Email- Fast Facts and Thoughts

E-mail has nearly total penetration, with 97% of consumers and 94% of marketers using the channel, according to a new study by JupiterResearch.

Click-through rates have remained steady since 2003, at an average of 5%.

E-mail marketing is a success in the sense that consumers who buy products advertised in e-mails spend 138% more online than peers who do not.

When e-mail solicitations work, they work quickly: 29% of all online consumers buy immediately following an offer.

Three-fifths of e-mail forwarding is done by women. The study also found that consumers ages 18-34 often use a separate address just for marketing e-mails.

Nearly a third of respondents said that they read promotional e-mails, looking for promotions when opening e-mail and forwarding them to friends

According to Jupiter Research, 93% of U.S. Internet users consider email their top online activity. Email is a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to communicate with prospects, customers, and vendors.

Points to Ponder:

How do you use email marketing effectively, without irritating your recipients? Can you answer these simple questions below:

• How often to send email
• How to write messages that get a response
• Why you must systematically deliver what your customers value, and quickly fix problems when you don't
• When to use HTML and when to use text only
• How to build lists that perform