The fourth annual Email Marketing Industry Census found that more than a third of companies (37%) are using email to encourage the sharing of content on social networks, and just under a third of companies (31%) say they are planning to do this. A fifth of companies (21%) are using email to promote customer ratings and reviews, while a further 26% have plans to do this. The research also found that 28% of companies are using video content in their emails, as marketers increasingly use email to build customer engagement.
The 2010 research, based on a survey of almost 900 digital marketers carried out in January and February 2010, found that email marketing now accounts for 17% of digital marketing budgets compared to 14% in 2009.
Increased investment can be attributed to the fact that the vast majority of responding companies (75%) rate email as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for return on investment.
Henry Hyder-Smith, Managing Director at email service provider Adestra, said: “The explosive impact of social media on email marketing and its significance on this year’s census can’t be ignored. We are delighted to see that email is far from dying in the midst of the social media revolution. And instead of cannibalisation, we are witnessing a solid partnership evolving between the two; email and social media working in harmony to fuel one another.”
Despite the fact that many companies are becoming more sophisticated with their email marketing, and integrating this channel with other activities, there remains concern that many marketers are still not following basic best practice, the research has found.
Too many organisations are still not paying sufficient attention to the quality of their lists and the importance of relevant email.
The research, sponsored by Adestra for the fourth year running, found that:
* Only 56% of companies are using opt-in (43%) or confirmed opt-in (13%) data for their acquisition emails, while only 60% are using opt-in (39%) or confirmed opt-in (21%) data for their retention emails.
* The quality of database is deemed to be the biggest barrier to effective email marketing. This is cited as a problem by 61% of marketers, up from 44% in 2009. But only a third (32%) of company respondents say list / data quality is a top-three priority for 2010.
* The proportion of responding companies have problems reaching recipients’ inboxes has increased from 51% last year to 54%. The percentage of companies who say that deliverability is a barrier to success has increased from 13% in 2009 to 24% in 2010.
Report URL
http://www.adestra.com/best_practice_census.html