According to the Ascend2 and Dun & Bradstreet NetProspex's report “Email Marketing Trends, B2B Benchmarks for 2015” marketers can leverage the Email marketing channel to engage with
customers in nearly every part of the customer lifecycle. 91% of respondents consider their email marketing somewhat or very successful at achieving company goals.
60% of the 195 B2B business,
marketing, and sales professionals surveyed, use email to boost engagement; additional main objectives include:
- Increasing lead generation (57%)email
- Improving acquisition and
retention (43%)
- Enhancing lead nurturing (42%)
Todd Lebo, partner and CMO of Ascend2, opines that “… probably the primary reason why [email has] been so
effective in a variety of areas like engagement is because most marketers are following best practices [of] opt-in email marketing, so people want to engage with them… ”
73% of
professionals consider the click-through rate the most useful metric when measuring email marketing performance. Conversion rate came in a close second at 71%; open rate and email ROI, the next top
contenders, significantly trailed behind at 42% and 40%, respectively.
Although the click-through rate is the favored metric, it's also one of email marketing's greatest hurdles. In fact:
- 53% cite low click-through rates as the biggest barrier to email marketing success, followed by:
- Lack of effective strategy (42%)
- Lack of quality content (33%), and lack
of internal resources (32%)
While 41% of professionals say their click-through rates are increasing:
- 27% claim that their click-through rates are dropping
- 32%
of respondents say their rates aren't changing at all
Lebo says “… it's hard to get people's attention… the secret to a successful email strategy… ensuring
that it's customer focused… “
According to the report, including a meaningful call-to-action offer is the most effective way to increase click-through rates for 65% of
professionals. Respondents also cite:
- List segmentation for targeting (51%)
- Message personalization (44%)
- Testing and observing (33%)
The most
effective tactics can often be the most challenging to implement, says the report. And the numbers agree, says the report:
- 43% of respondents say segmenting lists for targeting is the
most difficult method to execute to boost click-through rates
- 33% say the same for including meaningful call-to-action offers
- 34% say testing and optimizing
The
report concludes recommending focusing more on list quality and less on list quantity. Lebo says “… as you (pursue) click-through rates… you can have a smaller list… much
more targeted… much more engaged… a much higher value… have the patience to build a program… “
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