So, Where Do You Check Your E-mail?
We discovered that while the overall frequency of checking e-mail has stayed about the same (just over 80% say they’re checking multiple times a day), the locations where people who check their e-mail has changed a lot! I’m going to pull out some very specific results to make a point.
Here’s benchmark data from 2008 for the question, “Where do you check your e-mail?”
8% said they check e-mail in bed
3% at the beach
3% while driving
3% in the bathroom
Only three years later, here are the answers for the same question :
16% say they check e-mail in bed — a 100% increase
6% at the beach -– a 100% increase
7% while driving –- a 133% increase (and a bit worrying)
9% in the bathroom — a 200% increase
Cleary the advent of the smartphone is driving these changes, making e-mail even more valuable than it was before. Over the years pundits have predicted the demise of e-mail to be be replaced by RSS, or text messages, or even Facebook’s messaging service.
So far, at least with regard to the patrons arts managers need to reach, e-mail is getting more mobile and therefore allowing you to stay on the minds of your patrons wherever they may be.
Twice a month I offer expansions on the themes and topics that Michelle Paul and I wrote about in our book, Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century. If you like these, you can buy the book from us here, or on Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes & Nobles’ Nook.
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Great research, thanks for sharing. I had a hunch this was going on, and it proves that e-mail is going to stick around as a force longer than people thought it would. All the more reason why building your arts organization’s e-mail list is priority number one.