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Email Research Branding

Brits have 260 unopened emails in inbox, with 84% saying spam email from brands drives them mad

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By Ishbel Macleod, PR and social media consultant

September 5, 2014 | 2 min read

‘Brand spam’ emails drive Brits mad, new research from Webtrends has found, with research finding the public think an excess of brand emails is worse than texts in the middle of the night.

The research of 2,000 British consumers found that that 56 per cent of the 14 billion unopened emails sitting in inboxes – an average of 260 each - came from brands, and that a third (36 per cent) unsubscribe because content is not relevant to them.

It was also found that 36 per cent of unopened emails are genuine spam and seven per cent from friends and family.

John Fleming, Webtrends marketing director for EMEA & APAC, said: “As consumers, we’re happy to sign up to receive updates from brands, but only bother to open the ones we find relevant. This means companies are wasting loads of money sending us things we just don’t care about – and in many cases its turning us off. 36 per cent of Brits unsubscribe from brand communications simply because what they receive isn’t personalised to be relevant to them.”

Brits are most likely to respond positively to brand communications or webpages that deliver real time information relating to their interests (51 per cent), information or offers relating to previous purchases (44 per cent) and information or offers relevant to their location (37 per cent).

Fleming added: “Of the 20 per cent of Brits who never open brand emails, 60 per cent say they would be more likely to open them if the subject line contained information that was personalised to them. Likewise, of the 65 per cent of people who sometimes or often open brand emails, 82 per cent would be more likely to open them if the subject line contained personalised information.”

Retailers are most likely to see their emails opened, with a 55 per cent open rate, compared to 33 per cent for travel, 12 per cent for charity and 10 per cent for emails from media organisations.

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