DO YOUR SUBSCRIBERS

READ YOUR EMAILS?

What Consumers Want From Email Marketing

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Table Of Contents
3

Introduction

Executive Summary

Key Survey Results

Trends in Email Readership

10 Where Consumers are Dissatisfied with Business Email

14 Summary

About This Study

The original data contained in this report comes from a nationwide internet survey
of U.S. adults, which was conducted from March 2-4, 2015. The survey was designed
by TechnologyAdvice Research, and conducted by Google Consumer Insights. A
total of 1,358 U.S. adults (age 18 and over) were surveyed about their general email
consumption. A further 472 adults, who indicated they regularly or sometimes read
emails from businesses were surveyed about their reasons for doing so, and their
individual preferences. Where necessary, results are weighted to be as representative
as possible of the U.S. internet population.

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Introduction
Of all the digital accounts and profiles,
none is more personal than email. These
systems excel at delivering one-to-one
messages, and email continues to thrive
some four decades after its inception. At
the end of 2017 its estimated there will be
4.9 billion email accounts worldwide.1
Though email marketing never
disappeared, the tactic is experiencing a
renaissance of sorts largely due to the
increasing ubiquity of smartphones in
the developed world.3 In the past several
years, smartphones have transformed into
hubs for email and other forms of media.
65 percent of email is now consumed
through a smartphone. 4
Consequently, email is reclaiming a bit of
the marketing limelight. Sixty percent of

respondents in Salesforces 2015 State of

Marketing report indicated that email was a
critical enabler of products and services
an 18 percent increase from 2014. Fifty-nine
percent planned to increase their spending
on email this year. 5
Because email is garnering renewed
strategic emphasis, TechnologyAdvice
wanted to see how consumers viewed and
consumed emails from businesses. Has this
increased focused on email led to better
relationships with customers? We surveyed
1,358 U.S. adults regarding how often they
read marketing emails. 472 of these adults,
who said they regularly or sometimes read
such email, were further questioned about
their preferences and expectations.

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Executive Summary

Of adults surveyed, 60 percent said they read emails from businesses*, though
only 16 percent of this group did so on a regular basis. Forty-three percent
confirmed that they only rarely read emails from businesses.
Among adults who do read business emails, 57 percent said they read between
zero and 25 percent. This shows that many people engage with marketing
emails only occasionally. The other 43 percent of adults who read marketing
emails read over 25 percent of the messages they receive. These findings
demonstrate that the majority of adults are open to receiving marketing
content through email, but also reinforce the importance of pre-open email
characteristics, such as subject lines, sender names, and deliverability.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents said receiving promotions and discounts
was the reason they read marketing emails. Getting news and updates ranked
second at 26 percent. Answers varied significantly based on gender, with men
choosing news and updates as their top reason for reading, while women
were more likely to read for promotions and discounts. Customer service only
garnered 11 percent of responses.

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

To see how businesses could refine their

email efforts, we asked consumers to
pinpoint areas marketers could improve.
Three main opportunities surfaced: Less
frequent sending times (43 percent), more
informative content (24 percent), and more
personalized content (23 percent).

issue. Fully 49 percent of respondents

reported receiving irrelevant content on a
daily basis. A further 28 percent said they
received irrelevant emails on a weekly
basis. This suggests that a large majority of
consumers find marketing messages in their
inbox every week that have no relevance.

Email frequency remained a consistent

area of frustration. Forty five percent of
consumers indicated they marked email
as spam because they received it too
frequently. Not purposefully subscribing
was the second most common reason for
flagging an email as spam, and receiving
irrelevant content rounded out the top three.

Nearly all of these problems can be

handled with the proper technology and
better marketing practices. Less aggressive
sending times are easy to schedule and test
with marketing automation software, and
a double opt-in criteria should be standard
for all email technicians. Finally, better list
segmentation is a foundational step for
creating more relevant content and can
easily be achieved with the right software.

Though it might not be a simple problem

to correct, irrelevant content is a significant

Key Survey Results

60 percent of respondents report reading marketing emails, though only 16 percent do so
regularly
Only 12.8 percent of U.S. adults read more than half of the marketing emails they receive
For women, receiving promotions and discounts was the most cited reason for reading marketing
emails, while receiving news and updates was the most popular reason for men
Nearly half of respondents reported receiving irrelevant email on a daily basis.
43 percent of respondents wanted businesses to email them less frequently, while 48 percent
wanted more personalized or informative email content

* These results did not distinguish between the type of email that respondents received from businesses, such
as promotional or transactional.

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

I. Trends in Email Readership

In order to provide insight on how businesses can improve email engagement,
we first had to identify consumers who read marketing emails. Although roughly
40 percent of respondents claimed they never read emails from businesses, 60
percent of respondents confirmed that they read such emails. Of this 60 percent,
16 percent said they regularly read email messages from businesses, while 44
percent said they rarely read them.

How Often U.S. Adults Read Personal Emails from Businesses

43.6%
39.9%

RARELY

NEVER

16.5% REGULARLY
0

10

20

30

Correlating these numbers to standard

open rates is difficult due to the variation
in open rate benchmarks. A 2013 study
by Silverpop puts the mean open rate
for the U.S. at 19.7 percent, while the
Epsilon Email Marketing Research Center
places the number at a very generous 31.5
percent. 6, 7
Whats clear is that consumers are open
to receiving various types of marketing
emails, but attracting the attention of most
readers is a difficult undertaking. A small
group of heavy email readers likely exists in

40

50

most industries, but convincing the more

fickle prospects to open an email is what
separates skilled marketers from average

ATTRACTING THE ATTENTION

OF THE MARJORITY OF
READERS IS A DIFFICULT
UNDERTAKING

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Percent of Emails That Recipients Actually Reads

In order to determine what percent of marketing emails are read by consumers, we asked
adults who indicated they either regularly or rarely read business emails (referred to as
subscribers here) to estimate what percent they typically read. Approximately 58 percent
of subscribers said they read just 0 to 25 percent of such emails. 42 percent of subscribers
reported reading more than 25 percent of all emails they received.

Percent of Marketing Emails That Subscribers Read

0-25 percent

57.8%

25-50 percent

21%

50-75 percent

13.2%
8.1%

75-100 percent

10

If the average open rate is 19.7 percent

as Silverpop claims, 25 percent or higher
readership would be a respectable outcome.
Our finding that 21 percent of subscribers
read more than half of the emails sent from
marketers is encouraging and provides
further evidence that a significant group
of US adults will read most of the email
businesses send their way.

20

30

40

50

60

Unsurprisingly, age appears to play a

significant role in email consumption.
Readership fell markedly in demographics
over 45, and subscribers aged 25 to 34 were
the heaviest consumers. Forty-sevent percent
of this group said they read anywhere
between 25 percent to 75 percent of all
emails sent by businesses.

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

30

Percent of Emails That Subscribers Read, By Age

25-50 percent

25

25.9%

50-75 percent
23.7%

20

22.3%

21.5%

21.8%

19.6%
17.3%

15

10

10.3%

10.4%
8.3%

8.3%

7.2%

18-24 y/o

25-34 y/o

35-44 y/o

45-54 y/o

55-64 y/o

65+ y/o

These consumers compose the middle to late section of the millennial generation. Such
readers may be settling into their careers and likely have more disposable income than
their junior counterparts, which explains their greater interest in business news and
product offerings.

Why Consumers Read Emails from Businesses

After identifying the portion of marketing emails that subscribers typically consume, we
sought to uncover the greatest value readers were deriving from these correspondences.
What was their main reason behind opening and consuming emails they received from
marketers?
When viewed as a sum, a plurality of recipients (39 percent) read emails to receive
notifications about promotions or discounts, while 26 percent cited getting news or
updates as their main reason. Both are logical choices because both types of emails hold
immediate value.

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

The Primary Reason Subscribers Read Marketing Emails

Promotions/
Discounts

38.9%

News or
Updates

26.2%

Other

18.3%

Answers/
Support

11.4%

Educational
Content

5.2%
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Convenient access to curated, relevant information has a tremendous amount of

utility because it saves readers time and introduces them to content they might not
otherwise have found. Similarly, promotions and discounts supply exclusivity and
value that recipients might not obtain through other channels.
Customer service only managed a paltry 11 percent in the overall sum, perhaps
signifying that email is seen less as a channel for customer service. The immediacy of
online chat features may be replacing email as the preferred method of online support.
Though promotions and discounts won out overall, when the results were divided
between men and women, the data showed that men actually prized news and
updates more than promotions and discounts though only by a narrow margin.
Promotions and discounts remained the preferred type of email for women.

Why People Read

To Receive Promotions/Discounts

29.9%

Marketing Emails, By

46.7%

Gender
Male

10

20

To Receive News/Updates

30

Female

40

50

40

50

30.6%
22.5%
0

10

20

30

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

II. Where Consumers are

Dissatisfied with Business Email
How Could Businesses Improve Their Email Efforts?
Understanding how readers are currently engaging with emails is important, but
businesses also need to understand where they are falling short. To determine this,
we asked consumers how companies could improve their email efforts.

How Businesses Could Improve Their Email Efforts

43.9%

13.1%

24.2%

More informative content

23.9%

More personalized offers

Better visual design

21.2%
0

10

20

Less frequent emails

None of the above

30

The most commonly requested

improvement, by a nearly two one
ratio, was less frequent emails.
More informative content and more
personalized offers were both cited by
24 percent of respondents. Essentially,
consumers want businesses to send
emails less often and include better
content when they do push send.

40

50

According to MarketingSherpa, over 60

percent of consumers want to receive
promotional emails at least weekly, so
the standard for tolerable email volume
is low.8 Consumers may also be guilty of
contributing to a self-fulfilling prophecy
here, as promotional and discount emails
are notoriously sent ad nauseam, but are
some of the most requested campaigns.

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TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Regardless of their propensity to use the inbox as a hub for business and
marketing emails, consumers will quickly grow irritated of marketers who abuse
their emailing permissions. Finding the right sending frequency is a relatively
simple task with current email marketing programs, and especially with
powerful marketing automation platforms.

How Often Are Emails Incorrectly Targeted?

Expanding on the lack of personalized offers noted in the previous question, we
wanted to investigate the frequency of irrelevant emails. In other words, how
often are peoples inboxes housing interloping emails?
The results say far too frequently.
When asked how often they received irrelevant emails, 49 percent said they
received meaningless emails on a daily basis. Another 29 percent confirmed
that they were the victims of weekly email irrelevance. This means nearly 80
percent of US adults receive emails bereft of value at least weekly.

How Often Subscribers Receive Irrelevant Emails

Every day

49.1%
28.7%

Every week

9.1%

Every month
Every few
months

4.7%
8.4%

Never
0

10

20

30

40

50

11

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

These results are disheartening, but

also show the potential of better email
marketing: personalization. In an era of
banner blindness and native advertising
disguised to look like editorial content,
consumers are too jaded and too busy for
irrelevant marketing. Offers that dont sync
up with the needs of an audience arent
offers at all - theyre just noise.

OFFERS THAT DONT SYNC

UP WITH THE NEEDS OF AN
AUDIENCE ARENT OFFERS AT
ALL - THEYRE JUST NOISE
The overwhelming prevalence of irrelevant
email content can be attributed to two
main factors: antiquated techniques and
outdated technology. In many cases the
two are intertwined.

In terms of techniques, many marketers

cling to batch and blast campaigns
that blanket a list of recipients with the
same emails regardless of the individual
preferences and past behavior of each
customer. In addition, untargeted email
newsletters remain a marketing mainstay
despite declining effectiveness.9
Advanced segmentation features are
now standard in marketing automation
platforms, but these systems have
experienced little market penetration.
In December of 2014, only 24 percent
of marketers were using marketing
automation extensively despite the
previously cited resurgence of email and
the urgency to personalize consumer
interactions.10 These platforms arent
always the cheapest options, but their
capabilities allow marketers to effectively
scale segmentation efforts to reduce
the all too common specter of irrelevant
emails.

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TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Motivations for Marking a Business Emails as Spam

Although irrelevance is a serious marketing crime, we wondered if that was enough
to drive consumers to mark email as spam. Email specialists know the consequences
of being labeled spam, so we asked respondents what inbox violations were severe
enough to elicit a flag.

Why Subscribers Flag Emails as Spam

45.8% They emailed too often

36.4%
31.6%
10.4%

10

20

They sent irrelevant content

Their emails were impersonal

18.6%
0

I didnt purposefully subscribe

None of the above

30

40

Interestingly, it wasnt irrelevent content

that caused most people to mark emails as
spam. It was too frequent sending. Forty-six
percent of respondents indicated that they
had marked companies as spam because
of too frequent emails. This reaction is
understandable given that subscribing to
multiple lists is commonplace. Emails can
pile up quickly, resulting in exasperated
clicks on the spam button.
I didnt purposefully subscribe is
an interesting second choice with 36
percent. Although online marketers
may pay lip service to permission-based
principles by including a checkbox for
email subscriptions on download forms,

50

many set the checkbox to an automatic

affirmative. Without another clear opt-in
form, consumers can unwittingly subscribe
to emails that they dont actually want.
Double opt-in processes were implemented
to combat this very situation, and they
remain a best practice for email marketers.
Having a clear unsubscribe link in emails
will also help reduce the amount of spam
complaints.
Thirty-one of respondents said they had
flagged emails because they contained
irrelevant content, reinforcing the need for
better segmentation and targeted offers.

13

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Summary
The results of our study are encouraging
and sobering.
The majority of American adults are open
to receiving emails from businesses,
and they read a fair amount of these
correspondences and offers. Most readers
are quite discerning about which emails
they open, which represents the proverbial
catch in the email marketing proposition.
The responsibility of capturing peoples
attention falls to email technicians who
must use their skills to engage a skeptical
readership.
Like anything in which they invest their
time, consumers expect businesses
to provide value in exchange for their
attention. This explains the 40 percent of
respondents who desired discounts and
promotions above all other types of emails.
But dont dismiss the value of news and
updates: curated, relevant information goes
a long way in building rapport between
businesses and their audiences.

CONSUMERS EXPECT
BUSINESSES TO PROVIDE VALUE
IN EXCHANGE FOR THIS TIME
In terms of improvement, sending time
and relevance are still the most important
factors. Email frequency in particular was
the most desired area of improvement (44

percent) among email recipients, and was

also the most likely reason to be banished
to the spam folder (46 percent).
The plain answer to the email frequency
question is that marketers simply must
respect the inbox of their recipients. An optin is an invitation to start a conversation,
not an excuse to unleash a deluge of
untargeted, incessant messages.
Irrelevance presents a more complex
puzzle, because its roots begin at the
content that marketers are creating. If the
content strategy is wrong, then the emails
will always be wide of the market. The sheer
volume of irrelevant emails poured into
inboxes indicates a segmentation problem
as well. Personalization is without a doubt
the strongest tactic marketers have for
standing out and piquing interest. Research
even indicates that simply framing an
interaction as personalized can create a
sense of reciprocity among customers. 11
Technology also has a role to play in
segmentation. The current underuse
of marketing automation likely plays a
substantial role in poor email segmentation
and irrelevant campaigns.
Overall, consumers feel the email inbox
is an appropriate place to interact with
businesses. Its down to the marketer to
influence the nature and importance of
these communications.

14

TRENDS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Sources
1. Radicati, Sara and Levenstein, Justin. Email Statistics Report, 2013-2017, The Radicati Group, Inc. April,
2013 http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Email-Statistics-Report-2013-2017Executive-Summary.pdf
2. Aufreiter, Boudet, and Weng. Why Marketers Should Keep Sending You Emails, McKinsey & Company,
January 2014 ://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_marketers_should_keep_sending_
you_emails
3. Costello, Steve. Emerging Markets Set to Drive Smartphone Growth to 2018, Mobile World Live, May, 28,
2014. http://www.mobileworldlive.com/emerging-markets-set-drive-smartphone-growth-2018
4. ODell, J. 65% of All Email Gets Opened First on a Mobile Device And Thats Great News for Marketers,
Venturebeat, January, 22, 2014. http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/65-of-all-email-gets-opened-first-ona-mobile-device-and-thats-great-news-for-marketers/
5. 2015 State of Marketing, Salesforce, Accessed March 5, 2015. https://secure2.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/
datasheets/mc_2015stateofmarketing.pdf
6. 2013 Email Marketing Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Messages Sent Q1 - Q4, 2012, Silverpop,
Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.silverpop.com/Documents/Whitepapers/2013/WP_
EmailMarketingMetricsBenchmarkStudy2013.pdf
7. Chaffey, Dave. Email Marketing Statistics 2015, Smart Insights, February 9, 2015. http://www.
smartinsights.com/email-marketing/email-communications-strategy/statistics-sources-for-emailmarketing/
8. Burstein, Daniel. Email Research Chart: How Often Customers Want to Receive Promotional Emails,
Marketingsherpa, February, 10, 2015. http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/how-oftencustomers-want-promo-emails
9. 2015 State of Marketing, Salesforce, Accessed March 5, 2015. https://secure2.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/
datasheets/mc_2015stateofmarketing.pdf
10. Marketing Automation has Plenty of Room for Growth, Emarketer, February 23, 2015.http://www.
emarketer.com/Article/Marketing-Automation-Has-Plenty-of-Room-Growth/1012092
11. Strohmetz, Rind, Fisher, and Lynn. Sweetening the Till: The Use of Candy to Increase Restaurant Tipping,
Journal of Applied Psychology, July 31, 2006. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.
tb00216.x/abstract

Guide Photography Credits

1. spam email by notoriousxl used under CC BY / desaturated from original
2. iOS7 by Karlis Dambrans used under CC BY / desaturated from original

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