2012 Lyris Digital Optimizer Reportboletines.prisadigital.com/2012_Lyris_Digital... · (design and...

Marketing Guide | November 2012

2012 Lyris Digital Optimizer Report Actionable Insights for Delivering Customer Value

Lyris survey on digital marketing best practices and the use of specific tactics among digital marketers.

The Lyris Digital Optimizer Report2

Survey Details The objectives of the Lyris Digital Optimization survey were to identify and describe the extent to which various digital marketing practices and techniques are used, and to learn about digital marketers’ views as to the results experienced from each technique. We also wanted to explore the expectations about continued use of these practices and identify anticipated changes in practices for the near future.

The survey sample consists of 294 respondents, mainly Lyris customers, who describe themselves as professional digital marketers knowledgeable about their company’s email marketing practices and influential in marketing purchase decisions and budgets.

The survey remained open for three weeks of data collection. As an incentive, respondents were automatically entered in a draw for a chance to win one of three iPads. The survey findings are presented as a percentage of the total base size. Five-point rating scales are also used, and data for these ratings is presented in terms of positive ratings on the scale.

Market Focus • 55% of respondents indicates a business-to-

consumer focus.• 42% of respondents indicates a business-to-

business focus.• 1% indicates a business-to-government focus.

Respondent Job Titles • Marketing Manager – 21% • Email Marketing Manager –17%• Marketing Director – 13% • Account Manager /Supervisor – 8%• CMO/VP of Marketing – 4% • In the “Other” category, titles include: Marketing

Strategy, Marketing Communications, Creatives (design and branding), e-Commerce, and Business Development. – 32%

• A small percentage have non-marketing but senior job titles, including President/ COO/CEO/GM. – 5%

Industry Categories • Advertising/Marketing companies – 12%• Financial Services – 9%• Not-for-Profit – 8% • Computer hardware/software – 7%• Education, Publishing, and Retail – each at 6%• The balance of companies represented

make up 5% or less of companies represented. – 41%

Estimated Monthly Email Volume • Over 10 million – 11%• 2 million to 10 million – 17%• 750,000 to 2 million – 20% • 250,000 to 749,999 – 21% • 50,000 to 249,999 – 31%

This report focuses on respondents from companies with monthly email volumes of 50,000 and greater, therefore likely mid-size

and enterprise-level companies.


Digital Marketing Tactics and Return on Investment (ROI)

Summary of Findings: Email and Web top the list of digital marketing practices used, and both are perceived as providing the highest ROI vs. 2011. The use of social media is rapidly outpacing SEO and SEM. Spending is increasing moderately across all tactics, and investments correlate to perceived ROI.

Use and Positive ROI Assessment

As expected, all survey respondents use email marketing. Website marketing is a close second. Social media use at 90% is on par with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) but higher than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) at 87%. Mobile marketing is used by less than three fourths of respondents (72%), despite prevailing wisdom that mobile is the new “next big thing.”

Digital marketers in general feel that the current ROI of the practices they use have improved versus last year. Of particular note, the perceived ROI of social media has surpassed that of SEO (43%) and SEM (45%).

66

72

87

90

90

97

100

22

40

45

43

57

55

54

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Blog

Mobile marketing

SEM

SEO

Social media

Website marketing

Email marketing

% Positive Assessment % Using

Q: Which of the following digital

marketing tactics do you use?

Q: Comparing current and last year’s

impact of digital marketing tactics

overall, what is your assessment of the

ROI for each of the following?

Key Takeaway: Social vs. SEO/SEM

Social media is now as frequently used as

a marketing channel as SEO/SEM – both of

which have been digital marketing staples

for years – and its perceived ROI is equal to

or surpasses that of SEO/SEM. This positive

perception may be due to a halo effect from

media hype surrounding social media.


Positive ROI Assessment and Spending Changes

Expectations of increased spending follow fairly closely the perceived assessment of ROI. Email marketing and website marketing both have high perceived ROI and the highest spending expectations for the coming year. Social media once again significantly exceeds SEM (47%) for spending expectations, as well as for mobile marketing (46%) and blogs (22%).

22

40

45

43

57

55

54

22

46

47

53

55

59

59

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Blog

Mobile marketing

SEM

SEO

Social media

Website marketing

Email marketing

Expected Spending Changes % Positive Assessment

Q: Comparing current and last year’s

impact of digital marketing tactics

overall, what is your assessment of

the ROI for each of the following?

Q: To what extent do you think your

company’s spending will change

for the following digital marketing

tactics in the coming year?

Key Takeaway: Measuring Value

Expected spending changes seem to correlate

directly to the perceived impact of each tactic

on ROI, which indicates that the ability to

measure value is what’s driving adoption of

many of these approaches.

Implications for Digital Marketers: Support proven tactics, test new ones, and measure to prioritize spending.


Email Marketing Techniques and Practices

Summary of Findings: Single-channel optimization practices are more common than cross-channel practices, and methods known to increase conversion are not widely adopted. Traditional email challenges, such as growing subscribers, remain at the top of the list but are closely followed by integration challenges.

Biggest Challenges

Growing subscribers is the most often selected email marketing challenge, even if this is the most basic requirement for an effective campaign. Integrating email with other marketing channels (32%) and integrating email with other data systems (29%) are listed fourth and fifth among the biggest email marketing challenges, which is consistent with their low use.

Key Takeaway: Nurture to Grow

Nurturing and engaging email recipients

is a task that should not be underestimated

or neglected in order to achieve

subscriber growth.

14

16

18

20

22

27

29

32

32

34

40

0 10 20 30 40 50

Expanding testing practices

Improving list hygiene

Segmenting email database

Improving email deliverability

Measuring ROI

Improving email engagement metrics

Integrating email with other data systems

Integrating email with other marketing …

Improving ROI

Delivering highly relevant content

Growing subscribersQ: What are your top three biggest

email marketing challenges for the

coming year?


Use Frequency and Effectiveness Rating of Email Practices

List segmentation and email performance reporting are most commonly practiced, each used “very often” or “sometimes” by over 80% of respondents. This is followed by a large majority who use ROI measurement, opt-in list building (72%), and email testing (71%).

Effectiveness Ratings

Key Takeaway: Single vs.

Cross-Channel Capabilities

Less often-used email practices involve

integration of different channels while more

commonly used practices are single-channel

based. This may be a reflection on the

availability of marketing tools today, which

are mainly focused on enabling single-channel

rather than cross-channel practices.

Q: How often does your company

use each of the following

techniques or practices as part

of its email marketing efforts?

Q: How would you rate the

effectiveness of each of these email

marketing techniques or practices?

37

56

57

62

68

70

71

72

73

82

85

0 20 40 60 80 100

Integrating email with mobile marketing

Integrating email with CRM data

List hygiene

Integrating email with social media

Deliverability optimization

Integrating email with Web analytics

Email testing

Opt-in list building

ROI measurement

Email performance reporting

List segmentation/targeting

Q. How often does your company use each of the following techniques or practices as part of its email marketing efforts?

Percent rating very often/sometimes

40

47

57

63

66

66

68

70

71

79

80

0 20 40 60 80 100

Integrating email with mobile marketing

Integrating email with social media

Integrating email with CRM data

List hygiene

Opt-in list building

ROI measurement

Deliverability optimization

Integrating email with Web analytics

Email testing

Email performance reporting

List segmentation/targeting

Q. How would you rate the effectiveness of each of these email marketing techniques or practices?

Percent rating very/somewhat effective


For the most part, positive ratings of specific practices echo the frequency of their use, generally suggesting a logical and direct relationship. Integrating email with social media is the exception, with low perceived effectiveness (47%) despite somewhat strong use (57%). The data suggests that digital marketers generally see channel-specific practices as more effective.

Messaging Use and Effectiveness

These findings indicate considerable variability in the use of different practices. The data from both questions suggests that target audiences probably see greater monetary value in promotions and discounts versus content found in newsletters, and in guides and Webinars.

Key Takeaway: Measurement

vs. Perception

These findings are consistent with the

previous question, in that the absence of

cross-channel tools for digital marketers

may explain their inability to measure

effectiveness of email marketing techniques

and practices, which in turn lowers the

perception of effectiveness.

Q: What types of email messaging

are used?

Q: What types are most successful

at driving SEO?

Key Takeaway: Delivering Value

These findings really focus on the importance

of delivering value. The effectiveness of

messages with a tangible monetary value

(promotions, sweepstakes) are closer to

actual use percentages than non-monetary

value messages – meaning they are better

investments overall.

39

56

76

86

89

40

36

57

79

64

0 20 40 60 80 100

Sweepstakes

Free trial offers

Free content (guides, Webinars)

Promotions & discounts

Newsletters

% Positive Rating % Using


Effective List Segmentation

List segmentation by demographics is way ahead of other segmentation means used, even if others – such as type of purchase (used by only 20%), website activity (used by only 11%), and amount of purchase (used by only 10%) – are more effective list strategies because they are behavioral in nature.

Email Campaign Testing

1

6

10

10

11

14

20

25

26

28

39

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

No answer

By social media activity

By amount of purchase

By job title

By website activity

By organizational function

By type of purchase

By click-through rates

By open rates

By purchase history (e.g., recent purchase)

By demographicsQ: What are the top two most

effective ways you segmented lists to

deliver results for your company over

the past year?

Key Takeaway: Behavioral Segmentation

This raises the question, do digital marketers

have the tools and expertise to effectively

segment lists using data that is dynamic and

changing based on consumer behavior? Market

trends suggest a desire to build audiences at a

more granular level of detail.

Q: Approximately what percentage

of your email campaigns includes

some form of testing?

24

12

14

16

24

10

75% to 100%

51% to 75%

26% to 50%

11% to 25%

1% to 10%

None

0 5 10 15 20 25 30


These findings show that the majority of email campaigns do not include email testing. Surprisingly, only a fourth of respondents do email testing of all or most campaigns.

Email Testing Methods Effectiveness

The highest positive ratings go to varying subject lines and varying content/ messaging.

More than half of survey respondents give a positive rating for varying the offer (61%), varying time of deployment (59%), and varying graphic templates (55%). Testing mobile content comes in at the bottom of the ratings (30%).

Q: Please indicate how effective you

think each method of email testing

was in driving company results in the

past year.

(Precent rating very/somewhat effective)

27

30

35

45

55

59

61

75

83

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Testing video content

Testing mobile content

Testing use of HTML vs. text email

Use of dynamic content vs. static

Varying graphic templates

Varying time of deployment

Varying the offer

Varying content/messaging

Varying subject lines

Key Takeaway: Testing for Improved Insight

It appears that marketers are using the

simplest testing methods. This suggests

opportunities for marketers to further explore

more comprehensive methods with better

tools that enable them to more easily manage

dynamic content and other test variables.

Key Takeaway: Test to Convert

Marketers know that testing campaigns is difficult

and time-consuming – although they also know it

is proven to drive better results.


Email Automation

These findings indicate that the types of email automation that are found to be most effective are those that leverage timeliness and relevance to the email recipient. In other words, engaging the subscriber is most effective. Other types of automated messaging, such as transactional emails (47%) and drip campaigns (29%), require more involvement of the email recipients – they have to do something to initiate engagement from the marketer.

Implications for Digital Marketers: Increase conversions with cross-channel best practices optimized through testing and automation.

Q: Of the following types of email

automation, please indicate the extent to

which each one drove company results

during the past year.

29

40

43

47

50

54

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Drip campaigns

Mail merge

Dynamic content

Transactional emails

Welcome program

Triggered emails

Key Takeaway: Action-based Relevance

Email campaigns such as triggered emails

(based on a customer’s behavior) and

welcome programs deliver highly-relevant

engagement with customers when they

expect it. Also, messages sent to customers

that are based on their actions (i.e.

after a purchase or after shopping cart

abandonment) are proven to be much more

relevant than “batch-and-blast” emails.


Social Media and Mobile Marketing

Summary of Findings: Social sites offering richer engagement (i.e. Facebook) yield higher perceived marketing impact. Social channel effectiveness is also correlated with the number of unique users within each network. Providing a continuous experience between mobile and email (through linking) is also ranked high, although mobile marketing tactics are neglected overall.

Social Media Use and Results

It’s not surprising that Facebook is most often used since it’s ubiquitous these days. The difference in use and perceived results probably points to the difficulty in measuring the impact of social media in general and identifying the impact of specific social media channels.

Key Takeaway: Facebook for Engagement

Beyond being ubiquitous, Facebook also

offers the richest engagement opportunity – it

offers content exchange through many types

of media, for example – status, images, URL

sharing, and so on.

Q: Which social media tactics

does your company use?

Q: Among them, select the

top 2 that produced the

best marketing results.

3

5

12

11

19

27

43

69

3

58

68

70

76

84

84

88

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Other

Pinterest

Corporate Online Comm.

Corporate Blog Site

YouTube

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

% Using Social Media Best Results


Social Media Spending Plans

The expectation of spending for social media follows the extent of its use. For example, the most spending is expected for Facebook, which is the most frequent social media used.

Social Media and Email Integration

Q: By how much do you plan to

increase or decrease spending for

the following social media tactics

in the coming year?

(Precent rating significant/somewhat

more spending)23

28

28

31

35

38

51

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Pinterest

Corporate Online Community

Corporate Blog

LinkedIn

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

Significantly/Somewhat Increase Spending

Key Takeaway: Invest in Social Media

Social media’s viability as an effective digital

marketing channel continues to grow, as

evidenced by the degree of planned spending

in the coming year. Marketers who embrace

social media tactics are better able to compete.

Q: Rate the effectiveness of your

company’s social media integration

with email campaign tactics.

(Precent rating very/somewhat effective)

25

43

45

48

49

64

71

0 20 40 60 80

Segmenting your audience based on sociallikes/features

Including email sign-up on your social pages

Developing content based on social commentaryabout your brand

Incorporating social content in your emails (reviews,testimonials)

Including social media "share-to-social" links in youremails

Including social media like/follow links in your emails

Communicating the same message across multiplechannels (Email, FB, Twitter, etc.)

Q: Rate the effectiveness of your company's social media integration with email campaign tactics.

Percent rating very/somewhat effective


Even though earlier results showed that only 32% of respondents are integrating email with other channels (probably for a variety of reasons), this data suggests that digital marketers recognize that multi-channel engagement is key to highly-effective email marketing campaigns.

Mobile Marketing Tactics

Among companies that use mobile marketing as one of their digital marketing channels, the two most frequently used tactics were mobile-optimized landing pages and link to mobile version in emails.

Surprisingly, more than a third (39%) do not know or did not respond to this question, indicating a lower than expected appreciation of this digital channel.

Q: What mobile marketing tactics

does your company use?

(Select all that apply)

3

10

11

17

21

22

23

27

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Preference center question on what mobile device will be used

Segmented by mobile versus PC device

Mobile optimized commerce

Responsive design (cascading style sheets)

Mobile version of your email campaign

Link to mobile version in emails

Tracking of what mobile device your email is opened on

Mobile optimized landing pages

Key Takeaway: Building a Consistent

Brand Experience

Marketers rank message consistency across

channels as having the most impact on

integrated campaigns, demonstrating that a

consistent brand experience for the customer

– regardless of channel – is important

and effective.

Key Takeaway: Mobile Lags Behind

Despite exponential adoption of mobile

devices, survey data indicates that mobile

marketing is the least used and least

appreciated digital marketing practice –

suggesting that marketers need to gain an

understanding and take advantage of the

opportunities for growth it offers.

Implications for Digital Marketers: Measure to monetize social media’s impact, and add mobile marketing to the mix to create

a unified customer experience.


CRM Solutions

Summary of Findings: More than half of respondents currently integrate or plan to integrate CRM with email solutions. Most CRM solutions are proprietary to companies included in the survey; among the branded CRM solutions, Salesforce is most frequently cited. Email behaviors, Web behaviors, and transactional data are the top three CRM data needs for integration with email marketing, with individual campaign performance, summary performance dashboard, and campaign comparison performance cited as the three CRM reporting features considered most important.

CRM Solutions

It is not surprising that Salesforce is the most frequently used CRM solution, or that 44% of respondents have no CRM solution integrated with email – this supports the finding reported earlier indicating that integration with email is still not yet fully practiced.

Key Takeaway: Integrate to Engage

Though use is less widespread than might be

expected, the importance of integrating CRM

and email solutions is critical for gaining a

360-degree view of customers that enables

marketers to engage them with relevance.

Q: What CRM solutions do you

currently integrate or plan to

integrate with your email solutions?

44

6

8

11

31

0 10 20 30 40 50

No CRM solution integration with email / DK

SAP

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Oracle

Salesforce


CRM Data Needs

Consistent with other findings, the CRM data needed to engage customers is the most acutely felt need of digital marketers.

CRM Reporting Features

Key Takeaway

Marketers understand the value of

integrating data – that high levels of

engagement are dependent on understanding

email and Web behaviors, and having access

to transactional data.

Q: Select your top three

CRM data needs.

2

9

12

12

10

17

22

20

30

39

43

48

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

No answer

None of the above

Psychographics

Enterprise data

Mobile activity

Social media

Preferences

Lead qualification data

Demographics

Web behaviors

Transactional data

Email behavior

Q: What CRM reporting features

are most important to you?

(Select all that apply)

4

13

51

65

67

73

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

None of the above

Role-based report distribution

Export to Excel functionality

Campaign comparison performance

Summary performance dashboard

Individual campaign performance


These findings clearly indicate that digital marketers want data to demonstrate the effectiveness of their campaigns. Other functionality, like export to Excel (51%) and role-based report distribution (13%), are less important.

ConclusionsThe Lyris Digital Optimizer survey both confirms some widely-held perceptions of digital marketing techniques and challenges, and brings new insights that can be used to inform future strategies. Here are the highlights:

• There is cautious adoption of new technology and techniques among digital marketers seeking to improve engagement with their customers.

• Cross-channel integration is in its infancy, in spite of the ubiquity of social channels and the media hype surrounding them.

• There is significant opportunity to increase the adoption of best practices beyond email and website marketing. New solutions and digital marketing automation may be the key to enhanced use.

• There is a stated need for improved ROI measurement, which again may require better tools in the marketplace.

The Lyris Digital Optimizer survey was designed and conducted by DELPHI Consumer Insights, an independent marketing consultancy.

Implications for Digital Marketers: Find the time and resources to integrate CRM with email for improved customer engagement.

Key Takeway: Measuring Performance

Measuring performance provides a two-fold

benefit: marketers gain a better understanding

of what drives meaningful customer

engagement, and can therefore allot resources

and budgets appropriately.

lyris.comCopyright © 2012 Lyris, Inc. All rights reserved.

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About Lyris, Inc.

Lyris, Inc. is a leading global provider of digital marketing solutions that help companies engage with their customers in more meaningful ways. Lyris products and services empower marketers to design, automate, and optimize data-driven interactive marketing campaigns that facilitate superior engagement, increase conversions, and deliver measurable business value. Lyris’ high-performance, secure, and flexible digital marketing platforms improve marketing efficiency by providing automated digital message delivery, robust segmentation, and real-time social, mobile, and interaction analytics. The Lyris solutions portfolio is comprised of both in-the-cloud and on-premises solutions – Lyris ONE, Lyris HQ, and Lyris LM – combined with customer-focused services and support. Learn more at www.lyris.com.

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