Email marketers – especially those in retail – love Mother’s Day. It’s an opportunity to deliver great experiences for shoppers and showcase their best products in a new light.
But inboxes are also inundated with deals during Mother’s Day weekend. It’s not enough to have a great deal; you have to truly stand out from the pack to get your customers’ attention.
We wanted to see just how much consumers were paying attention to their inboxes over Mother’s Day weekend. Here’s what we found.
Smartphone opens were high, but desktop was up there too
Smartphone: 58%
Desktop: 27%
Tablet: 15%
Smartphone email opens were predictably high during Mother’s Day weekend. With desktop opens reaching to nearly 30%, it’s possible that some shoppers – people who are more comfortable making purchases via desktop – were purchasing last-minute deals or tracking their orders online via their desktop computers.
The Kindle Fire wins for read length…
The Kindle Fire blew away all other device for read length, with 76% of people reading emails on their Kindle Fire for 15+ seconds. The large screen could be part of the appeal of reading emails on a tablet.
On the other hand, 43% of people only glanced at their emails on their Android smartphones for 0-3 seconds. Perhaps they were busy tending to Mom?
… but overall read lengths on Mother’s Day were low
Read lengths on the days leading up to Mother’s Day were steady, with 50% of people reading for 15+ seconds on each day. On Mother’s Day, they took a slight dip down to 48%, suggesting that email wasn’t capturing their attention.
Mid-day was popular for opening emails
On Mother’s Day, desktop opens peaked around 9am, whereas smartphone opens were higher at noon and remained fairly level for the rest of the day. Interestingly, tablet opens were nearly even with desktop opens later in the evening.
Takeaways
– Considering the high read lengths on the Kindle Fire and the elevated evening opens on tablets, always keep mobile in mind when creating your holiday emails. If you’re delivering last-minute deals, make it as easy as possible for your customers to click-through and complete a purchase from any device.
– When it comes to timing your email campaigns around a holiday like Mother’s Day, it’s a good idea to deliver your campaign at least a few days in advance. For example, the Thursday and Friday before a Sunday holiday are perfect for last minute deals.
– Finally, remember that many of your customers will interact with your emails on different devices. They might initially open on mobile, then turn to desktop to make their purchase. Make sure your emails are designed with all devices in mind, and make it as easy as possible for people to complete their purchase no matter where they open your email.