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2012: Email in Action
A US study by the Email Experience Council of the DMA and Econsultancy SAMPLE ONLY. Please download the full report from:
http://econsultancy.com/reports/2012-email-in-actionn
2012: Email in Action
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Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
Published February 2012
2012: Email in Action A US study by the Email Experience Council of the DMA and Econsultancy Page 3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
Contents
1. Introduction from the Email Experience Council of the DMA ................................................................................ 6
2. Executive Summary ........................................................ 7
3. Email in Action ............................................................... 9
3.1. Challenges to Email .................................................................. 9
3.2. Email and Social ...................................................................... 11
3.3. Testing and Tracking ............................................................... 13
3.4. Budgeting and Financial Metrics ............................................ 18
3.5. Email Benchmarks .................................................................. 22
3.6. Personalization & Segmentation ............................................. 28
3.7. List Size and Growth ............................................................... 32
3.8. Automation ............................................................................. 34
3.9. Improving Email Performance................................................ 36
4. Methodology and Respondent Demographics .............. 39
2012: Email in Action A US study by the Email Experience Council of the DMA and Econsultancy Page 4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Challenges to Future Success in Email ........................................................... 9
Figure 2: Clients‟ Use of Email: The Agency View ...................................................... 10
Figure 3: Social and Email Integration ......................................................................... 11
Figure 4: Social and Email Integration (B2C) .............................................................. 12
Figure 5: Social and Email Integration (B2B) .............................................................. 12
Figure 6: Email Factors Tested ..................................................................................... 13
Figure 7: Email Factors Tested (B2C) ...........................................................................14
Figure 8: Email Factors Tested (B2B) ..........................................................................14
Figure 9: Email Metrics Tracked .................................................................................. 15
Figure 10: Email Metrics Tracked (B2C) ......................................................................16
Figure 11: Email Metrics Tracked (B2B) ....................................................................... 17
Figure 12: Email Budget Distribution .......................................................................... 18
Figure 13: Email Budget Distribution (B2C) ................................................................19
Figure 14: Email Budget Distribution (B2B) ................................................................19
Figure 15: Financial Metrics Tracked .......................................................................... 20
Figure 16: Financial Metrics Tracked (B2C)................................................................. 21
Figure 17: Financial Metrics Tracked (B2B) ................................................................. 21
Figure 18: B2C Lead Generation – Newsletter Benchmarks ...................................... 22
Figure 19: B2C Lead Generation – Sales Email Benchmarks ..................................... 23
Figure 20: B2B Lead Generation – Newsletter Benchmarks...................................... 23
Figure 21: B2B Lead Generation – Sales Email Benchmarks ..................................... 24
Figure 22: B2C Direct Sales – Newsletter Benchmarks .............................................. 24
Figure 23: B2C Direct Sales – Sales Email Benchmarks ............................................ 25
Figure 24: B2B Direct Sales – Newsletter Benchmarks .............................................. 25
Figure 25: B2B Direct Sales – Sales Email Benchmarks ............................................ 26
Figure 26: Definitions of Inactivity .............................................................................. 27
Figure 27: Factors in Personalization/Segmentation ................................................. 28
Figure 28: Factors in Personalization/Segmentation (B2C) ...................................... 29
Figure 29: Factors in Personalization/Segmentation (B2B) ...................................... 29
Figure 30: Preferences Offered to Subscribers ........................................................... 30
Figure 31: Preferences Offered to Subscribers (B2C) .................................................. 31
Figure 32: Preferences Offered to Subscribers (B2B) .................................................. 31
Figure 33: Changes in List Size .................................................................................... 32
Figure 34: Changes in List Size (B2C) ......................................................................... 33
Figure 35: Changes in List Size (B2B) ......................................................................... 33
Figure 36: Effectiveness of Automated Triggers ......................................................... 34
Figure 37: Effectiveness of Automated Triggers (B2C) ............................................... 35
2012: Email in Action A US study by the Email Experience Council of the DMA and Econsultancy Page 5
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retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
Figure 38: Effectiveness of Automated Triggers (B2B) .............................................. 35
Figure 39: Word Cloud – “What‟s the Key to Effective Email?” ................................. 36
Figure 40: Respondent Organizations by Type ........................................................... 39
Figure 41: Size of Respondent Organizations .............................................................. 40
Figure 42: Target Markets of Respondent Organizations .......................................... 40
Figure 43: Respondents‟ Primary Conversion Goal .....................................................41
Figure 44: Respondents‟ Database Size (B2C) .............................................................41
Figure 45: Respondents‟ Database Size (B2B) ............................................................ 42
2012: Email in Action Page 6
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retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
1. Introduction from the Email Experience
Council of the DMA Email marketing is going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. The changes in the way people
communicate with each other have generated some valid questions about the future of email. Is it
still as relevant as it once was before the rise of social media and the mass penetration of
smartphones? How can it compete with other media that are always on, ready to provide instant
feedback from friends and companies? Are younger people less likely to read email regularly?
DMA’s Email Experience Council and Econsultancy set out to find out how marketers are answering
these questions. What we found is that concern about email is widespread, but gloom about its future
is not. For most marketers, the challenge is not to find out whether or not to use email, it’s more
about rediscovering how to use it. Virtually every marketer remains an email marketer.
This ubiquity, however, has generated one of email marketing’s greatest weaknesses. Everyone gets
too much email, which has reduced the impact of all email. Clutter is a major problem, especially in
the face of competition from social media. As a result, providing relevant email that works with social
media is a high priority for marketers. Marketers are increasing the relevance of emails through
personalization and better matching of behavioral data with content.
Even so, most marketers want to do more, and more quickly. With consumers online continuously
with their smartphones, email needs to move faster. As a result, automated response email systems
that smartly use data have grown in popularity.
Email does not seem to be in decline, but it is changing. We invite email marketers to use this report
to see where their colleagues expect email marketing to go in the future.
Yorum Wurmser, Ph.D.
Director, Marketing & Media Insights
Direct Marketing Association
The Email Experience Council of the Direct Marketing Association celebrates and empowers
marketers around the globe to create amazing subscriber experiences, follow and improve email
marketing best practices and, by their example and dedication, demonstrate the critical role email
plays in integrated marketing. Our mission is to invest in, educate and bring together innovative
email and digital marketers who understand the critical role email marketing plays in integrated,
multi-channel marketing.
The Council provides a broad series of initiatives that illustrate the importance of email marketing as
a communications vehicle. We accomplish this through stellar education at our conferences, relevant
research, legislative advocacy and member roundtables and advisory committees. We continually
partner with innovative companies who positively impact our community and represent the voices of
our members. Sign up for our free newsletters and gain access to a wealth of information:
www.emailexperience.org.
.
2012: Email in Action Page 7
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retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
2. Executive Summary Email will always be a tactic that suffers from averages, because it is really two channels – one that’s
precise, highly effective and unique, the other a blunt instrument that attempts to compensate for
relevance with volume.
At organizations that practice the first, email continues to rank as the tactic with the highest return
and as the best way for communicating with customers and prospects over the long-term. For
organizations still “batching and blasting” the results have ebbed, deliverability has dropped, and list
growth is slowing.
But by the standards of digital marketing, this is an old phenomenon and these are old arguments.
Perennial articles drum up interest with the claim that “email is dead” and far flung defenders come
together to repel the attack. There’s self-interest, but also passion in the defense, because saying that
email doesn’t work simply isn’t true. It does and for some, it works better than anything else.
At the same time, the industry has to acknowledge that online behaviors are changing in a profound
way and on a massive scale. It’s not yet clear whether the new social and mobile Internet is more or
less friendly to the use of email, but for certain, it means rethinking email strategy, and optimizing
the subscriber experience for this new world.
The Email in Action Survey, conducted with the Email Experience Council of the DMA, benefits
from the input of over 450 marketing organizations, ESPs and agencies focused on email. Fielded in
the fourth quarter of 2011, the survey explored the challenges, opportunities and changes in email
marketing.
Segmentation & Personalization
55% of client side marketers are using lead source to personalize/segment their mailings, while
53% are using demographic data.
While fewer than half of markets are using behavior for email personalization, it’s the area of
highest interest. Nearly one in four reports having a plan in place to implement some level of
behavioral analysis in the next year.
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2012: Email in Action Page 8
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3. Email in Action
3.1. Challenges to Email
Figure 1: Challenges to Future Success in Email
Number of respondents:239
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17%
18%
19%
21%
25%
44%
51%
40%
44%
50%
35%
13%
32%
27%
18%
4%
18%
10%
8%
8%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Integrating email with other marketingchannels
Young people abandoning email as aprimary channel
Measuring and proving the ROI of emailmarketing programs
Getting the budget and attention emailprograms deserve
Competition with social media for recipients'time and attention
Very challenging Somewhat challenging Easy to overcome Background noise
2012: Email in Action Page 9
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retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
3.2. Budgeting and Financial Metrics
Figure 2: Email Budget Distribution
Number of respondents:239
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.
Email Service Provider (ESP)
31%
Content creation 19%
Lists 14%
Agency (creative & strategy)
12%
Analytics 9%
Data hygiene/ Deliverability
8%
Other 7%
2012: Email in Action Page 10
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retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
3.3. Email Benchmarks Benchmarks are highly fallible. Every company and every product produce metrics that are unique to
them. To attempt to make these benchmarks as useful as possible, they are associated with three
different variables; goal, sales target and type of email.
Figure 3: B2C Lead Generation – Newsletter Benchmarks
Number of respondents:118
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25%
11%
1.8%
0%
6%
12%
18%
24%
30%
Newsletter Open Rate Newsletter ClickthroughRate
Newsletter Conversion Rate
2012: Email in Action Page 11
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retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012
3.4. Improving Email Performance
Figure 4: Word Cloud – “What’s the Key to Effective Email?”
Number of respondents:239
SAMPLE ONLY. Please download the full report from:
http://econsultancy.com/reports/2012-email-in-actionn
2012: Email in Action Page 12
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What’s the number one thing you’d recommend to other companies to improve
their email marketing performance?
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SAMPLE QUOTE
2012: Email in Action Page 13
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4. Methodology and Respondent
Demographics
Figure 5: Respondent Organizations by Type
Number of respondents:467
SAMPLE ONLY. Please download the full report from:
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39%
31%
20%
7%
4%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Client sidemarketer
Agency orconsultancy
Other type oforganization
Email ServiceProvider
Institution(government,
military oreducational)
What phrase best describes the type of organization you work for?
2012: Email in Action Page 14
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Figure 6: Size of Respondent Organizations
Number of respondents:239
Figure 7: Target Markets of Respondent Organizations
Number of respondents:239
22% 23%
19%
7%
4%
25%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
1-10employees
11-100employees
101-500employees
501-1000employees
1001-2,000employees
More than2,000
employees
How many employees are in your organization worldwide?
50%
23%
12% 12%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Consumers Small to mid-sizebusinesses or
organizations withfewer than 1,000
employees
Large businesses ororganizations with
1,000 or moreemployees
True mix of consumerand business targets
Which type of customer is the primary target of your organization’s email marketing?
2012: Email in Action Page 15
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Figure 8: Respondents’ Primary Conversion Goal
Number of respondents:239
Figure 9: Respondents’ Database Size (B2C)
Number of respondents:118
29%
25%
19%
7% 7% 6% 6%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Leadgenerated
(formcompleted)
Immediatepurchase
online
Specificaction
(phone call,used an
application,etc.)
Later offlinepurchase
Later onlinepurchase
Time on sitegoal ormultiplepagesviewed
Other
Which of the following best describes the "conversions" or primary goals of your email programs?
5%
12%
15%
26%
41%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Fewer than 5,000 5,000 to 24,999 25,000 to 99,999 100,000 to500,000
More than500,000
How large is your total email database of names?
2012: Email in Action Page 16
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Figure 10: Respondents’ Database Size (B2B)
Number of respondents:131
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20%
31%
24%
9%
15%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Fewer than 5,000 5,000 to 24,999 25,000 to 99,999 100,000 to500,000
More than500,000
How large is your total email database of names?