9x more leads than short-form blog posts. – Curata
What does this mean? Blogging regularly and consistently helps you get found online. Write longer and engaging blog posts for better results.
3. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. – Nonprofit Hub
What does this mean? Blogging regularly drives traffic to your website, increases brand awareness, increases your SEO, and establishes you as an industry thought leader, all of which are essential for generating leads. So, if you don’t have a blog yet, you should definitely set one up for your services.
4. Check out the most effective content marketing techniques for 2015. CMI
What does this mean? In-person events such as conferences, networking events, etc. bring people together and provide space for real-time discussions, which is why they seem to be the most effective. Invest more in events and webinars, create more videos (especially native videos), in addition to writing blogs, case studies, whitepapers, etc.
5. Take a look at the paid advertising tools that were most effective in 2015. CMI
What does this mean? Paid ads are here to stay. Spend your money in the right content and platform. Search engine marketing still tops paid ads. It’s closely followed by promoted posts, especially on Facebook and Twitter.
Content Marketing in Brazil
1. Only 31% of businesses have a documented content marketing strategy – Rock Content
What does this mean? Brazilian marketers are in the same boat as B2B marketers from the rest of the world when it comes to clearly documenting the content marketing strategy.
2. 61% of businesses in Brazil use a blog to distribute content. – Rock Content
What does this mean? Brazilian marketers are aware of the power of blogging and are on the right track. All they need to focus on is generating relevant and engaging content.
3. Rock Content recently released the list of most popularly effective tools used to distribute content in 2015. Source
What does this mean? While in most countries, in-person events and webinars seem to be the most effective marketing tactic, it’s blogging and newsletters in Brazil. While events may be a bit tough to organize, webinars are easy to setup and highly cost effective. Brazilian B2Bs should explore this powerful marketing tactic to get an edge over their competitors.
4. Rock Content also put together the list of most effective paid advertising techniques in Brazil. Source
What does this mean? A large percentage of the Brazilian population is actively using Facebook, which could be one of the reasons why marketers are spending more on facebook ads as compared to any other technique.
About Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing Worldwide
1. According to Marketing Profs, Youtube, Facebook, SlideShare, Twitter, and LinkedIn were the most effective social media channels as a part of the marketing mix for B2B marketers in 2015. Source
What does this mean? To be a successful B2B marketer, you should be active on at least LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube.
2. By July 2015, the world’s top brands consistently posted between 2500-3000 native Facebook videos every month. Social Bakers
What does this mean? Native videos are videos that are uploaded to or created on social networks and played in-feed, as opposed to links to videos hosted on other sites. You shouldn’t shy away from creating and uploading videos, for these are going to give you the competitive advantage you need to establish your brand.
3. In general, 12 pm and 6 pm see the highest click-through-rate (CTR) on Twitter, while 5 pm gains the most retweets. – HubSpot
What does this mean? Tweet between 12 PM to 6 PM and see which hour works out best for you, in terms of engagement.
4. Engagement on Instagram is 15 times that of Facebook’s, with users spending an average of 257 minutes per month. Instagram ads have helped retailers increase ad recall by 32% and brand message lift by 10%. FastCompany
What does this mean? The use of Instagram is rapidly increasing. You should create an Instagram profile for your business to showcase, especially, the human element. HubSpot has released this free ebook titled Instagram for Businesses. It’s definitely worth a read!
Social Media Marketing in Brazil
Source: We Are Social
1. Social media is the #2 most trusted source of information, behind the press. – Source
What does this mean? The social media landscape in Brazil draws a lot of clout. It isn’t just a mindless recreational activity, but a trusted establishment. Leverage this powerful channel right, and your audience engagement numbers are going to go off the charts.
2. Brazil is the third largest market for Facebook, with 87 million users. It’s preceded by only the United States and India. Source
Also, Brazilians are the third largest audience on LinkedIn. Source
What does this mean? Brazilians are a very social populace. They’re highly active and engaged on Facebook (although it is losing popularity in other worldwide markets) and LinkedIn.
3. Companies with at least 50-100 followers on Twitter generate 106% more traffic as compared to companies with less than 25 followers. Source
What does this mean? Gain more followers to establish yourself as a thought leader and to attract more leads.
So What's Next?
There you go, a list of crucial statistics telling you the current state of email, content, and social media marketing worldwide, as well as in Brazil. Armed with these email marketing statistics, you’re all set to create and execute a successful marketing campaign for your business.
Good luck!