Opinions differ. In a recent conversation with a festival, while discussing email strategy, one of our interviewees had a very clear opinion : "You know, we don't do email, we're mainly targeting a young audience, so we prefer to be on social media. "
And yet, at the same time, the cultural structures we support daily, which are implementing multi-channel digital strategies, both via email and social networks, manage to reach a young audience that seems to be interested - with opening rates and responsiveness to back it up - in the emailings and newsletters they send out.
So what can we expect ? Can cultural organizations still use email to reach reach Generation Z, people born between the mid-90s and 2010? Or should they bet everything on social networks, at the risk of having to bend to the constraints of algorithms?
Having recently read Badsender's article on the subject we wanted to explore within the cultural and sports sector. So we asked a few questions to students at Sciences Po Lille's Master's program in Management of Cultural Institutions.
And their feedback isn't a clear-cut. It may surprise you to learn that these representatives of Generation Z do read their emails, but don't waste their time with long, unedited emails!
Nota bene : The following quotes are from a discussion with 25 students. These students are all in their final year of study and have signed an apprenticeship contract with a cultural organization. Their perspectives represent young people already active in the workforce and particularly interested in cultural activities.
They are not necessarily representative of their entire generation.
The first is "overflow" and the anxiety of an overloaded mailbox. " We get too many emails, it's oppressive "and "I can't stand all those notifications and unread emails ". The second argument is lack of need: " I don't need to subscribe to newsletters. When I want information, I search for it myself, by going to the website or social networks. " Social networks are thus cited by these two people as an alternative channel, with the impression "of being better able to follow whoever you want, rather than receiving emails all over the place ".
Interesting fact : when asked how many email adress they have, many students spontaneously reply "Oulah! too many ". As work-study students, they all have at least their student adress, their personal adress and their professional adress.
All these tools divide their attention span. Even more interesting : the practice of
"junk mail" is widespread among 50% of them.
By their own admission, the junk mailbox is the mailbox "they give when they have no choice but to leave an email to access a service" - mobile app, website - but don't want to be spammed. When asked if it is this mailbox that is communicated to cultural structures, they tend to answer no : "No, if it's an arts organizations I like and want to follow, I give them my real address. The junk address is more for grocery delivery apps, meal delivery or online gaming services. ". When asked what ends up in their "real mailbox", they reply "...what's really important, like administrative stuff or invoices for example ".
Another reason to subscribe to a newsletter : the desire to discover a specific theme. For example, many students assiduously follow the newsletters of platforms such as UniversCiné or Mubi to stay informed about new film releases and explore new aesthetics.
The question of qualifying preferences and interest was thus approved by most of the group, although one student cautioned that "I don't want to select interests, I'd rather continue to receive everything and not confine myself to one or two themes".
When it comes to personalization and targeting one student was surprised that she didn't receive more content related to her specific status (young person/student): "Why don't venues send out specific newsletters for young people more often?
If I received newsletters more often highlighting a specific event or an offer with an accessible student rate, I'd be more interested!"
Concerning the pre-show mail it's a must. A student recalls a recent experience: "I bought a friend a ticket to a concert at the Zenith for Christmas. Luckily I received a reminder e-mail 3 days before, because we'd both forgotten the date."
As far as post-event emails are concerned featuring satisfaction surveys, students are fairly representative of usage across all generations : a third of them respond systematically, "out of altruism" or "out of professional distortion"(after all, they too are destined to work in the cultural sector!), a third do so from time to time, and a third never reply, generally "because it takes time and they don't have any".
Maxence, a support manager at Arenametrix, is 25 years old. He provides an interesting summary of the subject:
"The newsletter format is developing a lot so that information comes to us. I have the feeling that with the development of social networks, we started to follow more and more structures/content so that the information would also come to us. However, the phenomenon of algorithms and the over-centralization of content on a single news feed has made the information less readable. As a result, we're turning more to newsletters, where we have a greater control (unsubscribing, tracking by interests, fewer or even no ads). Today, I make this distinction: social networks are full of information in all directions, with rather light content, whereas in newsletters it's the "serious" and relevant information that I want to follow. But in a newsletter, the content must be concise and clear, as it usually is on social networks (it's the same news feed logic). I scroll on a newsletter like I do on Instagram or Facebook. Finally, I also have many mailboxes, but I have dedicated exclusively to newsletters".