Email Marketing is sexy.

If this statement doesn't seem immediately true to you, then the universe has brought you to this post. We've provided you with some statistics that show just how valuable a medium it is, and might shed some light on your own campaign. A whopping 66% of people, for example, said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message they received through email. For some tips on your own email marketing campaign you can then have a look at this post. 

Otheriwse, in the spirit of the Friday Fact Box, enjoy the stats.

From Email Marketing Reports Email and Webmail Statistics  April 2008

• Microsoft webmail properties: 256.2 million users
• Yahoo: 254.6 million users
• Google: 91.6 million users
• AOL webmail properties: 48.9 million users
• In February, 2008, a Yahoo executive claimed the company served 260 million email users
• In October, 2007, an official Yahoo! blog cited statistics suggesting Yahoo represented 255 million of the world's 543 million webmail accounts

From Email Stats Centre Conversions (Site visited 31 July 2008)

• 66% of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through email. - ExactTarget, "2008 Channel Preference Survey" (2008)
• Consumers who subscribed to email newsletters generated 34.25% more product sales. - MarketingSherpa in association with ConAgra Foods (2007)
• Half of all consumers surveyed have made a purchase as a result of an email solicitation, and 16% did so from messages found in their spam folders. - Endai Worldwide (2007)
• The average order-conversion rate of email is 6%. - Shop.org, State of Retailing Online 2007 report (Sept. 2007)

From Email Stats Centre Email Use (Site visited 31 July 2008)

• Email use: Email is used by 79.1% of marketers surveyed, while postal direct mail is used by 75.4% of marketers. - Direct Marketing Association (2008)

Credit: Sophie & Cie

From Web Chameleon Email Newsletter Statistics June 2008

• 49% of email marketers said their newsletter routinely justified themselves. - MarketingSherpa “Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008″ (2008)    
• Consumers who subscribed to email newsletters generated 34.25% more product sales. - ConAgra Foods case study in association with MarketingSherpa (2007)        
• 64% of small businesses execs said they decide whether or not to open the (email) newsletter based on who it’s from. - Bredin Business Information (2007)
• 50% of the largest online retailers offer one-click sign up for their email newsletters. - Email Experience Council/RetailEmail.Blogspot (July 2006)
• 70% of the top retail sites in Google’s paid search listings offered email newsletters. - JupiterResearch (March 2006)
• Average time allocated to a newsletter after opening it only 51 seconds. - Jakob Nielsen (2006)
• Of the largest online retailers that send welcome emails, 34% of them offer a discount, reward or incentive to encourage them to make a purchase with the retailer. - Email Experience Council/RetailEmail.Blogspot (Sept 2006)
• The majority of email marketers are failing to use email as a relevant marketing tool. His research found relevant messages can lead to almost as many sales as free or discounted shipping offers. - Jupiter Research VP and research director David Daniels (2006)
• 44% of marketers surveyed believe the biggest challenge in email is providing relevant content. - eMarketer (2006)
• Newsletter-style layout for promotional emails generated average click rates of 7.1 percent, compared to average click rates of 6.2 percent for single-image “postcard-style” messages. - Silverpop (2006)

From Bryan Clark To Reply or Not to Reply March 2008

Distinct Purposes of Email:

• Task Delegation / Project Management / Reminders
• action requests, status updates, and meeting and deadline reminders
• often left in the inbox until acted on
• Information Exchange, Storage, and Retrieval
• information requests, and information responses
• responses often saved for later retrieval, either archived or left in the Inbox
• Scheduling and Planning
• meeting requests, and responses to meeting requests
• email has mostly replaced phone calls and memos to become the scheduling supporter
• often quickly responded to
• Informal Communication
• instantaneous delivery, and rapid response to email communication similar to instant and social text messages likely to receive a quick response

For the Friday Fact Box this week, I came across one great resource. While I've compiled my own highlights, I would suggest you go have a look at the Email Stats Centre for more.