Why Email is #1 Channel for Revenue in US... Again.

Speaker 1: Want to know which channels are driving the most engagement and revenue with consumers in the US? I've got the answer plus the stats to back it up. Here's a quick stat from the 2022 Consumer Trends Index report published in March of this year, that reveals over 90 trends related to what, when and how consumers want to be engaged by brands, retailers and other consumer facing companies. So here it is. We asked, have you ever made a purchase from any of these channels in the last 12 months? Well, 57% of US consumers said they purchased from the email channel, and email was the number one channel selected in our survey. Surprisingly, that includes 43% of gen Z audience and 56% of millennials. So if you thought email was dying, even with the younger generations, you're dead wrong. Now the other channels, SMS MMS, only 25% of our respondents made a purchase from this channel. I thought that was low, but those are the stats. Banner ads on websites, they only garnered 36% of respondents saying that they made a purchase from those. Paid social media ads did see 48% of respondents purchasing at least once in 12 months. But think about that. It's paid. How much are you spending to generate revenue and what are your margins? By the way, what does your targeting strategy look like in a post cookie world, which is right around the corner? Will that stat hold up, and does an ad differentiate against your competitors? Are you simply in a feature war, and is an ad telling your full story and your full value to your consumer audience? Questions they're unpaid. Moving on, organic social media post. 46% said that they made a purchase from this channel. Now organic posts are declining in value these days as algorithms squash your organic reach. I think many marketers would agree with that frustrating fact. If you reach only 5% of your following on a social media platform and you can get 46% of them to make a purchase once in 12 months, was it worth it? Is organic social a sustainable and large enough revenue channel for your brand? Does it differentiate? So those were the channels that were covered in the full report. But let's close out here quickly on why email is so important to your relationship marketing strategy. Remember 57% of US respondents said that they buy from this channel. Do you need to double downhill for your organization? Yes. And here's why, a couple of stats. Email is basically free. Sure, you need a platform to send, but you control the when and how it gets pushed out. You could cast and blast all day long an email if you like, but you'll get better results if you trigger personalized email offers and content based on your audience's behavior. The full Consumer Trends Index report shares more insight on this. So be sure to go download it. I'll tell you how very quickly. Also, did your audience visit your site recently? Did they maybe abandon a cart? Did they open your app? Did they even maybe visit a physical store? All of these signals can be tracked and activated to get the right offer to the right person at the right time. Furthermore, there's no regulation or algorithm limiting your reach in email. Remember that one. In fact, our clients see upwards of 99% deliverability rates on email. Also, but probably the biggest reason to double down on the email channel, it is super easy to personalize, if you're in a conversation with your audience and you're collecting zero party data to understand their wants and needs. That's the psychographic information that is critical to personalization. And by personalization, I mean going beyond dropping their name in a subject line. You should be using copy and phrases from topics and data insights that any given recipient has already shared with you. If you're not sure how that works, we have a resource called the Zero Party Data Playbook, that's also available for free on the same URL as our full Consumer Trends Index report. So hold tight. We're going to show you how to get that. By the way, personalization in subject lines lead to huge open rates. In fact, American Airlines got 50% plus open rates using our strategy and they had an amazing 84% conversion rate on their Zero Party Data survey, which led to significant increase in per head revenue. And if your subject lines are personalized, you'll get even better engagement rates inside your messaging and content within the email, when it matches the recipients wants and needs. So there you go. That's the tip for today. So go get the full 2022 Consumer Trends Index report, which outlines consumer attitudes and trends over the past three years from over 5, 000 consumers. There are nearly 100 data points and expert advice for executing against them, to help you build a better relationship marketing strategy and ultimately lift your customer lifetime value. Get to consumertrendsindex. com. Download the 90 plus page report for free, as well as access free infographics, multiple free webinars with analysis from relationship marketing experts, as well as commentary and results from brands such as American Airlines, Vans, The North Face and many others. I hope this was helpful. I will see you next time with another Consumer Trend Data Point and tips for better relationship marketing.