Did your "open" rates on email campaigns drop this summer? Here's one reason why.
Your customers spent twice the amount of time this June on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs than on checking their email inboxes. In a study just released by Nielsen, Americans spent nearly 23% of their time on social networking sites (up 7% from a year ago) and 30% less on email. That means for every hour online, 13 minutes were devoted to social media. And just a paltry 4 minutes on email.
So, does that mean you should stop using email campaigns and switch your budget to blogs and Facebook? No. But, as always, you need to re-examine your marketing communications and make sure you're reaching your customers in the way they want to be reached. That might mean direct mail. Or a print campaign. Or updating your company Facebook page or website.
It's easy to become complacent about media choices. Where once our desks where cluttered with direct-mail pieces, now it's our in-boxes with email. Standing out from the crowd and really connecting with your audience means not doing business-as-usual. The key to successful ad campaigns these days are meaningful messages in the right media choices(i.e., the ones your customers prefer, not the ones your marketing department does).
Email campaigns work great. But so do billboards, radio, phone apps, blogs, and social media. The magic is in the mix. Maybe now's the time to check yours.
