Yep, email. That’s the answer to the question: “What communications channel reaches the broadest swath of audiences?”
Check out this chart from a study conducted in 2021.While every communication channel seems to reach only a fragment of most audiences, sitting right there is good ol’ email. Who knew that it had such high appeal to virtually every demographic?
You can see that email is the choice of every age group, from Gen Z to Millennials, from Gen X and Baby boomers. We suspected as much because we’ve seen that over the last two years email open rates have been creeping up. And, more importantly emails are generating more than a one-day bump in web site activity. Looking at results from 2018 for instance, open rates for an email campaign, whether using Constant Contact or Survey Monkey, spiked the first four or five hours after an email was sent. Then there may have been a small uptick a couple hours later towards the end of the day and evening. And that was it – not much happened beyond Day One.
Now, however, aside from the higher overall open rates, we’ve noticed that recipients are opening the emails on Day Two and Day Three. It’s certainly not at the same open rates as on Day One, but maybe 50% – 75% of Day One results. We’ve seen this type of general activity with two clients in different fields over the past 6 months, so we don’t think that this is just an aberration.
But before you go off and start doubling the number of your emails, be mindful that freshness and relevance of content is important to generate “opens” and engagement. In general, I still adhere to creating “an unforgettable conversation with a friend” especially in today’s congested communication landscape. The best way to increase your email activity in a meaningful way is, frankly, to listen to your audience and discover what they seem to be looking for. Chances are, there is something they want to know, and if you’ve established a trust with them, they will be open to hearing from you. The operative word is “trust.” And just like in any relationship, you don’t want to abuse it.
As always, if you have your own thoughts or want to let me know what you think, feel free to reach out to me at mtinati@kineticsmarcom.com
