The Time for Email Replacement is Now

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it, that the most dominant form of business communication, email, is on its way out? Not if you consider that strong trends suggest email won’t be the primary method of business communication for much longer. So let’s take a look at why you should be preparing your company for a post-email workflow.

Text Messaging will Replace Email

Let’s take a look at a couple of statistics. First, studies show that 95 percent of texts will be read within 3 minutes of being sent1Second, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association quotes the average response time for a text is 90 seconds. Email isn’t even close to those kinds of communication metrics.

Email open rates are currently averaging around 30 percent, while click-through rates average 3.2 percent across industries. This means that about 1 in 11 opened emails gets a click-through.

Mobile is the preferred device for checking email, accounting for 54 to 70 percent of total email opens. Spam emails(newsletters, marketing, promotions, etc.) account for half of all sent emails (49.7%). It’s pretty clear to see that in a mobile-first world, email isn’t the most efficient form of business communication.

Millennials: Prefer Text to Email

Let’s add in the Millennials: The main reasons Millennials have an email address is because it is a requirement for social media accounts and smart phone operating systems. Millennials are the “Right Now” generation that expects and demands instant communication. Guess what — this is the next generation of key business decision makers. So, given their current preferences regarding interpersonal and social communication, you can understand the inevitable shift in business communication. In fact, you’re likely missing out on business productivity even before Millennials become key decision makers because they might make up a significant portion of your workforce right now.

How Will Your Team Replace Email?

Let me ask you this: Have you ever sent a text message telling someone to read an email? If you’re nodding your head “yes,” then you know what an inefficient use of your time this is. It does prove a point, however; if you expect your email to be read and responded to at all, let alone in the next 3 minutes, perhaps you should should simply start following up all your emails with a text message.

Or better yet, here’s another idea for you: skip the email completely and just send a text. You might be amazed at the response and how it speeds up your business communications!

1. ImpigeMobileStrategy.com, 2011

Originally published at www.forsta.io on August 7, 2017.