Are your small business customers deleting or clicking to open those emails you send them? No one wants their emails to be like messages in bottles, lost in a rolling sea of other communications. A personal touch makes the difference. A new study shows that personalizing an email increases the open rate, the metric used to determine if an email campaign is successful. Email marketing company Constant Contact studied more than 100 billion emails it sent in 2014 and 2015 and discovered that more personalized emails were more likely to be opened – in fact, the open rate soared by a whopping 150 percent! Campaigns sent to 35 subscribers or less, indicative of more personalized content, scored the best average open rates of 55 percent, far superior to the average open rate of 22 percent. Campaigns targeted to more than 7,500 subscribers, indicative of less personalization, averaged about a 14 percent open rate. The company also rated open rates for 15 industries or markets based on overall volume of emails sent and their open rates. Religious organizations had the highest open rates, at a 38 percent average, trailed by medical services and nonprofit associations at 32 and 28 percent, respectively. The best performing business-to-consumer (B2C) market segment was sports and recreation that yielded a 26 percent average open rate. While the best performing business-to-business (B2B) industry segment was professional services, also at 26 percent. The increasing importance of mobile devices was confirmed by the study, which found that mobile devices now account for a majority of emails opened. The study reported that nearly 51 percent of all emails are now opened on either a smartphone or tablet (39 percent were opened on a smartphone, 12 percent opened on a tablet). As a result, it is important to use an email service provider (ESP), that allows for mobile-optimization of emails. A discussion on email marketing effectiveness would be incomplete without considering other aspects of email including lists, design, subject lines, email testing and frequency. Each of these can make or break the results of a campaign. Email is a powerful tool, and devising campaigns to accelerate your business makes good sense. Following are some useful tips and resources for effective email marketing: Email Marketing Basics with Glossary of Terms How to Conduct Effective Email Marketing 6 Email Essentials for Successful Campaigns