Segmentation, Delivery of Relevant Communications Are Top Areas of Focus for Email Marketers in 2011
Econsultancy and Adestra recently partnered to unveil the “Email Marketing Industry Census 2011,” which contains a wealth of information examining the state of the industry in 2011.
The first such census was conducted in 2007, and since then there’s been much progress, particularly in the area of automation and the emergence of the social side of the business. However, deliverability remains something of a mystery for marketers, as 88 percent of the 885 respondents have no idea how much budget they waste because of non-delivery, “a figure that is getting worse year on year.”
According to the census, 63 percent of respondents are targeting B2B audiences, up from 61 percent in 2010 and 55 percent in 2009. Also, 70 percent are targeting B2C audiences, up from 64 percent in 2010, though not anywhere close to the 84 percent response seen in 2008.
When it comes to volume, 40 percent of respondents say they are sending less than 50,000 emails each month, while 14 percent say they send 50,001-100,000 per month, and 9 percent say they send 100,001-250,000 per month.
A combined 37 percent of companies say they send more than 250,000 emails per month, with 7 percent saying they send more than 5 million each month.
Online marketing budgets for companies look relatively similar to what they did last year, with some notable differences. An average of 23 percent of online marketing budgets in 2011 is dedicated to websites, up slightly from 21 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, 18 percent is set aside for email marketing, up slightly from 17 percent last year.
Paid search (PPC) accounts for 15 percent of budgets this year, down slightly from 16 percent in 2010, while search engine optimization (SEO) accounts for 10 percent, up slightly from 9 percent in 2010.
Display advertising will receive an average of 8 percent of online marketing budgets this year, down considerably from its 17 percent share in 2010, according to respondents of the census. Affiliate marketing, social media and other digital disciplines will see slight increase from last year’s marks, while mobile budgets will be unchanged.
The census also found that 25 percent of company respondents spends less than about $8,000 per year on email marketing (the census provided numbers in pounds). About three-quarters of companies spend more than $8,000 per year on email marketing, with 38 percent spending about $40,000 and up.
In 2011, 32 percent of email marketers plan to focus on segmentation, 29 percent on delivering relevant communications, 26 percent on list/data quality, and 25 percent on measurement and analytics.
Meanwhile, 72 percent of responding companies say email is “good” or “excellent” in terms of return on investment.
Sixty-four percent of responding companies say cleaning and updating lists has the biggest impact on improving deliverability, while 52 percent said the same about focusing on the relevance of emails to recipients.
“Overall, the message is clear – while some aspects of email marketing are improving, others aren’t (and some are even getting worse),” writes Henry Hyder-Smith, managing director of Adestra. “It seems marketers need to adopt a “back to basics” approach – to avoid some key areas dropping off your radar, ensure you are consistently covering all the basics.”
Source:
http://adestra.msgfocus.com/adestra/census/Email-Census-2011.pdf
