David Daniels is always entertaining to talk with and hear speak. He injects comedy into his presentations to keep it engaging. He presented some numbers that we can chomp on and digest that helped me see the picture from a broader perspective in a few areas.
How are people spending time?
Email 87%, Search 70%, Research 64%, Purchase 60%, IM 37%.
These are the top activities by online consumers, not consumers in general.
We no longer “surf” but we search and research. The days of just surfing the web looking for things has long past. We are now using it as a vehicle to find and learn.
The average person gets 274 emails a week in personal email. 304 emails a week at work email. 74% of people have 2 email accounts. 8% triage emails with handheld devices. (Growing) 18% of heavy email buyers use mobile.(Those with patterns of buying more frequently from email). Meaning that they use the mobile device to deal with emails prior to reading them in the inbox. What this tells us that mobile is important and the message needs to be clear. If they decide to delete it at the hand hand level and have the handheld in sync with the inbox client, you might never get that trackable read.
Spam is down and 26% of the inbox is OPT IN email campaigns. I know it seems that spam never lets down, but it is slowing. And the fact the 26% of the inbox is opt in marketing campaigns means that 74% of the emails are typical personal or business correspondence.
Devices are building more choice. Also building more push back on control and time in people’s lives. Mobile saves me time… but mobile is taking over my life. There have been a few people that are taking back control by getting off email entirely. Now this demo is small, but worth considering and keeping tabs on.
What have you used instead of email?
27% Texting more – easier, instant, gratifying (34 and under)
44% are 18-25 / 49% are 25-34
38% are social
Skews Male in TXT use
This group gets 8.5% more email than the average person.
Cell Phone:
79% use it more than email as a communication device
87% are 25-34 that use it as a communication device
21% are social users
Skews female in use
Very active email buyers (more than 4 purchases from campaigns a year)
IM:
67% are 18-24
35% are social users, meaning they use it to talk to friends and peers.
No gender difference
They get 8% more email than average
Life is getting FASTER and the devices we use are getting wider and more part of society.
Facebook:
18% of the online pop have used facebook and others for personal communication instead of email
Massive skew in usage by age.
Question from the Audience:
Maybe this younger demo is using it as they don’t work yet. Maybe once they get jobs they will move to email more. Do you think that people as they get older will fall into using email more than social networks?
Email Marketin is growing from 1.2 billion in 2007 to 2 billion in 2012. this number does not include email agencies, design services and strategy. Just the ESP, Etc.
Why people opt out:
53% of people unsub due to irrelevance.
40% due to frequency
26% unsub using this this is Spam or Junk button.
Targeting:
27% of email marketers actually use click data to retarget and engage behaviorally.
This is surprising to me as it is the easiest way to create new campaigns based on past email campaign behavior.
