Is there a best time to send email? How many people check email on a mobile device? Is there a strategy to reduce unsubscribes and increase click throughs? Make way for Hubspot’s marketing scientist Dan Zarrella who lets the data answer these questions and more in “The Science of Email Marketing” webinar. Below is my summation of Zarella’s fascinating email marketing insights.
Data used: Over 9.5 billion email sends and accompanying analytics compliments of MailChimp, 3 focus groups, and survey data.
Email habits: Opening email is equivalent to completing homework and almost everyone has integrated it into their daily work ritual. 70% of people read most of their email because they hate to see unread mail in their inbox and 88% of people have only one inbox. Over 60% of all email readers use a junk folder.
What encourages opens and click throughs?
1. Time of receipt: Most people open and click through email on weekends.
2. Time of day: Most people report reading email in the morning. 6:00 a.m. – 7:00 a.m garners highest click throughs.
3. Sender: If the recipient recognizes the sender, especially if it’s a celebrity sender, there is a good chance the email will be opened.
4. Subject line: People prefer to see the following words in the subject line – newsletter, this week’s, digest, bulletin, and edition – because they indicate the mail is a serialized piece of content.
5. Mobile compatibility: 81% of all people read their email on a mobile device. Make sure your email looks good on mobile.
6. Links: The more links in an email the higher the click through rate. More links equal more opportunities to persuade the reader.
7. It’s referential: People tend to use their inbox as an archive. Readers archive and refer back to useful, interesting email.
8. It’s exclusive: People love to feel part of a special club where they receive early access and special deals.
9. It’s consistent: Click through rates are about the same whether you send 5 emails a month or 30. If your audience has opted in to your list, they want to hear from you.
10. Expectations: Readers who expect your email appreciate it the most. Why? Opening your email has become part of their “homework ritual.”
11. Subscription time: New subscribers are the best clickers.
Other interesting facts: Unsubscribes are highest from people who are new to your list. Unidentifiable sender names as well as spammy subject lines using words like magic, raffle, reward, requested, follow up, savings, offer, confirm, and upgrade spur unsubscribes. In most cases, readers will not forward your email nor will they Tweet it. “Follow me” social media links tend to have better results. Email sent only once or twice a month has a higher unsubscribe rate than email sent 30 times a month.
All information above was gathered from the Hubspot webinar, “The Science of Email Marketing.”
If you would like oz 2 designs LLC to handle your email marketing campaign, contact Catherine Lockey at cl@oz2designs.com.
What a wonderful idea for a blog post Catherine! Hubspot has so many valuable webinars but I could never possibly watch them all. By sharing the key points here with us, you’ve done us all a service. (I may borrow this idea. 🙂 )
I especially appreciate knowing some of the words that result in the largest number of unsubscribers when you use them in your subject line.
I just posted in the BMM group about this very subject. I am bookmarking this for reference. Thanks very much!
Catherine, aloha. What a terrific post and recap. Though I had planned to watch that webinar, I was unable to do so. Your post sums it up beautifully. Thx so much. Aloha. Janet
Catherine:
I feel like I attended the seminar in a few minutes rather than an hour. Thanks so much. The other day I was on a great webinar and had the idea to summarize it. I downloaded the powerpoint. It is on the to do list. Hubspot has great content. Thanks for sharing.
Rob
Catherine — I planned to attend the seminar and the time got away from me. This is an excellent summary and thanks for taking the time to do it. A while back I was on a webinar of a well-known blogger who said he distributed his blogs at 6 am in the morning. So that’s when I’ve been publishing mine but not sending it my email list until later. That will change forthwith! Of course, 6 a.m. only applies to my time zone so but I’m on the east coast, so my subscribers further west will have my email before then.
The data fascinates me and several facts came as quite a surprise. I thought people wanted to rest on the weekends intead of read through emails… especially work ones! I’m also intriigued that fewer monthly emails caused a higher unsubscribe rate.
Great post!
That’s an interesting research. Question about mobile compatibility, do we have to have a mobile-enabled website to take advantage of the mobile users?
Interesting information. Knew about people catching up during the weekend but the fact that most emails are read at 6.00 a.m. was news to me. Thanks for sharing
Interesting information. Knew about people catching up during the weekend but the fact that most emails are read at 6.00 a.m. was news to me. Thanks for sharing
Thanks so much Catherine for summarizing this information for us. I, too, am surprised at the result indicating that most people read and catch up on their emails on the weekend. That is actually what I had always thought but have heard from others that I was dead wrong. Bow I can show proof to anyone who asks 🙂
Thanks for the inspiring article about email marketing, instead of just reading, i already put it into practice, i schedule sending email in the early morning every day.but i don’t think 6am is a good time. I have a question, should we send email only in weekends? I saw some website offer only weekly newsletter which is good for busy people 🙂
Hi Anne – Sites designed specifically for mobile will increase coupon use simply because the coupons will be easy to find.
Thanks, Catherine. It all makes a lot of sense.
Interesting that the highest rate of opened emails is that early in the morning, being a late morning riser. Thanks for the ideas.