{"id":29302,"date":"2021-05-26T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?p=29302"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:57:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:57:27","slug":"is-email-dead-win-inbox-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/is-email-dead-win-inbox-attention","title":{"rendered":"Is email dead? 7 ways brands can win the battle for inbox attention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t
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Email inboxes get filled with any number of different types of communications. From transactional emails, personal conversations, business memos and promotions, inboxes are a mess of messages. So it\u2019s no surprise you might still hear the question, \u201cIs email marketing dead?\u201d Trying to stand out in the crowd can be overwhelming. How do you talk to your audience in a way that makes them pay attention?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, it\u2019s just bad<\/i> email marketing that\u2019s dead. Here are seven principles to follow to make sure your email is the one that gets opened.<\/p>\n

1. Send emails at the right time of the day<\/h2>\n

If your email is received in the middle of the night when subscribers aren\u2019t actively checking their inbox, it\u2019s likely to end up getting ignored, pushed to the bottom of an already overflowing inbox. Over 20% of email opens occur within the first hour of sending<\/a>, and 30% within the second hour. The takeaway? Determine when your audience is actively engaging with their email, and optimize your email marketing schedule around that.<\/p>\n

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Source: Litmus 2020 State of Email Engagement<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Litmus\u2019 analysis of email opens<\/a> found that North American, Australian & New Zealand opens tend to happen in the morning, around 10am local time. European opens, however, seem to spread more consistently from 8am to 5pm, with a slight bump around 4-5pm as they head home for the day.<\/p>\n

Use email marketing platforms<\/a> to schedule emails for the best time of the day for your audience. Measure baseline open rates and test different timings to optimize open and click-through rates. If your customers are located in different time zones (and whose aren\u2019t these days?), find an email hosting provider, like HubSpot<\/a>, with timezone support. What works for your customers in the UK, might not work for your American customers.<\/p>\n

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Find out when your<\/i> subscribers open emails<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dive deeper into email engagement with Litmus Email Analytics. See where your subscribers open, when, and for how long. So you can see what\u2019s working and optimize your email program.<\/p>\n

Learn how \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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2. Personalize subject lines<\/h2>\n

Hey |F-Name|!<\/i><\/p>\n

In 2021, personalization will need to be more than just calling a customer by their name to get their attention. We need to be smarter about how we tailor content to a customer\u2019s personal needs.<\/p>\n

Customer actions, such as abandoned carts, page views, and contact engagement can show us exactly what the customer is looking for. Demographic information, such as their location, industry, and company name, can be used to further personalize subject lines and offers.<\/p>\n

The meal-plan service below personalizes the email subject line to show this week\u2019s order has been skipped. This makes the content more relevant to the user than a generic message about the upcoming menu.<\/p>\n\"Fresh\n

Customers want marketers to pay attention and personalize their offerings. In fact, 90% of Americans find personalized marketing content to be somewhat to very appealing<\/a>, and 82% of marketers report an increase in open rates when email is personalized.<\/p>\n

Use the data you\u2019re already collecting in your customer relationship management (CRM) tool to make emails hyper-relevant to your audience. While it takes additional time to go beyond the first name, that time pays off by grabbing your subscribers\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n

3. Optimize emails for mobile viewing<\/h2>\n

Over 40% of all email opens are by mobile users<\/a>. People love checking their email on their mobile devices, and they should hopefully love viewing<\/i> your email on their mobile device.<\/p>\n

But too often, emails are difficult to read and interact with on the small screen. Whether they are poorly formatted, contain images with too-small text, or are simply unreadable, 70% of people report deleting these unhelpful messages in under three seconds<\/a>. That\u2019s not enough time to get your message across! Furthermore, 15% of people go even further and unsubscribe. No one wants junk in their overflowing inbox.<\/p>\n\"graphic\n

To make sure your emails look just as good (or better!) on mobile devices, follow these three principles:<\/p>\n