Email is dead. Long live email!

Digital Marketing to Life Scientists

According to an “old” direct marketing rule of thumb, targeting (or relevance) is responsible for 50% of the target audience’s response, creative for 20% and the actual offer for 30%. So even if scientists are saying that they are most likely to click on a link that will take them to specific promotion or discount, that won’t happen if the offer itself is not meaningful to their research or the needs of their lab.

And despite the buzz about “email going away,” our recent study found that 50% of life scientists prefer to receive new product information via email compared to other communication channels. In fact, email is seen as a particularly reliable source for information on new products.

Given the importance of targeted email communications to any content marketing plan, it is important to assure that emails messages are perceived as being trusted and relevant.  So what are the factors that contribute to an email being seen as coming from a trusted vendor and that the content is relevant? Getting the details right and delivering on them in a consistent manner is paramount. Think about the day and time that you emails are sent—and received. Although most scientists claim not to have a preference, 25% of study respondents would prefer to receive vendor emails on Monday or Friday. And 41% of our study participants prefer to read those emails in the morning.

Check out more key findings from our Digital Marketing to Life Scientists: Social Media and Email Best Practices report here.