Are Millennials a viable email marketing audience?

This was the debate topic latest few email councils ago and the real question is: do young people still use email? As has been the trend in most of the council’s recent “debates”, almost all members have agreed on the same point. The main reason why this theme comes up time and time again is because of the increase in multi-channel communication. Millennials are the first generation to have fully embraced technology as part of their lives. They use different communication methods depending on the audience they communicate with. For instance, as a Millennial I use Whatsapp only for my closest friends and family. Whilst, what I post on Facebook is highly curated for a wider audience.

Just because millennials use these channels to engage with their friends, doesn’t mean that they don’t like email. Research by Adestra shows that email is still number one across all age groups for communications from businesses. According to Adobe, Millennials are more mobile and more frequent users of email than any other age group. This even extends to checking work email outside of work hours, with 70% checking email from bed. Millennials simply have more power and more control over how they communicate and what method they use.

Millennials are 88% more likely to check their email on their smart phone than any other age group. Not only that but research from the DMA suggests that Millennials are more engaged with multimedia, such as images and video, rather than text. Despite the assumption that Millennials have a shorter attention span they, compared with older non-Millennials, are twice as likely to engage with a longer email than a short one. This provides brands with an interesting challenge around how they should design their emails.

Millennials are the single biggest generation by population and will have $200 billion in buying power. With all the research showing that they still love email, it is a no-brainer that Millennials are still a viable email marketing audience. Brands should be putting more effort into making their emails relevant to these audiences, rather than getting their advertising into Whatsapp or snapchat. Maybe that’s precisely why Millennials don’t want brands on those channels, because it’s the last remaining safe haven where marketers can’t market to them.