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CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF EMAIL 2015

The Inbox Report

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Today’s marketers are faced with the challenging task of figuring out how to grab consumers’ attention in an increasingly crowded digital space. One of the most effective channels for reaching consumers today remains email, as it is the single tool that almost everyone uses personally and professionally, on a daily basis.

In Fluent’s inaugural “Inbox Report”, we examine American consumers’ latest behaviors and attitudes towards email, and provide fresh data and insights into email marketing engagement. We surveyed over 1,500 American adults, asking a range of questions spanning from how often they check email, to their usage of mobile devices, to their primary reasons for subscribing to email lists. In the following pages, you’ll receive key data points, as well as recommendations for optimizing and getting the best ROI from email marketing campaigns.

The Inbox Report: Consumer Perceptions of EmailF

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The Inbox Report – 2015 3

How often do Americans check email?Email is one of the most frequently used tools for digital communications, and with a majority of Americans now owning smartphones, few barriers remain to getting email messages in front of consumers from virtually every socioeconomic class across the country. 89% of Americans check email at least once a day, and over 20% check their email more than 5 times a day. Younger adults (aged 18-34) are more likely to check email on-the-go from their mobile devices, while older adults (aged 45+) are much more likely to check email at home.

How often do you check email?

18-24

42%46.1%

39.9%

48% 46%

38%

58.3%

26.3%

74.3%

16%

25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

Where do you check email the most? BY AGE

80

60

40

20

0

1-5 times a day

Once a day

Once a week

Less than once a week

20.9%

27.6%

40.7%

5%

5.8%

At Home

On the go (mobile)

* Responses of “At Work” are omitted from the chart

More than 5 times a day/as they arrive

Age

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The Inbox Report – 2015 4

74.1%

63.3%

72.9%

The value of mobile optimizationMost email marketers are very familiar with the term “mobile optimization”, and understand the importance of deploying emails that are both responsive and easy to engage with on smartphones, but exactly how large is the current mobile user base for email? Nearly two-thirds of Americans say that they mostly check email on their smartphones, compared to 27.3% who say desktop computers and 11.2% who say tablets.

Younger adults are even more likely to check email on mobile, with 72.9% of 18-24 year olds saying that they mostly use their smartphones to check email, compared to 37.4% of adults aged 55-64.

Which device do you use the most to check emails?

61.6%

27.3%

11.2%

Smartphone

Desktop computer

Tablet61.6%Smartphone

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

Which device do you use the most to check emails? BY AGE

80

60

40

20

0

Smartphone

Desktop computer

Tablet 56.7%

37.4%

18.7%

8.5% 9%12% 12.1%

15.5%16.9%

24.7%

31.2%

47.1%

Age

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The Inbox Report – 2015 5

Discounts and samples move the needle for email acquisitionGetting access to valuable discounts and savings is the most popular reason for signing up for email lists (42.3%). Learning about new products is the second most popular reason, cited by 19.8% of consumers. Women are more likely to subscribe to email lists for discounts and savings than men (45.7% vs. 36%).

When given a list of specific incentives to choose from, more than 60% said that free samples and/or immediate discounts and coupons are the offers that are most likely to get them to sign up for email lists. Again, women are significantly more likely than men to say that they would sign up for an email list in order to receive free samples (44.3% vs 24.3% of men).

What is your main reason for subscribing to email lists?

What is your main reason for subscribing to email lists? BY GENDER

Which of the following offers is most likely to get you to sign up for an email list?

45.7%

36%

37.4%

26.3%

9.6%

6.9%

19.8%

18.5%

22.4%

10.6%12.2%

Free samples

Immediate discount or coupons

Free shipping on first order

Entry into a sweepstakes

Other

42.3%

19.8%

11.2%

26.7%

To get discounts & savings

To learn about new products

I like the brand

Other

42.3%To get discounts

& savings

To get discounts & savings

To learn about new

products

I like the brand

50

40

30

20

10

0

Female Male

0 10 20 30 40

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The Inbox Report – 2015 6

Where are email marketers missing the mark?Email presents a huge opportunity for engaging with consumers and driving sales, but many email marketers are still missing the mark with their subscribers. In fact, 35.9% of people say that they never find marketing emails to be useful, and only 11.1% of people “often” and 9.2% “always” find marketing emails to be useful. More than 1 in 3 people (34.5%) say that they “always” or “often” unsubscribe from marketing emails that they signed up for! That represents a huge number of consumers who consider the messages they receive from brands to be irrelevant or intrusive (or both).

The top two reasons for unsubscribing from marketing emails are 1) that emails are sent too often (34.8%); and, 2) that email content is irrelevant (20.8%). With regards to frequency, most respondents say they prefer to receive marketing emails ‘once a month or less’ (40.5%) or ‘once a week’ (27.1%).

How often do you find marketing emails that you receive from companies to be useful?

How often do you unsubscribe from marketing emails that you’ve signed up for?

What is your main reason for unsubscribing from marketing emails?

How often do you like to receive marketing emails from companies?

Content is irrelevant or not useful

I didn’t sign up for the list

I don’t trust the source

Receive emails too often

Other

9.2%

11.1%

43.8%

35.9%

34.8%

20.8%

16.3%

13.7%

14.4%

14.3%

20.2%

41.5%

24%

40.5%

27.1%

13.8%

18.7%

Always

Often

Sometimes

Never

Always

Often

Sometimes

Never

Once a month or less

Once a week

Twice a week

More than twice a week

0 10 20 30 40

35.9%Never

14.3%Always

40.5%

20.2%Often

27.1%

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The Inbox Report – 2015 7

What happens when email marketers get it right?Effective email marketing should always drive some kind of measurable action. The 3 most common actions that consumers take after reading an interesting marketing email are making an online purchase (27.1% of respondents), followed by visiting a company’s website (26.2%), and then purchasing an item at a retail store (21.6%). Younger adults are much more likely to immediately make a purchase online after receiving an interesting email, whereas older adults are most likely to visit the company’s website first.

More than half of American consumers (53.1%) say that they have purchased a product from a retail store after receiving an email about it. Despite the increasing ubiquity of smartphones, only one in 5 consumers say they “always” or “often” buy products through their smartphones after viewing interesting email offers on them.

Which of the following actions have you taken the most after reading an interesting marketing email?

Visited the company’s website

Clicked on an offer link in the email

Forwarded the email to a friend or associate

Purchased online

Purchased at a retail store

Signed up for more information

0 10 20 30

27.1%

26.2%

21.6%

13.3%

7.7%

4%

purchased a product from a retail store after

receiving an email about it

53.1%

1 in 5 peopleopen a marketing email on a

smartphone then buy an advertised product using a smartphone

Which of the following actions have you taken the most after reading an interesting marketing email? BY AGE

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

Age

Purchased online Visited the company’s website

34.7%

15.7%

23.3%

30%32.4%

35.8%

30.6%

24.3% 25.5%

16%

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The Inbox Report – 2015 8

RecommendationsTailor email content to mobile subscribersMore than 2/3 of Americans are now pulling out their smartphones first to check email, so in order for marketing emails to perform reasonably well, they must be responsive to mobile devices. Well-performing emails for mobile usually contain certain key elements, such as large and concise text and clear call-to-action buttons, not to mention content that is very relevant to the user. If the ideal recipient of the email is a millennial, aged 18-34, then tailoring email content for mobile becomes even more important, as 73% of consumers in this age bracket say that they use their smartphones most to check email.

Offer discounts, savings, and samples to grow subscriber lists and boost conversionsPeople read marketing emails for a variety of reasons such as learning more about a company and its products, or receiving interesting content, but nothing gets consumers more enthused to sign up for an email list than discounts, savings, and free samples. Almost half of Americans (42.3%) cite discounts and savings as their top reason for subscribing to email lists, and nearly 60% say that free samples and/or immediate discounts and coupons are the offers that are most likely to get them to sign up for an email list. This is the case for all demographic groups, but skews even more heavily towards women.

Deliver great content for your audience at a moderate frequencyThe two most common reasons for unsubscribing from email lists are that marketers are mailing too frequently, or aren’t delivering relevant content. Very few people complain that they are getting too many emails with incredible offers or content that they enjoy reading every day, but because more than 1 in 3 Americans say that they never receive marketing emails that they find useful, it’s only logical that about 40% of people want to receive marketing emails once a month or less. The cardinal rule with marketing emails is to deliver great content that is relevant to your audience, while avoiding inundating their inbox with offers to the point of intrusion.

About Fluent

About the Survey

Fluent’s “Consumer Perceptions of Email” survey was conducted online within the United States by Fluent, Inc. on December 3, 2015 among 1,603 American adults (aged 18-65+). Respondents were randomly selected, and the findings are at a 99% confidence level with a margin of error of +/- 3.5%. Due to rounding, percentages may not always add up to 100% in the charts. Fluent’s proprietary ad serving technology includes a real-time survey module that was used to facilitate the data collection for this study.

Media and analyst inquiries: research@fluentco.com

Methodology

Fluent, LLC, a cogint company (NYSE MKT: IDI), is an industry leader in people-based digital marketing and customer acquisition, serving over 500 leading consumer brands and direct marketers. Leveraging a massive reservoir of proprietary audience data, as well as millions of real-time survey interactions with consumers every day, Fluent enables advertisers to more effectively target and acquire their most valuable customers, with precision, at a massive scale. For more information visit http://www.fluentco.com.

For more information about Fluent, contact us at info@fluentco.com or 646.647.2966.