Top 10 e-mail Marketing Trends in China
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Invented by: Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (a MIT PhD) Time: 1971 The first email was sent by Mr. Tomlinson to a nearby computer through ARPAnet (world s first core network that came to compose the global internet, funded by US Department of Defense) First email address: tomlinson@bbn-tenexa (BBN: name of Tomlinson s employer; tenexa: name of the operating system) Tomlinson was the first person to put @, because this sign was not used very frequent anywhere else back then First Email message: QWERTYUIOP (Tomlinson commented later that test messages were entirely forgettable and I have, therefore, forgotten them )
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Time: Sep 14, 1987 The father of China Email: Professor Qian Tianbai(1945-1988) First email was sent to Karlsruhe University in Germany A prophesied email message from China: Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the world A symbolic step for China to enter the internet age An image of China First Email
Some mega trends.
1 Email Marketing is still and will continue to be the dominate strategy to convert customers In USA Among the US enterprises surveyed, 85% of them said they will continue to use email marketing as a primary way to convert potential customersin 2011; Compared with the survey conducted in 2010, the willingness of using email marketing is simply increasing No big surprise, SNS has the fastest growing trend for marketersalong the side line Source: Chief Marketer 2011 How will US enterprises convert their potential customers in 2011?
In CHINA: Email Marketing should also be the most powerful strategy for enterprises in China and will keep its sustainability in future A rich soil for email-marketing, with 457 million netizens and an estimation of 302 million email users in 2010 China email users will continue to increase, expected to reach 375 million in 2013; formed an attractive client base for email-marketing to tap into In fact, Chinese consumers are mostly inclined to be impacted by emails; such shopping nature will not change in the short run Cross Countries Comparisons for consumers attitude of Product Purchase After Receiving a Marketing Email Source: CNNIC 2011, edialog 2010; iresearch 2010 (in % internet users in select countries)
2 Email Marketing is getting more and more mobile In US An increasing number of people will now use mobile phones, especially smart phones to access their emails mobile users give primary concern to email messages: statistics showed that in 1 hour, 25 minuteswill be dedicate to email, 6.18 minutes on social sites, and the rest on various other activities Source: Nielson 2010
In China The tendency of Email Marketing adapting to mobile emails users is also emerging More and more email users are accessing emails via mobile phonesin China Email Marketing needs to be designed and tailored for mobile email users, i.e. fitting for small screen, quick and easy to read Market Scale of Mobile Email Users in China 2008-2012 Source: iresearch 2010
3 Email Marketing is getting really social In US Emails sent to consumers are asked them to share among friends,face book and twitter Gilt :an online luxury retailer in US An example of Gilt s promotional email to its customers Highlights: Ask consumers to invite friends, follow Guilt via Facebookand twitter
Email Marketing in China is also embracing the social element, and will be a rising and strong trend So far only minority of the Chinese enterprises are integrating social elements into their advertising email We expect more and more companies will follow this surging tide Ask customer to share the information via Kaixin001, Renren, QQ, Baidu, and Google Ask customers to become the fans of its microblogging sites on sinaand QQ
4 Unlike US, Email marketing strategy in China should be radiated to at least these top 5 SNS Certain unique landscape of China SNS decides email marketing should be integrated with more SNS Unlike US in which Facebookaccounts for two thirds of market share (64.15%), China SNS market presented a dispersed and fragmented distribution Email marketing strategy in China should be radiated to at least these top 5 SNS Source: Eguan.cn2011, 1 st quater
5 Instant messaging is an incomparable rival of email in China Internet Usage 2010 2009 User Size Penetration Rate User Size Penetration Rate Growth Rate Search engine 374.53 81.9% 281.34 73.3% 33.1% Online music 362.18 79.2% 320.74 83.5% 12.9% Online news 353.04 77.2% 307.69 80.1% 14.7% Instant message 352.58 77.1% 272.33 70.9% 29.5% Online game 304.10 66.5% 264.54 68.9% 15.0% Blog 294.50 64.4% 221.40 57.7% 33.0% Online video 283.98 62.1% 240.44 62.6% 18.1% E-mail 249.69 54.6% 217.97 56.8% 14.6% SNS 235.05 51.4% 175.87 45.8% 33.7% Online literature 194.81 42.6% 162.61 42.3% 19.8% Online shopping 160.51 35.1% 108.00 28.1% 48.6% Forum/BBS 148.17 32.4% 117.01 30.5% 26.6% Online bank 139.48 30.5% 94.12 24.5% 48.2% Online payment 137.19 30.0% 94.06 24.5% 45.9% Stock exchange 70.88 15.5% 56.78 14.8% 24.8% Microblog 63.11 13.8% - - - Travel booking 36.13 7.9% 30.24 7.9% 19.5% Group buying 18.75 4.1% - - -
6 Open rate will be challenged by the inbox revolution In future the tough battle of email marketing is about increasing open rate due to inbox revolution Waves of inbox Revolution will indirectly impact the way of doing Email Marketing in future Smarter inbox: prioritize all your incoming emails, put your connectionsfirst, i.e. Yahoo mail Social Inbox of Facebook( @facebook.com), collaborate SMS, emails and IM for all your contacts in one place Brand trust, attractive subject line and content relevancy are the keys to stand out
7 The design of China Promotional Emails will catch up the similartrend in US, and shall be more stylish and personalized in the future as well So far the display of China promotional emails are often not very attractive while also not well targeted at individual customer Email marketing comparison between Amazon.cn and Amazon.com Joyo Amazon.cn: A cookie-cutter style to the customers Amazon.com: a personalized email to remind customer that her friend s birthday is approaching with an awesome shopping list
8 E-mail marketing will increasingly become a dynamic and personalized content platform Continuously incorporate product review, recommendation and personalization technologies Videowill be a favorite tool to add into email campaign as marketersbelieve it can significantly increase conversion rate Source: GetResponse 2010
9 Email is one of the primary Information sources for Chinese consumers Email is ranked the third most popular destination for consumers to acquire information in China Promotional emails should still be a good channel for companies to reach their Chinese consumers Participation rate for Chinese consumers to acquire information via various channels in 2010 Source: DCCI 2010
10 Email-Marketing is the most favored advertising option for SMEsin China Due to Email-Marketing s cost minimization advantage, it will continue to be the best method for SEMsin China in the near future The usage rate of e-marketing options for SMEs in China 2010 Source: CNNIC 2011
For more than 30 years, L Atelier has been working as an innovation enabler for international groups and mid-cap companies. L Atelier provides to companies its expertise to identify and understand the major upcoming trends related to the digital economy. L Atelier is an independent consulting firm, part of BNP Paribas Group. www.atelier.net L Atelier (Shanghai) Ltd. 哲 翰 管 理 咨 询 ( 上 海 ) 有 限 公 司 asia@mail.atelier.net Phone: (8621) 62818533 Emailvision is the international leader in software as a service (SaaS) for email, mobile and social media marketing. The Emailvision mission is to provide excellence in software and services for online relationship marketing. With offices and client service teams in 18 countries, Emailvision delivers 5 billion messages per month on behalf of 4,000 clients worldwide. This unprecedented quality of service is driven by 12 years of research and development and by Emailvision s600 passionate employees. The company is privately owned by Francisco Partners. www.emailvision.com and www.emailvision.cn