New here? This is Inbox Hacking, a Free Newsletter for Awesome email marketers eager to increase their Awesomeness. Email marketing insights, tools, & tactics sent twice per week. Someone forwarded you our Newsletter? Please join over 13,560 Email Marketers and sign up for your Free subscription. Today → key takeaways from a 2023 consumer engagement report, email marketing stats galore, & 3 inbox hacks you can test today.
It’s Thursday, folks. Mere hours from the weekend – you’ve got this. Probably.
Anyway, I’ve scoured a recent 2023 consumer engagement report for you. And you are mere seconds from takeaways I believe will help your email campaigns engage and connect with your subscribers. Even if you’re emailing B2B, you’ll want to see how humans with inboxes are currently behaving – plus an easy hack to up your email game (theft of the highest order).
*At the end of the feature, 5 cliches we all must come together to do something about.
3 Vital Marketing Stats
Messagegears’ full report if you wanna download later.
- 25% of consumers report buying online once per week (34% buy 2-3 times per month)
- 55% purchased on mobile vs. 32% using desktop / laptop
- 34% said they only open marketing messages that seem relevant to them
Two takeaways from stat #3:
- New brands can dethrone entrenched brands by focusing on relevant messages (level up segmenting).
- Cold email isn’t dead but – best make your first shot count.
The Unsullied – Inboxes
A whopping 33% of consumer inboxes could be a waste of marketers’ time.
The % breakdown:
- 14% say they unsubscribe from ALL marketing messages
- 11% say they never check / they delete all marketing messages no matter the brand that sent it
- 8% said they check EVERY marketing message regardless of sender (weirdos)
No doubt, the first two groups are a tough / impossible sale.
Last group? Similar perhaps. Unless they have limitless money and a photographic memory.
They can’t buy from every email. So how are you gonna stand out if they are interested in every brand’s offers?
Who’s Fault is This?
66% of respondents said “most of the time” they don’t remember opting in for marketing messages. 😮
Same. I don’t recall giving Zuckerberg keys to my frontal lobe.
But we all do it with those 8,000-word user agreements. That’s part of the truth of the 66%.
Another part – believe it or not – some people don’t know a free lead magnet puts them on an email list (they don’t even read 8-word sign-up forms).
Lastly, marketers are messaging people who didn’t give express permission to do so.❌
Brands to Copy – The Best Marketers Steal
I’m not very bright. But have enough IQ points remaining to know what awesome marketing looks like.
And I’m crafty enough to reshape it to fit my purpose.
“When you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism. When you steal from a bunch of authors, it’s research.”
So, since 23% of respondents “strongly agree” that they’re more likely to share info with brands if they believe it will be used to improve future experiences with the brand, how’s that help us?
Steal from brands that provide the best experiences.
OMG – I’ll spell it out. Sign up for those brands’ emails!
5 of the 12 brands listed in the report consumers said sent personalized and relevant messages they look forward to:
- Home Depot
- Walmart
- Best Buy
- Chewy
- Nike
I challenge you to sign up for their emails. Study how they study your actions and behaviors. Then use those learnings in your email campaigns.
Are we gonna let the most impersonal brand I can imagine (Walmart) be more personal than us? For the love of CDs – Best Buy shouldn’t even be in business still! And people are saying this dinosaur sends relevant messages.
I can see looking forward to Nike and Chewy. Those are inherently personal brands.
Bottom line. Use Home Depot’s tagline when “borrowing” brand messaging tactics that work→ “How borrowers get more done.”
Now, those 5 cliches we must eradicate:
- Teamwork makes the dream work.
- Let’s solidify these plans.
- How’s your bandwidth looking? (tired & could bring harassment charges)
- As per my last email
- Rampant use of exclamation marks (sociologists in the year 5150 will consider this the first domino in an extinction-level event)
Knowledge Base
Knowledge is power, but first, a motivational mom.
Don’t ignore this email forwarding security issue.
What to do when a successful launch is derailed by an email deliverability debacle.
More email engagement via cause marketing.
Ways to recession-proof your agency and how publishers can monetize younger consumers.
Spoiler Alert
You can stop worrying about subject lines 24/7.
This one strategy unlocks better open rates.
Inbox Mailers holds the key…
Triggered Emails. And this works for businesses of all sizes.
- Get open rates of 50% – 70%
- Increase/Fix your reputation, deliverability, and inboxing rates
- Increase/Fix Sender scores and IP Health
- Re-engage your Dead/Unengaged list
Book a Demo. Inbox Mailers is your can’t-miss email marketing tool.
Self Help
The world economy loses more money to poor mental health than a Browns fan with gambling issues. About $2.5 trillion is lost annually.
Luckily a new study finds – brace yourself – exercise is good for us.
In this case, good for our minds…
“Regular physical activity was 1.5 times more effective than either counseling or the leading medications.”
Basically sofas and screens are piledriving humans.
This study showed you don’t need to be a CrossFit nut to improve mental health though.
Simple stuff like walking – heck, playing Twister helps for all I know.
Just move around.
(((Men: a doctor is a medical professional that humans should visit regularly)))
*Shout-out to Inbox Hacking Subscribers →
🐼Ashley at Oregon Zoo (Obvious😉)
📺Dawn at WEHCO (Media)
Facts and Stats
- Only 11% of online shoppers feel that firms exceed their expectations all the time
- 53% of customers prefer marketing messages via email (17% like in-app notifications) (Media Post)
- Deliverability rate dropped 3.2% in 2022 to 93% (companies from 0-1,000+ employees)
Bonus: On average, Email Marketers found to be 825% less gullible than anyone on Nextdoor.
Marketing Musings
“For 62%, relevance is the leading factor in deciding whether to open an email. Less important is the identity of the brand (14%), ‘personalized to me beyond my name’ (8%), and ‘catchy subject line’ (5%). But 11% will simply not open marketing emails.”
Ironically, I love the 11% stat. Why? Learning to identify those non-openers saves email marketers from wasting time on dead-end subscribers. Shift that time and effort to the other 89% of your list and future prospects.
Get Hacking
Survey highlights 2 major concerns for global brands’ email marketing:
- Inbox placement issues — 32.7%
- Standing out in the inbox — 37.3%
Today’s hack is to work on both at the same time. 3 options.
- Try Inbox Mailers – stand out in inboxes by landing beside other emails users have designated as ‘keepers’
- Implement BIMI to have your logo highlighted in inboxes
- Segment your top 1%-5% of subscribers – send them a special campaign. More opens & clicks should bump up overall inbox placement
Interesting tidbits from newsletters I read recently:
- Survey: Younger generations have more paid news subscriptions than older generations. (Chartr)
- Visits to a Pennsylvania mall in 2021 jumped 31%+ compared to 2018 after converting a Sears into a casino. (The Hustle)
- “Read the NSA’s checklist for protecting the home network.” (The Hustle). Because the NSA’s mission is protecting privacy🙄.
📝Please take survey below. It could change the world.
