Email marketing gets a bad rap at times from social media gurus as an outdated medium whose retirement has come. Not so fast, I say, especially given a recently updated MailChimp authored article that lists some pretty compelling statistics. People still open email and many click though to “hear all about it”. What are you saying and offering this willing audience?

I will qualify this data by saying actual conversion to sale data is not included, which is key to marketing ROI success, but the data is compelling nonetheless. Design a solid closing plan for email leads, and email becomes a major, predictable source of income for most types of companies.

Arts and Artists, Government, Hobbies, Photo and Video, Religion and Sports categories have over 25% open rates – 1 in 4 people you send an email to within these categories will open it! Think of it, likely 5 out of every 100 recipients of Hobby Lobby email will click through on the offer.  Email is not a secondary marketing medium but central for these categories. You can view the full MailChimp report here.

We all know, getting people to click an email, depending on what you are trying to compel them to do, or tell them about, is not an easy task. It takes copy, image, link, lay out and overall design strategy. So if these industries, even just going by the Mail Chimp data, are indicators for success in these industries, I would say that email is not up for retirement but a promotion. There are opportunities to communicate effectively via email, whether you are sharing information that is useful to existing customers, or passing a special offer along.

Please post any compelling recent data you have seen for email. Thoughts?