New Yes Lifecycle Marketing report reveals new milestones for smartphone usage, and finds lower email volume but higher unsubscribe rates post-holiday

Email-driven smartphone performance reached a milestone in Q1 2018. For the first time, smartphones generated over 35 percent of all email-driven revenue and half of all email-driven orders, according to data released today by Yes Lifecycle Marketing.

In the newly released, “Email Benchmark Report: Maintaining the Holiday Momentum,” Yes Lifecycle Marketing analyzed over 7 billion emails sent in Q1 2018 through its cross-channel marketing platform Yesmail360i, revealing trends in post-holiday engagement, unsubscribe rates, trigger campaign effectiveness and smartphone-driven email orders.

The findings indicate increasing willingness amongst consumers to make purchases via smartphones, but the gap between the number of smartphone-driven orders and revenue suggests marketers have not bridged the gap between mobile and desktop average order value (AOV).

“While we’re seeing more email-driven purchases on smartphones, the size of these orders still trails behind those from desktops, indicating that marketers haven’t fully cracked the mobile code,” said Jim Sturm, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “Marketers must prioritize improving the mobile shopping experience in 2018 to bridge the gap between mobile and desktop AOV. In doing so, they can drive significant revenue and maximize the ROI from the email channel.”

The study also revealed higher engagement rates after the holiday season as email volume dropped off sharply. The average number of emails engaged subscribers received in Q1 declined by 29 percent quarter-over-quarter. During the same period, the average open rate increased by 6 percent, the average unique click rate jumped by 12 percent and the total click rate increased by 19 percent — indicating that lower volume helped marketers cut through the noise more effectively post-holiday.

On the other hand, the average unsubscribe rate surged by 16 percent from the previous quarter, suggesting that a cohort of holiday subscribers are opting out after maximizing their access to holiday-related offers. The report provides insights into the different tactics marketers can leverage to re-engage inactive subscribers and keep new subscribers from unsubscribing after the holiday shopping season.

“After the holiday shopping season has died down, marketers can start the year off right by leveraging email as the focal point for a well-informed multi-channel engagement strategy,” said Michael Iaccarino, president of Infogroup, parent company of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “If marketers can master mobile now and incorporate additional touchpoints through flexible technology and intuitive functionalities, they can set themselves up for success for the upcoming holiday shopping season, especially as the number of mobile shoppers continues to grow.”

Other key findings from the report include:

The total click rate grew by 6 percent year-over-year (YoY), while the unique click rate decreased by 7 percent over the same time period.
At 22 percent, inactive subscribers comprised almost a quarter of marketers’ databases in Q1 2018.
Reactivation emails generated a 5 percent conversion rate, which is 40 percent higher than that for standard emails.
Newsletters generated a 12 percent click-to-open rate, which is 40 percent higher than that of standard emails.
To learn more about trends in post-holiday engagement, unsubscribe rates, trigger campaign effectiveness and smartphone-driven email orders, download the full report HERE.