17% of Arts Patrons Surveyed Read E-mail on their Phones

Every year at about this time, we do a national study of arts patrons' use of the Internet and e-mail. Just like in the past, we worked with about 15 of our clients and sent out surveys to some 75,000 arts patrons across the country. We got back just about 8,000 responses, and we're now starting to sift through the results. I'll be reporting on some of these findings in coming posts, but today I wanted to highlight just one interesting tid-bit of data.

For the first time, I included a question about the degree to which people are reading their e-mail on their cell phones or PDA's, such as a Blackberry. The results show that we're just getting started, but that this is a trend we should all be paying a lot of attention to.

Our survey shows that 83% do not read any e-mail on their phones at all. About 2.5% say they read more than 50% of their e-mail that way, and about 12% say between 1% and 25%.

My guess is that this number is going to go up dramatically in the next year or two, and as it does, we're going to have to respond by altering the content, style and length of our e-mails messages.

Even on an iPhone, where the resolution is as good as you're going to get on a small device, getting the message across in a few words, an image, and a clearly worded subject line is even more important than ever before.

Brevity, clarity and relevance are already watchwords and for the 17% of your patrons that are reading some of their e-mail on their phones now, it's absolutely crucial. 

Comments

[Emily]

The research among more than 1000 adults also found that seven in ten people don't turn their mobile off when they go to bed. Some people said that they only ever turn their mobile phones off during funerals and weddings.