A third of Internet users visit social networking sites at least monthly, and 40 percent of email users visit social sites to gather product information and recommendations, according to a new study by Silverpop.
The study “Emails Gone Viral: Measuring ‘Share-to-Social’ Performance,” found that shared emails delivered an average increase in reach of 24.3 percent and this is set to increase as sharing becomes more mainstream. On average, social sharing leads to an additional 1 percent of opens.
The majority of opens and clicks of shared emails took place in the first couple of days following posting on a social site. On average, the last click on shared emails occurs about seven days after the initial share, with activity ranging from 1 to 44 days.
While specific creative elements did not factor heavily into emails shareability, emails most frequently shared were more likely to feature a brand name or product in the subject line rather than a specific offer.
Links to Facebook, Myspace and Twitter were included most often in email messages, Bebo, Delicious and LinkedIn had a higher percentage of shared link clicks among the networks.
“Combining email and social networking can be very powerful,” said Loren McDonald, vice president of industry relations for Silverpop. “Research tells us that ninety-two percent of adult Internet users send or read email. And social network users are, on average, connected to between 150 and 200 friends, so developing an email that is socially shareworthy can turn messages viral very quickly and reach a new group of customers very similar to the ones you already have.
“This first benchmark study establishes a baseline for future studies that will examine whether sharing activity changes as the practice spreads from early-adoption to a mainstream marketing practice. “
