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More than 293 billion business and consumer emails are sent and received each day . That ’ s a lot of competition for customer attention . To cut through the noise , email senders need to have a comprehensive understanding of when , why and how users interact with their personal inboxes . Good thing we just collected data on all of that . Let ’ s dig into the lessons , shall we ?
The survey , The Path to Email Engagement in 2021 , evaluated global consumers ’ habits around checking their personal inbox and how they interact with the emails they receive from B2C brands .
The research reveals consumers are yearning for more connection with the brands they love and confirms email is still the predominant form of communication .
When do people check their email ?
Oh , the age-old debate : is there a perfect time to send an email ? The data from our survey says there really is no right time to send a B2C email , as people tend to interact with their inbox throughout the day with no single sweet spot .
However , the majority of people ( 84.3 %) are on their email at least once a day and about a quarter of people are checking five times a day or more .
Subject lines are a big deal , too . The survey data points out that a subject line showing the content is personalized to the recipient ’ s interests matters more than discount codes or sales . This varies somewhat by age , though .
Younger respondents say they are more motivated by promotions than their older counterparts . One thing that doesn ’ t seem to change , however , is the way people scan their inboxes . ‘ From top to bottom ’ was by far the preferred method ( 53.4 %) of scanning inboxes .
Will Conway , CEO , Pathwire
Most folks are checking in the morning ( 42.5 %) and then several times throughout the early afternoon . It ’ s before bedtime that email marketers might want to avoid since less than 20 % of respondents report they check their email at that time . This commonality spans across all demographics .
What makes an email effective ?
For email to be effective , it needs to be opened and read . We ’ ve covered why certain emails are opened over others , but what factors make people actually want to spend time clicking through the content ?
What might be surprising is the frequency at which people check their spam folders . Over 67 % of users check it at least once a week and up to 37.3 % interact with spam email once a day .
Why do certain emails get opened and others don ’ t ?
Nineteen percent of Americans receive 50 or more emails a day , but hardly anyone is opening them all . If a recipient recognizes an email ’ s sender , they ’ re much more likely to open and read – 88.7 % of respondents say a familiar sender is ‘ somewhat important ’ or ‘ very important ’ for them . Having time to read the email was the second most important factor .
The data suggests that discount emails are less likely to be ignored . Up to 50.2 % of respondents say they would click through to learn more about an offer or use the promo code , while only 21 % of respondents would do the same thing with abandoned cart emails .
Email has played a key role in helping brands stay in touch with customers throughout a period of unprecedented challenges and uncertainty .
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