• by Ray Schultz , July 21, 2023

Most small-business marketers generative return on investment from email many times what they put into it, according to the 2023 Email Marketing Survey, a recent study from UpCity. 

Of those that spend $100 or less per month on email, 75% report an ROI of $21 or more for every dollar spent.

In addition, 51% that spend $500 on email report ROI of $31 or more for every dollar spent. 

They spend the following sums on email marketing:

• Less than $50 — 9%
• $50-$100 — 22% 
• $101-$500 — 37% 
• $501-$1,000 — 20%
• $1,000+ 2023 — 12%

Their biggest challenges are:

• Finding the best tools/service provider — 46% 
• Getting recipients to open/reply/click — 43% 
• Getting an acceptable ROI — 42% 
• Creating effective content — 42% 
• Building an email list — 31%

Most SMBs that send marketing emails do so on a daily (32%) or weekly (33%) basis. 

Their primary goals are:

• Attract new customers — 30%
• Increase brand awareness — 28%
• Introduce products/services — 27% 
• Boost website traffic — 26% 
• Increase user engagement — 26% 
• Provide more relevant content — 25% 

The most effective types of emails are:

• Sales or promotions — 34% 
• Co-marketing or sponsored emails — 29%
• Replenish or subscriber service reminder — 27% 
• Product-related emails — 26%
• Live, dynamic content emails — 24% 
• Birthday, anniversary or other milestone — 23%

Of the SMBs polled, 75% say their email efforts are moderately or very effective. Most campaigns apparently are conducted in-house: 

• In-house marketing team or individual — 39% 
• Outsourced email marketing freelancers/contractors — 26% 
• Third-party email marketing agency — 25%
• Other — 10%

UpCity surveyed 300 marketing professionals in this update of its 2022 email marketing survey.