Email Marketing – An Insight

Research was conducted in October 2010 relating to the application and execution of email marketing.

23% of people worked for organisations employing fewer than 50 people (biggest percentage of respondents).
22% worked for companies employing between 101 – 500 people (second biggest percentage of respondents).
48% of the information recorded was generated from marketing managers responsible for digital marketing.
Respondents were from the financial sector (14%), media (10%), technology (9%), not-for-profit and retail (8%) and travel/leisure (7%).

Email has fallen out of the spotlight in the digital world during the past few years, but it remains a fundamental marketing activity for most company’s efforts.

There are two opposing views as with regard to email marketing and social media technology.

A marketing manager in the media sector predicts an “integration between Facebook and email providers” as a future trend, while a brand manager in the food and drink industry states “getting consumers off the email database and onto social media platforms” as one of the major challenges in integrating the two platforms. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest email will only become more and more important in the way companies communicate.

• Research suggests that a third of respondents report an increase in open rates (Opening emails) over the past 12 months (34%).
• Less than a quarter report a decrease (24%)
• Over a third have also seen a growth in click-through rates (37%).
• Over a third report that they have experienced an increase in both open rates and click-through rates during the past year, while 37% will stay the same.
• Email Attitudes Research supports these findings with over half of respondents expected to increase the amount they spend on email marketing in the next 12 months (56%).

Social media was one of the biggest growth areas in digital marketing during 2010 and it stimulated a difference of opinion among marketers in how they use email marketing. Respondents from across the financial, technology, media and travel sectors all view incorporating social media as a growing trend for email usage in 2011 and 2012. As digital marketing evolves, changing consumer behaviour is demanding a shift in the way marketers use email in 2012 to counter the fear that respondents will develop apathy to ‘information overload’.

47% of respondents use social sharing options such as Facebook and Twitter in their email marketing campaigns, implying many view this increasing space via social media as an opportunity. However, focusing solely on a social media strategy may mean you’re missing a trick on the digital media spectrum.

In light of all this evidence, it seems email marketing is as strong as ever and is becoming a more and more prominent element of a company’s’ marketing strategy. Obviously, managements predicted ‘apathy’ amongst email recipients, and thus the descent of email effectiveness is not yet apparent.

The key to this is the effective design and rich content; else you could find your message in the proverbial “trashcan”.

As mobile phone technology develops further and people continue to adopt it into their lives. Coupled with the ever growing trend for people to access their emails and the internet via handheld devices rather than PCs. Email marketing possibilities grow with it.

So, what makes people click?

There are a host of elements that contribute to a good email marketing campaign:

Permission, relevance, timeliness and engaging content are all important.

One can gain these features through a number of means. Enabling your recipients to subscribe to your email not only helps in diverting spam filters but it also means your recipients have made a conscious effort to receive your emails or news articles and as such are far less likely to prematurely delete “unwanted” mail.

Furthermore, consistency and clarity are two major factors that affect a brand; placing great impetus on creating an eshot that will render well across all the popular email clients (yahoo, hotmail, outlook etc).

The reports that can be generated should be utilised by a business and its sales team to understand the behaviour and interests of their customer base; what, when and how do they click to investigate topics further. It’s simple, understand your audience and target them effectively.

Get involved in the discussion and drop us a comment below, tweet us or even better, come and have a coffee. We’ll have a friendly chat about your marketing and how you may be able to improve it.