Email Stats You Can Work and Live With

As a real estate professional, you’re always looking for ways to make the most efficient use of your time. As a marketer, you build your brand and market homes to prospects by tailoring your message for the various channels available. Through these channels, you reach potential buyers with quality content designed to convert them to clients.

Of the many tools you have at your disposal, email remains one of the most effective ways to reach customers and ultimately drive conversion rates. But, because we not only send it but receive it as well, email can be a two-headed monster. Here are some statistics to help you tame it.

A 2019 email usage study conducted by Adobe surveyed 1,002 “U.S. citizens of working age who work in office management roles and use smartphones.” This study looks at both personal and professional email habits and provides insight into how we manage our time as workers and how we respond as users. The survey also took into account generation, gender and, to a lesser extent, job roles.

Managing work and personal emails

Checking work emails takes up 3+ hours during work for all generational groups.

Work emails

• 80% of work emails are opened, with 59% deemed useful

When people check work emails

• 13% check work email while still in bed
• 25% check while getting ready for work or while eating breakfast
• 15% check while commuting
• 48% check when they get to work

How people feel about getting through all their work emails

• 41% say it’s impossible to get through their work email
• 19% feel relieved if they are able to get through their email
• 16% are amazed if they can get through all their email
• 36% do get through all their work email but they’re borderline OCD

How often people check their work email

• 24% never check email when outside of work
• 43% check every few hours
• 10% check every hour
• 13% check multiple times per hour
• 10% check constantly

Who is checking work emails while on vacation?

• 25% of millennials and 25% of Gen X check work email multiple times a day while on vacation
• 55% of Baby Boomers check work email multiple times a day while on vacation

Personal emails

• 57% of personal emails are opened with 37% deemed useful

When people check personal emails

• 25% check work email while still in bed
• 42% check while getting ready for work or while eating breakfast
• 16% check while commuting
• 17% check email when they get to work

How people feel about getting through all their personal emails

• 10% say it’s impossible to get through their personal email
• 55% feel relieved if they are able to get through their personal email
• 32% are amazed if they can get through all their personal email
• 22% do get through all their pesronal email but they’re borderline OCD

How often people check their personal email

• 31% of millennials and 26% of Gen X check emails multiple times per hour
• 8% never check email when outside of work
• 52% check every few hours
• 10% check every hour
• 13% check multiple times per hour
• 10% check constantly

Who is checking personal emails while on vacation?

• 33% of millennials and 33% of Gen X check personal email multiple times a day while on vacation

Email offer statistics

While only a quarter of email offers from brands are opened, email remains the preferred way to receive offers. Millennials, in particular, prefer personalized email offers.

Work emails

• 56% prefer to receive emails offers rather than direct mail or through social media
• 38% say they receive emails from brands too often
• 25% say the marketers’ data about them is incorrect
• 24% found the content poorly written to too wordy
• 21% are urged to buy a product they had already purchased
• 33% say recommendations don’t match their interests
• 19% say their name is misspelled
• 19% received expired offers
• 15% the offer is not appropriate to the season or location
• 15% received promotions for items already purchased

Personal emails

• 60% prefer to receive emails offers rather than direct mail or through social media
• 43% say they receive emails from brands too often
• 23% say the marketers’ data about them is incorrect
• 23% found the content poorly written to too wordy
• 24% are urged to buy a product they had already purchased
• 31% say recommendations don’t match their interests
• 19% say their name is misspelled
• 19% received expired offers
• 15% the offer is not appropriate to the season or location
• 15% received promotions for items already purchased

The bottom line

While it’s no surprise that we still receive too many emails from a time management perspective, emails are still the preferred channel for receiving offers. Those offers should be properly addressed to the recipient, presented less frequently, be succinctly worded, and not redundant.

Where do you fall in this study as a worker and as a consumer? Are your prospects’ names spelled correctly? How frequently are you emailing? When was the last time you reviewed the content of your emails?