In today’s email marketing world, we are inundated each week with articles and blogs on new statistics, trends and predictions. Typically the information you see will involve numbers on email engagement, frequency and optimization, but do you ever think about the more unusual stats that are sometimes shared?
Even if at first they seem too weird to be true, some of these stranger stats can demonstrate the power of email or provide keys to email marketing success. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most interesting stats we’ve come across so far:
Including a song lyric or movie title in your subject line increases open rates by 26%. There has been a recent trend of marketers getting creative by including something unexpected and surprising in their email subject lines. Retention Science conducted a study that revealed subject lines with song lyrics or movie titles had a 26% open rate, compared to emails with more traditional, predictable subject lines that resulted in a 16% open rate. Retention Science CEO Jerry Jao says, “Movie and music references can be targeted to certain customer segments or encapsulate a promotional theme, making them a creative way to hyper-target and capture attention.”
Moving the unsubscribe link to the top of your emails is better than leaving it on the bottom. This may make it easy for readers to unsubscribe, but that may be what you want. When the number of uninterested readers goes down, the quality of your list goes up. Marketing Consultant D Bnonn Tennant writes about asking readers to unsubscribe on the Unbounce blog, “So your open rates, click rates, and ultimately your conversion rates increase—at the expense of your unsubscribe rate. That’s a good trade.” Many readers are not ideal customers, so removing them from your list helps to maximize ROI. Putting the unsubscribe link at the top may also contribute to your sender reputation, as it encourages uninterested readers to unsubscribe instead of hitting the Spam button.
Mobile traffic doesn’t equal mobile conversions. New research from Econsultancy and Adobe in their Finding the Path to Mobile Maturity Briefing Report shows that even though businesses surveyed reported that 31% of their web traffic comes via mobile, 71% of company respondents achieve less than 20% of overall e-commerce revenue through mobile devices. Many researchers have a simple explanation for these interesting stats: fat fingers trying to work on the small screens of mobile devices are clicking accidentally.
Older people make some of the best customers. According to a survey from iProspect, older generations are “time-rich, and, accounting for their lower financial commitments, comparatively cash-rich too. They research online, and are strong believers in the power of search to make their lives easier.” With more time on their hands and more money to spend, older people are more likely to read your email and become your customer than younger people, so put to rest some old stereotypes and have confidence in your older reader.
Most readers prefer text emails. HTML email provides many advantages that plain text email does not, such as pretty colors, images and hyperlinks to grab a reader’s attention, but some marketers are beginning to think that plain text formats are so rare, they may actually stand out to a reader more. Founder of Social Triggers, Derek Halpern conducted a survey, finding that 55.1% of respondents said they preferred text emails, with 25.2% saying they “kind of” preferred text, and 19.7% saying they don’t. Halpern further questioned the respondents who said they preferred text, and found that the reasons were a mix between the email being simpler and easier to read, and the text format making them feel more welcomed. This could be because HTML email is associated with one-to-all communications, when one marketer sends to the whole world, but plain text email is associated with one-to-one communications, like our personal messages to friends and family.
What unusual email marketing stats, tips or facts have you come across lately? Feel free to share them in the comments below!
