We analyzed 106 top sites across 9 different industries. Sites like BMW, CNN Money, Mens Fitness, Playstation, Four Hour Week, Moz, Betty Liu and Nomadic Matt.
These websites are the most visited sites on the internet with the biggest fan bases. We analyzed them to show you email marketing best practices you can use in your business today. To do this, we:
We did this to help you:
Here’s what we found...
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Almost ¾ of the biggest sites send a welcome email which means industry leaders recognize the importance of them.
Here’s why: your welcome email gives your new subscriber instant gratification. It also starts a conversation with them and serves as another first impression of you and your brand.
If you’re not sending a welcome email to your subscribers, you should make this a top priority to add to your to-do list.
We also found that many of the biggest sites are using a double opt-in in their welcome emails. We’ll show you why next.
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Four out of every five welcome emails are double opt-ins. If you’re not familiar with the term, a double opt-in email is a two-step email confirmation tactic that helps keep your email list free of spammers and fake addresses.
By adding an extra step, you’ll naturally weed out subscribers who aren’t really interested in what you’re offering.
79% of the time we opted-in to these sites, we received an email like this:
For those readers that don’t click the button, they won’t see any emails from this site. This may seem like a hassle for your subscribers, but it keeps your email list healthy (and keeps you from spending a ton of money sending to fake subscribers).
With almost 80% of major sites using double opt-ins, we’re seeing that the health of your list is becoming more important than ever.
We also found that the top sites don’t waste any time shooting off their first message.
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That number is an average since some industries use instant delivery while others take as much as four minutes to tackle.
You want that number as close to instant as possible to capture your new subscriber when they’re the most engaged and interested in what you have to say. Every second of delay means you risk losing your new subscriber’s interest. That’s especially bad if you’re using double opt-in emails.
You also have to take into account all of the different email service providers people use. Some providers may send emails faster than others.
Speaking of email service providers…
Since only 74% of the sites I studied sent a welcome email, we could only take a gander at their email providers. Here’s the breakdown of that group:
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We found that MailChimp takes up a good chunk of the email pie.
It makes sense though: They’ve been around since 2001 (technically), and their free tier is so effective at drawing people in and keeping them with the company that many fail to jump ship once they’re in.
What’s more surprising is how far back everyone else is.
But besides being the established leader, there’s another reason why MailChimp keeps a tight hold atop the pile…
If you use Gmail, your inbox probably looks like this:
By default, most of us just check the primary inbox. Maybe if you’re bored or trying to avoid eye contact with strangers you’ll check your other tabs too.
For email marketers, those other tabs are not a great place for your emails to land. Out of all 29 sites we studied using MailChimp, only TWO landed in the promotions tab...and those were the emails sent after the initial welcome email.
ConvertKit emails didn’t fare nearly as well. Those emails found their way to the promotions tab 44% of the time.
When you choose an email service provider, keep an eye on how many emails go into these folders. The goal is to land in the primary one as much as possible.
While that’s one email marketing mistake to pay attention to, this next one could be hurting your efforts just as much.
78% of sites make it dead-easy to sign up for their list, yet 22% make it difficult.
What makes something “easy” to opt-in to?
“Difficult” ones are usually guilty of:
So anything that isn’t completely obvious or reachable on any page. Which begs the question…
Why are the top sites making it hard for you to give them your email address?
It beats us.
We’ve talked at length on the importance of building an email list and even ranked the 20 best places to collect emails on your site.
Every day you don’t collect emails, you’re literally losing money and putting the future of your business or blog in the hands of other companies.
We can say for certain: their loss. Make it easy to opt-in to your email list and you’ll be ahead of established leaders.
If you need help creating your emails, use this guide.
We ranked the industry giants from most email-savvy to least based on a few things:
Here’s how it shook out:
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Out of all the top fashion blogs we analyzed:
It’s interesting to note, after some research and feedback from our readers, we determined that the gaming industry is a total outlier when it comes to collecting emails.
Unless you’re in the gaming industry, follow the fashion industry here and make sure it’s super simple to opt into your list and you send a welcome email.
Up next, we’ll show you how you can get a leg up on your competition by studying what they’re doing wrong.
Check and see how the top dogs in your industry performed (in alphabetical order).
And if you want to see how each individual site performed, download this comprehensive Email Marketing Statistics spreadsheet:
Click here to get your spreadsheet!
Blogs Analyzed:
BMW Blog, AutoBlog, Motor Authority, Jalopnik, Motor1, Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Automobile Mag, Car Talk
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 56%
Average Time to Inbox: 1 Minute
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 4
Most Used ESP: MailChimp
Special Notes:
Blogs Analyzed:
The Atlantic Pacific, Dappered, He Spoke Style, Gentleman’s Gazette, Hello Fashion Blog, Permanent Style , Fashion Beans, Grasie Mercedes, My Fash Diary
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 100%
Average Time to Inbox: 1 Minute, 42 Seconds
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 8
Most Used ESP: MailChimp
Special Notes:
Nothing wild, but FeedBurner takes care of all your emails for you (every time you publish an article on your blog, FeedBurner sends your email subscriber an email with the article link).
Blogs Analyzed:
Money Crashers, Mad Fientist, The College Investor, CNN Money, The Penny Hoarder, Get Rich Slowly, Consumerist, Cash Cow Couple, Dough Roller, Wise Bread
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 70%
Average Time to Inbox: 26 Seconds
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 6
Most Used ESP: MailChimp
Special Notes:
Blogs Analyzed:
Neghar Fonooni, Fitnessista, Nia Shanks, Anytime Fitness, Breaking Muscle, Natalie Jill Fitness, Nerd Fitness, Tony Gentilcore, Fit Bottomed Girls, Muscle For Life, Born Fitness, Mens Fitness, My Fitness Pal
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 69%
Average Time to Inbox: 57 Seconds
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 8
Most Used ESP: MailChimp
Special Notes:
Blogs Analyzed:
Kotaku, Engadget, IGN, Playstation, Game Informer, Polygon, Destructoid, Rock Paper Shotgun
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 22%
Average Time to Inbox: Instant
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 2
Most Used ESP: WordPress
Special Notes:
Blogs Analyzed:
Zen Habits, Four Hour Workweek, Lifehack, Mind Body Green, Greatist, Darren Daily, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Cup of Jo, Art of Manliness, Mark Manson, Elite Daily, Tiny Buddha
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 83%
Average Time to Inbox: 1 Minute, 30 Seconds
Most Common Email: TIE (Double Opt-In, Thank You Email)
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 9
Most Used ESP: In-House Solution
Special Notes:
They’d thank you for signing up, then suggest articles to read or videos to watch. It makes sense -- if you’re already sending an email to say thanks, you might as well give your newly engaged readers something to consume.
Blogs Analyzed:
Social Media Examiner, Backlinko, Search Engine Journal, Smart Passive Income, Seth Godin, Moz, Search Engine Land, Unbounce, Jeff Bullas, Lewis Howes, Social Triggers, Content Marketing Institute, Buffer, Hubspot, Wistia, CoElevate
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 81%
Average Time to Inbox: 4 Minutes
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 8
Most Used ESP: Infusionsoft
Special Notes:
Blogs Analyzed:
Half Baked Harvest, Budget Bytes, Butter and Brioche, Husbands That Cook, David Lebovitz, Simply Recipes, North Wild Kitchen, Katie Parla, Good Beer Hunting, The Perfect Loaf, Naturally Ella, Smitten Kitchen, Harvest and Honey, Holly and Flora, Call Me Cupcake, Betty Liu, Southern Souffle
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 82%
Average Time to Inbox: 27 Seconds
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 7
Most Used ESP: MailChimp
Special Notes:
Blogs Analyzed:
Migrationology, The Sweetest Way, Nomadic Matt, Expert Vagabond, One Mile At A Time, Off Assignment, Fresh Off The Grid, Lost With Purpose, And North, Wild About Travel, Hand Luggage Only
Percent that Sent Welcome Email: 91%
Average Time to Inbox: Instant
Most Common Email: Double Opt-In
Average Ease of Finding Opt-In Form (1=Hard, 10=Easy): 9
Most Used ESP: MailChimp
Special Notes:
Key takeaway: Are you ready to see an improvement in your email rates? Make it super easy to opt-in and don’t forget to send a welcome email right away.
Of course you do. Luckily, everything we talked about in this report and how each site stacked up in every industry -- 106 in total -- is all in this free resource. Download it now to see how your favorite sites perform.
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