Can Email Marketing Be Sustainable? Here Are 5 Ways To Improve
Have you ever wondered about the carbon footprint of your newest email campaign? Well, of course, email is environmentally friendly because it saves paper, right?
Uh, not exactly.
The average email produces around 3 grams/CO2, this is because emails require the use of energy and fossil fuels–they have to be transported (from their device to yours) and stored somewhere.
Recent research on the shocking carbon footprint of emails found:
Over 64 million unnecessary emails are sent by Brits every day, emitting 23,457 tonnes of carbon a year.
Each UK adult sending one less ‘thank you’ email a day, would save over 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year - the same as 81,1522 flights to Madrid or taking 3,3343 diesel cars off the road.
The average email travels 15,000 km before it gets to your screen, using power from data centres and computers to filter and send.
One or two emails do, of course, have a low carbon footprint, compared to their paper alternative, but with over 333 billion emails sent every day, the numbers add up quickly. This ends up being a lot of carbon emissions.
Let’s take a look at how you can take a more sustainable approach to your email marketing campaigns.
5 Ways To Make Your Emails More Sustainable
1) Clean up your email list
If you have any experience with email marketing, you know that balancing a good open rate, click-through rate, and delivery rate is essential. Sending emails to inactive subscribers is a waste of time–and carbon. Cleaning up your email list not only reduces your footprint but also improves your email analytics.
The average open rate for email marketing is around 21%, if your stats are below this then it's good practice to try and re-engage inactive subscribers. If you’re unsuccessful, it's important to bite the bullet and delete these contacts. If they really wanted to be on your list then they’ll resubscribe.
The average email list depreciates by around 30% a year, by cleaning up you'll be avoiding unnecessarily bounces. If your emails are constantly going unread, email providers may flag them as spam and you’ll be tarnishing your domain. Something you don’t want to happen.
2) Quality over quantity
Email marketing shouldn’t be a numbers game. It’s more important to have a smaller list of engaged contacts who convert, than a large list of unengaged contacts. Plus as we’ve discovered, you’re just creating unnecessary carbon emissions.
This also applies to the kind of content you’re sending out, too. If you can provide more value in a monthly email over a weekly email, then it’s the obvious choice.
The best way to send quality emails? Remember that your audience is human, not just a number. These people have their own goals, fears, and beliefs. Give your audience consistent value and they’ll be much more likely to convert.
3) Ask users to update their preferences and segment, segment, segment
Try to regularly check in with your email audience to confirm they still want to hear from you.
Perhaps they’re only interested in a monthly rundown rather than a weekly newsletter, or maybe they just want to hear about new products rather than sales. Knowing the specifics they’re interested in allows you to only send relevant emails that get opened.
It’s also important to segment your emails. This is when you divide your email subscribers into smaller groups based on specific criteria. Often, companies appeal to different kinds of customers and attempting a one-size-fits-all approach is a one-way ticket to the junk folder.
4) Reduce your email size
The size of your email also affects its carbon footprint. Your marketing email probably doesn’t include attachments, but I bet it is full of imagery and code.
The easiest way to reduce the size of your email is to optimise images by making the file size smaller. I love Squoosh for this. (This will also improve the user experience of your email as it will load faster!)
5) Swap to a sustainable email software
Not all email marketing softwares are created equal. Dotdigital is a platform that is cloud-hosted and implements in-office sustainability practices, all while encouraging its staff to be more environmentally friendly. They understand corporate environmental responsibility and shout about their carbon neutrality.
(For more about sustainable email marketing software check out this blog by Small99.)
As a sustainable business, you need to ensure you’re not putting any unnecessary strain on our planet with your marketing choices. By implementing these steps, you’re on your way to a reduced carbon footprint.
