It works

Businesses engage in email marketing because it works. And works well. Here are the numbers…

• According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $48.34 for every dollar spent on it in 2007. The figure for 2008 is $45.06, and the prediction for 2009 is $43.52. As such, it outperforms all the other direct marketing channels examined, such as print catalogs (reference).
• The Ad Effectiveness Survey commissioned by Forbes Media in Feb/March 2009 revealed that email and e-newsletter marketing are considered the second-most effective tool for generating conversions, just behind SEO (reference).
• Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2009 survey of retailers found that “E-mail is the most mentioned successful tactic overall” (reference).
• In Datran Media’s 2009 Annual Marketing & Media Survey, 80.4% of industry executives said the email channel performed strongly for their company. This was the top result (reference).
• A December 2008 survey of hundreds of marketers by MarketingSherpa saw pay-per-click search ads rank top for ROI, followed by email marketing to house lists in second place (reference).
• Marketing service Epsilon determined that clients were getting $0.14 revenue for each email delivered in Q3, 2008 (press release).
• A February/March 2008 retailer survey by shop.org revealed that email marketing has the second lowest cost per order (CPO) of any online marketing tactic. The CPO of $6.85 compares favorably with, for example, paid search’s CPO of $19.33 (reference).
• A 2008 survey by Newsweaver and B2B Marketing Magazine of 175 UK B2B marketers revealed 78% considered email “critical” or “very important” to their B2B marketing strategy (press release). Newsweaver also surveyed Irish marketers, and 78.1% said that email is either “important” or “very important” to their overall marketing strategy (article).

The money is following the results…

• An April 2009 survey of senior marketing executives by the European Interactive Advertising Association revealed that 46% of respondents plan to invest more in email (report).
• In Datran Media’s 2009 Annual Marketing & Media Survey, 58.5% of industry executives said they planned to increase investment in email. Only 5.7% planned to decrease it (reference).
• Internet Retailer’s April 2009 email marketing survey found that 51.6% planned to increase spending on email during the recession, and only 4.7% planned to decrease it (reference).
• Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2009 survey of retailers found that 88% of them list “e-mail as a high priority for the year” (reference).
• A 2009 survey of US B2B marketers by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research found that 39% planned to increase email budgets, while 11% planned a decrease (reference).
• The CMO Council’s Marketing Outlook ‘09 Report reviewed the plans and opinions of 650 marketers. Email marketing was the top target area for investment in 2009 (press release).
• A survey of B2B marketers in November, 2008 noted that 68.3% intended increasing spending on email marketing in 2009 (reference).
• The DMA estimate spending on email marketing (in the USA) will increase from $600 million in 2008 to $700 million in 2009 (reference).
• A 2008 survey by Forrester Research revealed that 95% of surveyed marketers use email marketing, with another 4% planning to do so by year end (see reference).
• In a 2008 survey of 200 corporate markters, 74% said they would increase spending on email campaings over the next three years (article).

Why it works

Email marketing works for a variety of reasons…

• It allows targeting
• It is data driven
• It drives direct sales
• It builds relationships, loyalty and trust
• It supports sales through other channels

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual recipient basis.

And every email campaign you send out generates a heap of actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Email promotions and offers generate immediate action: sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc. Informative email newsletters and other emails send people to offline stores and events, prepare the way for catalogs, build awareness, contribute to branding, strengthen relationships, encourage trust and cement loyalty.

All in all, a pretty good way of going about your marketing business. But…

Let’s not get carried away

Just like a garden only bears fruit if managed properly, so it is with email marketing. We know it can work, but you have to get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, crafting a message, and ensuring the emails get through to those on that list.

Just like a garden only bears fruit if managed properly, so it is with email marketing. We know it can work, but you have to get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, crafting a message, and ensuring the emails get through to those on that list.

And once you have the basics right, there’s a whole spectrum of more sophisticated tactics you can employ to drive further success. Because the metrics show us that there’s plenty of room for improvement and plenty of rewards waiting for those who do improve.

For example, one report found that “using web analytics to target email campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and eighteen times the profits of broadcast mailings.”

At a simpler level, just mailing a small coupon offer to customers who hadn’t purchased for a while brought in a tonne of extra sales for one retailer.

Convinced? Contact us today to learn more

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