Most email marketers plan to invest in the email channel to some extent this year. But they face many challenges, judging by Email Marketing Effectiveness: Strategies, Tactics & Trends, a study
by Ascend2.
Of the marketers polled, 56% will continue to invest moderately and 17% plan to invest significantly. In addition, 12% are planning to start and 16% are not investing.
The study shows that 57% describe themselves as somewhat successful at achieving their key priorities with email marketing, and 31% describe themselves as very much so, or best in class. Only 12%
say they are unsuccessful.
Moreover, 69% say they are becoming more effective, and 16% say they are becoming very much more effective. But 24% feel their effectiveness is decreasing
marginally, and 7% feel that it is declining significantly.
The respondents measure success in several ways, including:
- Click-through rate — 55%
- Open rate — 48%
- Post-email conversions — 43%
- List growth/list decline — 31%
- Forwarding/social sharing—26%
- Number of
unsubscribes — 25%
- Bounces/spam complaints — 20%
What are brands trying to achieve with their email marketing? The main goals are:
- Increasing
sales revenue — 59%
- Increasing leads generate — 49%
- Improving email engagement — 39%
- Increasing conversion rates — 36%
- Improving lead nurturing — 29%
- Increasing email list size — 21%
- Improving deliverability/inbox placement — 16%
The barriers to email
marketing success are similar, but not identical:
- Improving email engagement — 45%
- Increasing leads generated — 43%
- Increasing sales revenue
— 39%
- Increasing conversion rates — 35%
- Increasing email list size — 29%
- Improving deliverability/inbox placement — 29%
- Improving
lead nurturing — 23%
So what are they doing to improve things? Here are what they see as the best tactics:
- Better content — 66%
- More
personalization — 65%
- Better email design — 37%
- More list segmentation—27%
- More automated/event triggered emails — 24%
- More
video and animation — 22%
- More testing — 12%
Meanwhile, 49% say it’s best to use a combination of outside help and in-house resources. But 37% favor
in-house only, and 14% favor outsourcing to specialists.
Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 287 marketing professionals -- 37% in B2B, 43% in B2C and 20% in both equally.