The Email Tracking Study 2011 from the Direct Marketing Association is out. It’s got some good news for email marketers. The survey was conducted this past summer among just over 2,200 UK respondents. Of those responding 94% had signed up for at least one email marketing newsletter.

When you work in email marketing or in any business where a big part of your day is communication, it’s not hard to start thinking that your typical of your clients. But according to this study, that’s  not the case when it comes to email. The results suggest we may need to rethink the image of the “overloaded inbox.”

Apparently we aren’t drowning in a sea of email:

– 61% of respondents do not check email at work, and fewer than 1 in 6 individuals spend more than 2 hours on email during working hours

– Almost 70% of respondents spend less than 2 hours a day on email at home

The report mentions that based on the above data, time-sensitive email marketing such as flash-sales need to get to the inbox with plenty of time to spare in order to provide enough notice for the subscriber to act. So, the critical consideration may not be time of day, but day of week and even proximity to such things as payday.

According to the survey, email inboxes are not overflowing with permission based marketing either. At least half the respondents reported getting less than 3 emails a day on average from trusted brands. The survey notes that number likely includes transactional messages as well.