Here are my best tips, surprising stats, and Dos and Don’ts for sending email. This is from our Flash Briefing week about email marketing. Each audio is about 1-3 minutes.
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Part 1 of 5: 347 Billion Emails Sent Per Day by 2022
Data from Statista reveals a steady climb in the number of emails received and sent out. It projects that the figure will surpass 347 billion emails sent per day by 2022. It’s also worth realizing that the number was 269 billion in 2018. That’s a rapid rate growth for an already high volume of emails. Also, find out why Gmail created the Promotions tab (can you guess?)
Part 2 of 5: We Spend 2.5 Hours Each Work Day on Personal Email
In their 2018 Consumer Email Survey report, Adobe examined at how white-collar workers use email and discovered that they spend an average of 2.5 hours per day checking their personal inboxes at work and even more time dealing with work-related emails. Considering actual productive hours are at about 2 out of the 8 at the office, this isn’t good news for companies and employers.
Part 3 of 5: The 9 Most Hated Email Phrases
Adobe surveyed over 1,000 white-collar workers in the United States in 2018 and identified the nine common phrases that people find most frustrating and annoying in emails.
In order of least despised to most despised:
9. “Re-attaching for convenience” (6%)
8. “As discussed” (6%)
7. “As previously stated” (9%)
6. “Please advise” (9%)
5. “Sorry for the double email” (10%)
4. “Any update on this?” (11%)
3. “Per our conversation” (11%)
2. “Per my last email” (13%)
1. “Not sure if you saw my last email” (25%)
Part 4 of 5: Always Do This (You Probably Aren’t)
Now, here is the money shot of the entire week. This is the big tip I hope you all really take to heart:
1) The Why:
In a conversation:
- 55% is nonverbal
- 38% is tone of voice and change in pitch
- 7% is coming from the words.
Interesting that nowadays texts and emails are so full of emojis and exclamation points; we are straining to convey body language and tone through these characters. Good luck (to fix it, see The What below).
(These stats are from The Good Life Project podcast episode The Art and Science of Listening with guest Kate Murphy, which I found out about via JJ Ramberg’s share in my Goodpods feed. It’s where I find out about great podcasts. Hear my interview with JJ Ramberg about Goodpods, the social podcast app.)
2) The What (do this):
Include an audio update with your email. This is a toe dip into voice marketing and everyone should try it. If you’re already spending the time and effort to type out an email, a few more minutes to record yourself reading it is doable. Just record the email as audio and host it at your podcast host (I recommend Acast and you can get a $25 Amazon Gift Card when you sign up for Acast podcast hosting with my link – info here). I saw Fundrise (a real estate investment platform that I use) do a nice job of this recently: see my tweet with a screenshot.
If you want help automating this process to add voice your own email marketing and create a deeper connection with your audience, book a consultation with me.
Part 5 of 5: Unsubscribing is a Gift
Make it really easy to unsubscribe. Clean your list annually. And more email marketing tips.
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