Email Marketers Report Success Despite Lagging Economy

Email marketers adapt to tight resources and inbox clutter to report improved results.

In March of 2008, SubscriberMail surveyed marketing professionals around the world to gain insight into the way email marketing was being used, the level of success they achieved and the challenges and opportunities they have faced for their email marketing efforts over the past 12 months.

Email Marketers Report Improved Results Over Last 12 Months

Email marketing has clearly become a standard for marketing departments. However?with corporate managers widely reporting over-flowing email inboxes, junk mail filters inadvertently blocking legitimate emails and with many email clients suppressing images? merely getting relevant, permission-based email in front of subscribers has become an increasingly complex endeavor. The good news is that in spite of these challenges, many email marketers saw slight (39 percent) to significant (13 percent) improvements in email marketing performance over the last twelve months. Marketers commonly attributed these performance improvements to optimizing email lists; employing email marketing best practices; improving content, email layouts and creative; and improving message relevancy.

Conversion Rate the Top Metric Used for Assessing Email Marketing Effectiveness

With companies all over the world facing challenging economies, the impact is often felt in the form of tight budget constraints or budget reduction in the marketing department. Consequently, it is not surprising that conversion to various desired actions (e.g., generating leads, sales, etc.) ranks far and away as the key performance metric when determining the success of email marketing efforts.

Majority of Marketers Integrate Email Marketing with Other Channels, Most Often with Sales Force and Print

Integration of email marketing with other marketing channels is catching on, but is not as widespread as its reported value would seem to justify. The majority of respondents (66 percent) said their company's email marketing was integrated with other marketing channels. The most common vehicle integrated with email marketing is print, as indicated by 50 percent of respondents, followed by the sales force with 46 percent.

Swamped Inboxes and Delivery Cited as Greatest Challenges to Email Marketing Success with Marketer Time and Resources Not Far Behind

Increased conversion rates no doubt contributed to the majority of respondents being "neutral" to "satisfied" with the results of their email marketing efforts. However, it is clear that email marketers are overcoming a good deal of challenges. The issue of "Swamped inboxes" was cited most often by marketers (55 percent) as being their greatest obstacle, while "delivery" and "time/resources" were both mentioned by over 40 percent of respondents.

More Than Two-Thirds of Email Marketers Fail to Send a Welcome Message to New Subscribers

While we've seen clients derive strong value from welcome messages, 36 percent of email marketers surveyed are not using them. Even more, those who are using them are often missing opportunities to derive optimal value. Rather than simply thanking subscribers for opting-in, an effective welcome message can be used to immediately validate their decision to sign up. Offering new subscribers a special download or a coupon for exclusive savings are just two of the ways a welcome message can be used to increase engagement.

Potential Missed Opportunities and Relevant Best Practices

* Cross-selling
Only 38 percent of marketers are using email for this purpose. By identifying customer needs/wants and using targeted email messaging, the right content or the right offer can be delivered to those recipients most likely to benefit from or act on it. Automated triggered emails are one opportunity to pursue cross-sell opportunities (e.g., a message delivered to customers post-purchase that promotes services/products related to the original purchase).

* Marketing Integration
While the majority of email marketers are integrating their email marketing with another channel, too often, it's limited to only one additional channel, while more comprehensive cross-channel integration is over-looked.

* Notifications/Welcome Messages
Only 26 percent of marketers are using email to provide notification of deliveries, birthdays, key events, etc., while 36 percent of marketers are not sending messages to welcome new opt-in subscribers. The personalized touch and relevancy of these type of messages can make them a valuable communication tool to foster customer loyalty.

* Analyzing Metrics
Most email marketing programs involve the analysis of metrics to gauge performance. However, not all metrics should be weighed evenly. Open rates, for instance, while useful as a benchmarking device, have become increasingly unreliable due to the issue of image suppression. Click-thru rates, on the other hand, are measured the same no matter how an email is viewed, therefore making them a much more solid metric by which to measure success.


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