Five email marketing stats worth paying attention to

Albeit not the most cutting-edge technique, email marketing is still an incredibly effective way to put your school in front of customers. In the eCommerce world, email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent, meaning it has a whopping ROI of 3800%, according to research published by Hubspot earlier this year.

Should I be paying attention to email marketing statistics?

But, when you’re not dealing immediately in dollars and cents, do the stats really matter? For schools, email is used to nurture prospective parents and students through the enrolment process, with the financials coming in at a much later date.

However, you can definitely still use the latest trends and figures to your advantage! Not only do these stats help identify when and how people access their emails, but they also give insight into the kind of qualities they look for in successful digital communications. Here are five of the most important email marketing stats that are worth paying attention to in 2019.

99% of consumers check their emails every day

Every day? Yep, you heard right! Across mobile and desktop, practically everyone is on their emails at least once per day, meaning you’re likely to reach them within 24 hours. This creates the perfect opportunity to focus on your email marketing strategy and measure what works, because average open rate still only sits around 20%. Now that you know they’re paying attention, it’s important to grab them with a strong subject line to ensure your open rates are strong.

Mobile beats out desktop

If you aren’t using mobile-responsive emails yet, what are you doing?! 46% of people are opening emails on their phones, compared to around 35% on desktop, meaning it’s more important than ever to have parity between the two. Clean, easy-to-read designs are still the way to go, especially considering the small screen sizes of some smartphones. It’s also worth cutting your content, instead pointing users to click on links that then allow them to explore topics in-depth. Think about what else you could include in emails to best adapt to mobile users -- perhaps adding your social media links in your footer might encourage uplift? One great thing about email is that it’s measurable, so you’re able to try out new things and see what works.

Content emails are king

We’ve all heard the term ‘content is king’, but what happens when you parcel your best work into an email? Uh, success! Content emails that showcase the best of your blog posts, newsletters and notices are ideal for increasing readership, as well as ensuring families are up to date with happenings at your school, and have a good sense of who you are. Measure the success of each post within your email via assessing its click through rate (CTR) using your analytics platform. This will then give you a better idea of what content works, whether that be specifically for emails or overall.

Segmentation is non-negotiable

Segmenting is an integral part of all marketing, but is even more crucial when you’re working with email. It refers to grouping customers or clients into specific groups based on various factors, such as interests, age, location and more. Segmenting is a must-do for any email marketer, as it allows you to test out various content options to see what really works for each buyer persona.

So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that marketers who use segmentation report a 760% increase in revenue! Although you probably aren’t generating money from your emails, it’s still a tool that you can use to increase engagement, because it increases the quality of emails people receive. Send all of your Year 10 related emails just to Year 10 parents, or single out families in each stage of the enrolment process with targeted content.

Emojis really work

Don’t leave emojis to the kids -- add them to your email subject lines and watch open rates soar. After all, 56% of businesses that used emojis in their subject lines boasted greater CTR than those that didn’t. Of course, when it comes to school marketing, it’s still important to keep things professional. Pick a few emojis that represent you and your school -- for instance, the book emoji for exam-related emails, or the music notes for your performing arts alerts. As long as you keep things relevant, you’ll add that element of visual interest to the post and hopefully encourage more people to read what you have to say.

Have you learned anything new about email marketing from these interesting stats? Let us know over on Facebook or Twitter!

For more on using email marketing for your school, check out these tips for prospective parent email marketing.