• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 7, 2015

The consensus among the Email Marketing Insider Summit “Journey Mapping” panelists is that email marketing’s tried-and-true method of “batch and blast” still dominates most email marketing strategies, but it is starting to give way to more nuanced behavioral targeting methods.

InterContinental Hotels Group’s Kevin Hickey said the chain still uses “batch and blast” about three-quarters of the time, but behavioral targeting now comprises about “25% to 30%” of its email campaigns.

The New York Times’ Director of Consumer Marketing Talis Lin said the publisher currently utilizes about 50/50 ratio of batch-and-blast campaigns, while Finish Line Senior Brand Email Strategist Reed Pankratz said his mix is about “70/30.”

The most aggressive shift toward nuanced behavioral targeting approaches is taking place at Match.com, Senior Director of CRM Jeff Rosenzweig said, noting the dating site currently only allocates about a third of its email marketing budget toward batch-and-blast.