Study: 75% Of Smartphone Owners “Highly Likely” To Delete Emails They Can’t Read On Their Phone

Email service provider Constant Contact’s mobile email study released today discovered that 80 percent of smartphone owners say it is “extremely important” to read emails on their mobile devices, with 75 percent of the nearly 1,500 survey respondents claiming they were “highly likely” to delete an email if it couldn’t be read from their smartphone.

With the help of research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, Constant Contact surveyed 1,497 smartphone owners to gain deeper insights into mobile email open rate habits among different age demographics. The study found that among participants age 18 to 30 years, 88 percent open email  on a mobile device, with more than half – 52 percent – confirming their smartphone is their primary device for opening emails.

For survey respondents age 30 to 39, 85 percent open emails on their mobile device with nearly half – 48 percent – claiming their smartphone is their primary device for email. Of the respondents age 40 to 49,  74 percent confirmed they read emails on their devices, but only 35 percent of this age demographic said that their smartphone was their primary device for reading emails.

These percentages continue to drop as the audience age matures, with 71 percent of survey respondents age 50 to 59 reading emails on their phone and 26 percent claiming their smartphone is their primary email device. Of the respondents age 60 and older, 66 percent read emails on their smartphone, but only 14 percent claim it to be their primary device for reading emails.

According to a recent report published by marketing software company Custora, customer acquisitions gained via email marketing has quadrupled since 2009. Custora’s customer acquisition findings combined with Constant Contact’s survey results emphasize the importance of a “well-planned mobile email campaign.”

“The fact of the matter is that consumers are opening emails on their phone first with increasing regularity,” said Constant Contact mobile product manager Jim Garretson, “The great thing about mobile emails is that shorter content and fewer calls to action actually perform better than complicated and dense messaging.”

Beyond just reading emails on smartphones, Constant Contact found that 79 percent of their survey respondents were highly likely to reopen an email on a laptop or desktop after first opening it from their mobile device. Nearly half – 49 percent – said they were also likely to click on links in emails from businesses that they open on their mobile devices, proving that any links leveraged in email marketing campaigns should be optimized for mobile consumption.