Social Media Is Hot But Email Packs Digital Marketing Power (Infographic) If you are looking to build engagement with customers, email addresses are gold.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

There's non-stop buzz about social media in all its forms: How to use it, when to maximize it, and how to grow your followers. While social media can be valuable, email is still where it's at when it comes to online marketing power.

Almost half of Internet users in the U.S. spend an hour or more reading their email every day, according to new survey data conducted by My.com, the developers of myMail, a free mobile application that allows individuals to monitor all of their email addresses through a single inbox. We also check email multiple times throughout the day. Three-quarters of survey respondents said they check email in the morning, half check at lunch, almost six in 10 say checking email is the last thing they do before they go to bed.

Related: 4 Ways to Make Sure Your Email List Doesn't End Up Dead

So, collecting customer email addresses and crafting killer messages should be a top priority for your startup marketing campaigns.

Gmail is the most popular email service, according to My.com's survey results, with 59 percent of Internet users reporting to having a Gmail account. Most Internet users have more than one email account, though, and Yahoo came in as the second most popular email option, according to the data. Only 12 percent of Internet users still have an AOL account.

Check out the infographic (below) for more stats on when, where and how Internet users are interacting with their inboxes.

Click to Enlarge+
Social Media Is Hot But Email Packs Digital Marketing Power (Infographic)
Related: Hook New Customers With an Online 'Hopeful Greeting'
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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