Commentary

Email Goals, Barriers and Success Strategies

According to Ascend2 and their Research Partners, Email has become the most prolific marketing channel. Consequently, a successful email list strategy is crucial to the overall performance of marketing. But what are the most significant barriers to the success of an email list strategy, and how are marketers overcoming them, asks the report.

 The Email List Strategy Survey, and completed interviews with marketing influencers, was completed during the week of January 4, 2016. The charts study, titled Email List Strategy Survey Summary Report, represent the average of all market segments responding to the survey.

 This survey was conducted online from a panel of more than 50,000 professionals representing the following company sizes, roles and channels:

 Number of Employees

  • More than 500         21%
  • 50 to 500                  24%
  • Fewer than 50         55%

 Role in the Company

  • Owner / Partner / CXO  37%
  • VP / Director / Manager 41%
  • Non-Management         23%

 Primary Marketing Channel

  • B2B                               65%
  • B2C                               20%
  • B2B and B2C Equally         15%

 Increasing the quality of email list data is a top objective for 70% of companies surveyed. 56% of companies said an increase in lead conversion rates is an important goal.

            “We’re under pressure to perform. So when it comes to establishing email list goals worth achieving, quality trumps quantity, ” says a respondent.

Most Important Goals Of An Email List Strategy

Goal

% of Respondents

Increase email list quality

70%

Increase lead conversion

56

Increase eMail open rates

39

Increase click-through rates

38

Increase eMail list size

38

Improve eMail list segmentation

31

Reduce eMail list attrition

9

Source: Ascend2, January 2016

 Achieving the most important goal of increasing email list quality is having an impact, says the report. 46% of companies said email list quality is increasing, while quality is decreasing for only 16%.

            “Getting email subscribers is easy. Getting email subscribers that are also quality prospects is the hard part…”

Email List Quality Changes            % of Respondents

Quality is Increasing            &nbs p;                      46%
Quality not changing                                    38
Quality decreasing &nbsp ;                              ;    & nbsp;  16
Source: Ascend2, January 2016

Increasing email list size, regardless of quality, is not a top priority for marketers today, yet email list size continues to increase for a majority of companies.

 Email List Size Changes                 % of Respondents

Size is Increasing                             &nbsp ;          55%
Size not changing                   &nbs p;                    27
Size decreasing                                            18
Source: Ascend2, January 2016

 Lack of an effective list strategy is the most significant obstacle to email list success. An effective list strategy will tackle the next most significant success barrier –poor email subscriber quality.

            “ If we don’t know where we’re going, we won’t know when we get there, is why we need an effective email list strategy…”

Most Significant Barriers to Email Strategy Success

Barrier

% of Respondents

Lack of effective strategy

49%

Poor subscriber quality

39

Inadequate list hygiene

35

Inadequate list segmentation

34

Low subscriber volume

34

Misconstrued as spam

29

Lack of list management expertise

27

Source: Ascend2, January 2016

 36% of email list strategies are unsuccessful at achieving goals. However, 9% of email list strategies are very successful at overcoming the barriers to achieving important goals.

How Successful is Your Strategy In Overcoming Barriers and Achieving Goals

Success Level

% of Respondents

Very successful

9%

Somewhat

55

Unsuccessful

36

Source: Ascend2, January 2016

 Email-specific landing pages and content download registrations are the most effective tactics used to achieve email list strategy success.

            “Offering content of interest to our target audience is still the most effective tactic we use to capture email subscribers.”

Most Effective Tactics For Strategy Success

Successful Strategy

% of Respondents

Email specific landing pages

53%

Content download registrations

46

Social media integrations

41

Website access registrations

31

Subscriber only offers

29

Paid search campaigns

15

Source: Ascend2, January 2016

 The degree of tactical difficulty often determines the resources required to execute them. This is the reason 55% of companies outsource the execution of all or part of their email list tactics, concludes the report.

Resources Used to Execute eMail List Tactics

Resource

% of Respondents

Combination of Outsourced and In-house

48%

In-house only

45

Outsourced to a specialist

7

Source: Ascend2, January 2016

 For more information about the study please visit Ascend2 here.

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