A few years ago, a study went viral that talked about how humans now had less attention span than a goldfish. The window of time that content had to capture and retain it was much shorter than in the past, a measly few seconds. Accustomed to the accelerated pace of the Internet and to everything moving at a breakneck speed, they had also become accustomed to looking quickly, deciding just as quickly if something interested them, and moving on to something else.
In the world of marketing and advertising
This data was very bad news. It meant that not only did marketers have to contend with more and more elements to reach consumers, but they also had to do so in ever shorter time frames. Everything was moving at a very fast pace.
Still, there were certain elements that worked more smoothly. If you managed to get into certain environments, you were almost guaranteed to get more attention. This was the case with channels as diverse as podcasts or email marketing. The beauty of email marketing was that you could almost say that it accompanied consumers wherever they went.
Since email is accessed from mobile and is always with users, it’s almost as if email has a constant direct route. Push notifications from mobile email systems do the work of reminding users that everything is there.
In addition, marketers have begun to saudi arabia mobile number directory appreciate email marketing even more in recent years because it allows them to control the entire flow of data it generates. While on social networks they depend on what the channel offers them, here they can decide practically everything themselves. If you add to that the fact that the ROI is quite positive, it is understandable why email marketing has established itself as one of the basic pieces of digital marketing.
The average time, in free fall
In general, the amount of time we spend on each email has fallen. Levels had risen between 2011 and 2018, but have been gradually declining since then. So much so that the latest data on the issue show more than 6 hours of learning that we are now at a record low for email consumption time.
The statistics are global and come from a study by Litmus. In 2011, the average time that each Internet user spent reading an email was 10.4 seconds. That average time line data continued to climb and towards the end of the decade it was much higher. In 2018, the average time was 13.4 seconds.
But that’s when it reached its ceiling and began to decline
It dropped to 11.8 seconds in 2020 and to 10 seconds in 2021, a historic low. The 2021 figures are 15% lower than those of 2020 and 25% lower than those of 2018. The window of opportunity is increasingly smaller.
This means that marketers need to think carefully about what they do and how. The email marketing strategy must be as precise as possible and work on the elements that will make them connect with audiences.
As Warc points out, this drop in the average time spent on each email – as well as the fact that we are now possibly receiving more messages across all channels than ever before – makes it crucial to work on those elements that boost the success of an email marketing strategy. Warc’s research indicates that an email is more likely to be opened if it comes from a brand that is known, if it seems relevant to one’s interests or if it promises a discount.