2016 EMAIL MARKETING STATISTICS for Small Businesses

We’ve collected these email marketing statistics for small businesses from a variety of sources.

Last updated: November 27, 2016

2016 GENERAL EMAIL MARKETING STATISTICS

• Email marketing continues to provide the best return on investment in terms of both acquisition and retention:

• 60 percent of respondents selected email as the most preferred communication method for receiving regular updates and promotions from companies they are interested in doing business with. Here’s a breakdown:
  • 65 percent of women aged 65+ said their preferred way to receive regular updates and promotions from companies is to subscribe to receive emails.
  • 59 percent of women age 18-34.
  • 61 percent of men age 65+.
  • 53 percent of men age 18-34.
• The numbers show that optimizing your emails for mobile devices is more important than ever:
  • Mobile email opens have grown by 180 percent in the last three years.
  • Smartphone use has increased for almost every measure of email usage since last year:
    • Reading emails on a smartphone has risen from 33 percent to 39 percent;
    • Opening on a smartphone has increased from 25 percent to 40 percent;
    • Forward an email on a smartphone from 21 percent to 37 percent;
    • Mark as unread from 25 percent to 35 percent;
    • Flag email from 27 percent to 35 percent;
    • Delete message from 27 percent to 40 percent; and
    • Keep for future reference from 23 percent to 34 percent.
  • By 2018 80 percent of email users are expected to access their email accounts via a mobile device.
• Transactional emails generate more than 2x the median open rates (48 percent) of non-transactional emails (18.3 percent).

2016 EMAIL MARKETING SEGMENTATION STATISTICS

Overall, the numbers show that segmenting your email list is more effective than not:

• Opens: 69 percent higher than non-segmented campaigns,
• Unique Opens: 29 percent higher than non-segmented campaigns,
• Clicks: 42.64 percent higher than non-segmented campaigns,
• Abuse Reports: 55 percent lower than non-segmented campaigns,
• Unsubscribes: 23 percent lower than non-segmented campaigns.

2016 EMAIL MARKETING DESIGN STATISTICS

• 6 percent of marketers rarely or never use retina-optimized images in their emails.
• 24 percent of marketers don’t use dynamic content in any of their emails.
• Although 63.2 percent of marketers test their subject lines, only 3 percent test their preview text or preheader text.
• 5 percent of marketers review their triggered and transactional emails only once a year or even less often.

2016 EMAIL MARKETING ECOMMERCE STATISTICS

According to the numbers, email marketing can boost ecommerce conversions:

• An average conversion rate of promotional newsletter is 0.17 percent. Meanwhile, cart recovery emails enjoy a rate of 4.64.
• Sending a series of three abandoned cart email reminders brings 131 percent more orders than a single email.
• Automated ecommerce email performance varies by type:

2016 EMAIL MARKETING FINAL FUN FACT

• The phase of the moon influences the number of SPAM complaints:

Bottom Line

While email has been declared dead many times in recent years, the email marketing statistics above are proof that the opposite is true.

As you plan your 2017 small business marketing strategies, keep these top email marketing trends in mind:

• Optimize your emails for mobile devices as more of your subscribers are using them to read your campaigns.
• Utilize multiple types of email campaigns:
  • Include a welcome series;
  • Add Multiple cart recovery messages;
  • Use transactional emails that drive further action; and
  • Segment your list when sending emails.

  Email Marketing Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "2016 EMAIL MARKETING STATISTICS for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends