Email marketing may have its knockers but the opportunity its offers brands to get their messages in front of consumers is still larger than life, with 99% checking their personal email inboxes around 20 times a day, and 83% still using their very first email address.
So says the latest edition of the DMA’s Consumer Email Tracker report, although it is not all good news; many consumers now have up to three email addresses, with 44% opening a specific email address to receive marketing messages.
In all, consumers believe they are signed up to an average of 14 mailing lists on their personal accounts, using their work accounts to sign-up for just two. Consumers also believe more than half of the emails in their inbox are marketing messages and, despite the stability of the average inbox, some consumers can be pushed to unsubscribe or even abandon an email address.
For example, over half (53%) of consumers feel they receive too many irrelevant emails from brands and 20% say they have abandoned an email address due to receiving too many emails. To convince them brands are handling their data responsibly, consumers most commonly cite access to a preference centre (37%) and clear privacy policies (37%) as the drivers of trust.
Skip Fidura, client services director at dotmailer and chair of the DMA’s Responsible Marketing Committee, claims to understand the complexity of the current market for email marketers and points to the potential for an improved, and more transparent consumer-marketer relationship.
He said: “We have been talking about being open, honest and transparent with the people on our list as best practice for years. Clearly defining what data you’re collecting, how you plan to use it, how you will store it and how long you are going to keep it is no longer best practice, it is the law.”
DMA managing director Rachel Aldighieri added: “Engagement is driven by relevant, short and actionable emails. Our hero principle at the DMA is to put the customer first and we can do this by applying these research findings in a practical way. We know, for instance, consumers are engaging well with simple emails composed of well-written text and images. The power of the craft of copywriting should not be underestimated.”
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