Emails are important sources of communication and people all over the world rely on them. But the existence of emails could be under threat because of social media. But many people believe that emails will not die and will continue to survive even with the growth and popularity of social media.
The Advent of Email
It all started in 1978 when a high school student named Shiva Ayyadurai was asked to create an electronic mailing system that was similar to the inter and intra office mails that were used to send mails to different offices in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. This led to the first version of email being invented in 1980. In the late 1980s, many Eudora for reading emails on the LAN made appearance, followed by Outlook and AOL in the early 1990s. Google made its appearance in 2007, and by 2009, email users were using their smartphones to access emails.
The Evolution of Email
With more than 1.3 billion email users, it makes sense to understand the evolution of email. MIT explored the idea of email way back in 1965. The first email was sent over ARPANET in 1971. In 1976, Queen Elizabeth was the first head of state to send an email; and spam came into being in 1978. Between 1988 and 1997, many commercial email products came into being, such as Microsoft Mail, Hotmail, Compuserve and Outlook. Gmail came into being in 2007 and has more than 350 million users worldwide. With social media networking platforms easily accessible and not cluttering inboxes, more people are moving away from emails.
Facts about Email
The average size of an email is 75 KB, while an email that contains plain text of 80 words has an average size of 10KB. It is estimated that 2 billion emails are sent every day, and there are about 1.3 billion email users across the world. Around 19.8 percent spam comes from the United States; and China hosts 73.58 percent of spammer websites in the world.
Tips on Email Marketing Campaign
Make sure that before you start your email marketing campaign, you know the purpose. Then sit and develop a list of customers, old, current and prospective, to send the email to. Have a timetable in place to decide on the frequency of the broadcast. Send emails when readers tend be more receptive to them which is on Tuesdays and Wednesday from 2 to 3 pm. Make sure that your email has compelling and convincing message that gets readers to buy your product or service. Make sure that all your email have an unsubscribe option available.
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Has Email Died?
With the popularity of social networking sites, it may spell doom for emails. In 2010, the average number of emails that were sent was 107 trillion, which is actually an increase of 19 percent from the previous year. 44 percent people believe that email will continue even with social media around, as it is used for business communication; but 15 percent believe that email is dead. 47 percent of all email accounts are located in the Asia/Pacific region, with US and Canada having 14 percent. The US is the biggest generator of spam, followed by Korea.
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How Emails are Opened After Delivery
23.63 percent of emails are opened in the first hour of receipt; 9.52 percent in the second hour; 6.33 percent in the third hour; and 4.8 percent in the fourth hour of receipt. The best results for emails occur in the first hour of delivery and thereafter the results drop significantly. The best time to send an email is 9 am as there is a high probability that it will be opened and read.
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How to Time Your Email Marketing
From 7 pm to 10 pm is one of the best times to send emails to consumers, as they are more likely to open and respond to emails campaigns. About 23 percent of consume emails are opened during this period. Never send email from 10 pm to 6 am, as they will not be opened. The next best timing to send emails to consumers is 6 am to 10 am.
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The Best and Worst Times to Send Emails
The worst time to send emails is from 10 pm to 9 am, as most people will not open them. 9 am to 10 am is a good time to send marketing emails. From 10 am until noon, most people are busy working and will not open their mails. And finally 7 pm to 10 pm is another good time to send emails, as the click-through rate will be high.
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Why is Email Marketing Still Popular?
The reason that email marketing is still popular is that it is cheaper than other forms of marketing and offers a better return on investment compared to direct marketing. Retailers spend about $6.85 on each order of email marketing which is the lowest cost among all forms of online marketing. Products and services featured in emails along with text messages can increase the click-through rate compared to other types of emails. Many small businesses rely on email marketing to get business.
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How to Send Emails by Phones?
Never enlarge fonts when typing emails. Make sure that you scale down your email so that readers do not have to scroll left or right to read it. Ensure that the call to action is strong and prominent. Don’t stuff the email with too much content. Make sure that your emails for mobile are single column, making it easy for the receiver.
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Some Aspects of Emails that are Irritating
95 percent of consumers in the US use emails. Some of the major irritants of emails are attachments, getting flooded by emails, spam and forgetting to forward the email to all recipients.
Have People’s Email Viewing Habits Changed?
In July 2010, 55 percent people used their desktops to view their emails, 38 percent used webmail and just 7 percent used their mobile phones. However, by July 2011, 53 percent used desktops, 32 percent webmail and 15 percent mobile phones. More and more people are beginning to access their emails using phones.
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