Email Marketing Industry Census 2015

Market Data / Supplier Selection / Event Presentations / User Experience Benchmarking / Best Practice / Template Files / Trends & Innovation

Email Marketing Industry Census 2015

In association with Adestra

Email Marketing Industry Census 2015 In association with Adestra

Econsultancy London

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Email Marketing Industry Census 2015 In association with Adestra Page 3

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Contents

1. Executive Summary and Highlights ................................ 5

2. Foreword by Adestra ........................................................ 8

2.1. About Adestra .............................................................................. 9

2.2. About Econsultancy .................................................................... 9

3. Acknowledgements ........................................................ 10

4. Methodology ................................................................... 11

5. Findings ......................................................................... 12

5.1. Approach to email and use of email marketing providers ........ 12

5.1.1. Approach to email marketing ................................................ 12

5.1.2. Email campaign performance ............................................... 14

5.1.3. How email technology providers are used ............................ 16

5.1.4. Proportion of email functionality used.................................. 20

5.1.5. Most important attributes of an email technology provider .................................................................................. 23

5.2. Resources ................................................................................... 25

5.2.1. Time spent on email activities ............................................... 25

5.2.2. Responsibility for email marketing ....................................... 28

5.3. Volume of email and budget ...................................................... 31

5.3.1. Number of emails sent ........................................................... 31

5.3.2. Proportion of sales from email marketing ............................ 33

5.3.3. Annual spend on email marketing ........................................ 35

5.3.4. Proportion of marketing budget spent on email marketing ............................................................................... 37

5.4. Effectiveness and practices ....................................................... 39

5.4.1. Ranking of channels for return on investment ..................... 39

5.4.2. Email marketing practices ..................................................... 43

5.4.3. Barriers to effective use of email ........................................... 48

5.5. Marketing automation .............................................................. 50

5.5.1. Email providers marketing automation capabilities ............ 50

5.5.2. Automation triggers ............................................................... 54

5.5.3. Success with automation ....................................................... 56

5.5.4. Benefits of marketing automation ......................................... 58

5.5.5. Barriers to implementing marketing automation ................. 62

5.6. Mobile ........................................................................................ 66




5.6.1. Strategy for optimising email for mobile .............................. 66

5.6.2. Tactics used for implementing email marketing strategy ..... 68

5.6.3. Barriers to optimising email marketing for mobile .............. 69

5.7. Improving email marketing for the future ................................ 71

5.7.1. What would email marketers like to improve? ..................... 71

5.7.2. Email marketing focus ........................................................... 73

5.7.3. Email marketing in five years time ....................................... 77

5.8. How companies feel about their email provider ...................... 82

6. Appendix: Respondent Profiles ..................................... 84

6.1. Business focus ........................................................................... 84

6.2. Type of role ................................................................................ 85

6.3. Business sector .......................................................................... 85

6.4. Type of agency ........................................................................... 86

6.5. Geography.................................................................................. 86

6.6. Revenue ..................................................................................... 87

6.7. Number of employees ............................................................... 87

6.8. Age ............................................................................................. 88




1. Executive Summary and Highlights This is the ninth annual Email Marketing Industry Census, produced in partnership with

Adestra. More than 1,000 respondents, mainly in-house marketers, took part in our online

survey, carried out in January and February 2015. The report also contains insights from a

number of email marketing experts.

With nine years of data to process, the census provides a unique opportunity to assess how email

marketing has changed and where it may be going. This report takes a detailed look at the

approaches taken and resources given to email marketing, covering the channels effectiveness,

marketing automation, optimisation for mobile and the future of email.

The research reveals the following key trends:

Email continues to be a leading channel for delivering ROI despite

decreased spend

The role of email is expanding rapidly for many organisations, from being the path to the inbox,

to the key that unlocks the cross-channel marketing experience. Amid this transitional stage,

email is still among the best digital channels for delivering a return on investment.

Email marketing continues to be one of the top two marketing channels for delivering ROI. A

quarter (25%) of company and agency respondents have rated email marketing and SEO as

excellent in terms of providing a return on investment.

However, despite its ability to provide value, companies surveyed are spending less on the

channel, with almost two-fifths (39%) spending less than 5,000 or less on email marketing,

the highest proportion of companies spending within the lowest budget bracket in the history

of the Email Census. This is coupled with email being assigned only 13% of the marketing

budget, down by 19% since 2014.

The effect of the budget reductions has been a loss of revenue derived from the channel.

Organisations attributed an average of 20% of their total sales to email, down from 22% last year.

While somewhat disappointing, these results illustrate that the channel cannot be taken for

granted and that companies need to invest in email to ensure continued success.

Mobile is top of mind for email marketers as they embrace best

practice

One area where companies have clearly invested is in relation to optimising email for mobile

devices. With just 17% not having any semblance of a mobile strategy as it relates to email, it is no

longer good enough to merely be doing mobile; organisations must be relentlessly focused on

capitalising on mobiles extensive opportunities.

For the first time, companies are more likely to state they are making email campaigns

accessible on a mobile device. More than three in every five companies (61%) are optimising

email for mobile devices; an increase of 144% in just two years.

As the appropriation of a mobile-optimised template or design becomes more of a hygiene

factor, it is important that companies utilise mobile to create engaging interactions with the

consumer. At the moment, only 21% of organisations consider themselves as having a quite

or very advanced strategy for optimising email marketing for mobile devices, only increasing

by four percentage points from the previous year.

Part of the reason for this is the shifting goal posts in terms of what mobile entails. The market for

smartphones and tablets is saturating but mobile growth is now being buoyed by smartwatches,




peripheral devices and even car integrations1. Determining and planning for emails role in this

evolving environment can be incredibly difficult and with a multitude for opportunities to chase,

organisations must ensure they allocate time to get this right.

Segmentation tactics need to evolve beyond the basic to maximise

email in isolation and beyond

With spend on email marketing inconsistent with the perceived future of the channel, email

marketers face the challenge of having to be even more efficient with their resources. One way

marketers should be doing this is through more sophisticated segmentation activities. However,

engaging in advanced segmentation seems to be an elusive practice for many organisations.

The most common email practice among company respondents is basic segmentation with

more than three-quarters (76%) of companies claiming to do this. In comparison, only one in

five companies (21%) are using advanced segmentation as part of their email campaign

workflow, while an additional 44% plan on doing so in the near future.

Those organisations incorporating advanced segmentation into their activities are more likely

to rate emails ability to deliver ROI favourably. Companies engaging in advanced

segmentation are 16% more likely to perceive email marketing as an excellent or good

method for delivering a return on investment than those who are doing basic segmentation.

Which begs the question; why arent more organisations improving their segmentation

capabilities? The proportion of organisations using advanced segmentation actually decreased

marginally from last year (from 22% to 21%). It is highly probable organisations are still dealing

with the large datasets that require integrating and maintaining.

Quality of email database continues to be a significant burden for marketers, with more than half

(54%) citing this as a barrier to effective email marketing, down by just one percentage point since

last year. Without an appropriate database, not only will organisations struggle to provide more

nuanced email messaging, but companies will also be hard-pressed to maximise the greater uses

of email beyond the inbox.

Adoption and improvement in automation is slow and steady

Although marketing automation has been around for some time, appreciation of its potential in

the context of a broader marketing campaign has increased and has led to a larger amount of

companies embracing automation. While there has been some change since last year, the changes

are indicative of the marketing population still finding its feet with automation.

The proportion of organisations rating their automation campaigns as very successful nearly

doubled from 2014, however this accounts for just 7% of companies. The majority of

responding organisations self-assessed their automation implementation as quite successful

(54%), while 39% deemed their efforts in automation as not successful, a ten percentage

point decrease since last year.

The slight improvement in automation performance may be linked to the increased use of

automated triggers. The majority of automated trigger points have seen increased use

compared to last year. However, only subscription or sign-up to website (65%) and

automated response to website visit / sign-up (59%) are being used by more than half of the

responding companies.

However, the expectation is that organisations will continue to increase their use of automation to

deliver timely, relevant content to their customers. More than half (54%) identified marketing

automation as an area they are not doing to their satisfaction. Additionally, when asked which

areas they would really like to focus on in 2015, the highest ranked option was automated

campaigns (29%).

1 http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-the-mobile-industry-2014-11?op=1
http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-the-mobile-industry-2014-11?op=1




Making sense of the future of email

The reduction of budget allocated to email marketing is not surprising, given the variety of newer

channels and media that provide the opportunity to reach consumers. Despite this, email

continues to be among the most valuable tools for marketers. So where should email be

positioned going forward?

The long-term view is certainly optimistic, as only 9% of organisations believe that email

marketing will be redundant in five years. It will also continue to be one of the highest

channels for delivering ROI, according to 74% of companies. While some marketers are

concerned about the lack of usage of email by millennials, no suitable form of

correspondence has yet usurped the various uses of email among consumers.

Instead of worrying about millennial behavioural trends, most companies see email as an

integral part of their future marketing activities. More than five in every six companies (84%)

see email as being fully integrated with other marketing channels within the next five years,

with 76% believing all email communications will be completely personalised.

In order to truly unlock emails potential, companies must be able to harness email as the linchpin

of their cross-channel marketing activities. Using the email address to identity consumer activity

at a granular level, on and off site, puts marketers in a much better position to deliver powerful

email campaigns and more personal experiences across the board.

However, judging by the fact that the two top areas email markers are not doing to their

satisfaction are personalisation (64%) and segmentation (61%), it is safe to suggest most

organisations are yet to develop such capabilities.

The future of email as defined by the respondents is certainly attainable, but requires a different

approach. The deliberate pace of change in how organisations are approaching automation is

likely indicative of how organisations will approach integrating their email with other marketing

channels. Yet the sudden uptick in organisations optimising email for mobile shows companies

can be capable of moving more rapidly.

Email will continue to be a measurable, reliable, dependable channel for marketers that want to

drive results. However, its degrees of relevancy will increasingly depend on whether businesses

manage email as merely a direct response channel, or as an integral piece of the jigsaw for

delivering personalised, integrated customer experiences.




2. Foreword by Adestra In this, the ninth year of the Econsultancy/Adestra Email Census, its obvious that Email is a very

mature digital marketing channel. And its been allowed to mature, rather than fading away,

because its delivered strong returns throughout its history, and continues to do so.

Email is still in the running for top spot when it comes to return on marketing investment; tied

with SEO this year, 25% of companies and agencies are rating is as their top channel.

However, there is still a wide gap between organisations who are seeing excellent ROI, and those

who struggle to make their email programmes generate the strong returns theyre seeing from

their marketing peers.

When breaking down the results further, its unsurprising to see that organisations who have

carved out specialised individuals or teams dedicated to the email channel are the ones seeing the

highest returns. Organisations with an individual or team dedicated to email marketing achieves

three times better ROI than when those responsible are also executing on other marketing tasks.

But there is hope for organisations where a dedicated email resource isnt feasible.

Marketers are realising the value of leaning on their ESP as a way to fill the gap between ambition

and execution. Whether its for strategic help, professional services and design, or integrations

with other systems, being able to outsource some of the heavy lifting of successful email

marketing can be a significant advantage to smaller teams.

Along those lines, we added a new question to the end of the census this year. A bit of a cheeky

one, we simply asked respondents whether they love their ESP. That there was a strong split

between the Yess and Nos was unsurprising. But the additional comments were very telling.

Good technology and an easy-to-use platform seem to be the price of admission for playing the

email game. But the real differentiators especially for those respondents who withheld a yes

for their ESP love showed when it comes to the value of a great support team and account

management. Proactivity and strategic help are fast becoming strong differentiators between

email vendors.

Between the availability of additional services, and the importance marketers are placing on the

professional relationship when it comes to assisting with the ability to execute, evaluating email

suppliers is moving far beyond a simple feature comparison tickbox exercise.

Finally, this year in the census, for the first time since its inception, we also saw spend on email

decreasing. Whether this is because of stretched budgets or lack of faith in the channel, it also

means returns have decreased proportionally. While we never want to see marketers results

dropping, this does provide further ammunition to the argument that email activity has a direct

impact on revenue, and is a channel worth investing in!

Henry Hyder-Smith

CEO

Adestra




2.1. About Adestra Adestra have been empowering their clients to maximize marketing ROI through email-driven

technology for over 10 years. Our flexible account structure, obsession with customer success, and

award-winning service have gained the trust of global and growing brands alike.

We were founded on the principle that marketing success takes more than technology, and thats

why customer service is at the heart of our business. Were not just Software as a Service, were

Software AND a Service.

Join a league of leading marketers using this powerful, easy-to-use, enterprise technology, built to

suit your marketing needs. Call us today on +44 (0)1865 242425, tweet us @adestra, or view a

demo on our website at http://www.adestra.com/

2.2. About Econsultancy Econsultancys mission is to help its customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing

and ecommerce through research, training and events.

Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has offices in New York, London and Singapore.

Econsultancy is used by over 600,000 professionals every month. Subscribers get access to

research, market data, best practice guides, case studies and elearning all focused on helping

individuals and enterprises get better at digital.

The subscription is supported by digital transformation services including digital capability

programs, training courses, skills assessments and audits. We train and develop thousands of

professionals each year as well as running events and networking that bring the Econsultancy

community together around the world.

Subscribe to Econsultancy today to accelerate your journey to digital excellence.

Call us to find out more:

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http://econsultancy.com/subscribe




3. Acknowledgements Econsultancy would like to thank the following people for their contributions to this report:

Andrew Campbell, Managing Director, SixC Ltd

Jordie Van Rijn, Email Marketing Consultant, eMailMonday

Kath Pay, Director of Customer Success, cloud.IQ

Stephen Derbyshire, Head of Digital Marketing, CACI

Tim Watson, Email Marketing Consultant & Founder, Zettasphere
file://wookie/Shared/Content/Research/Sponsored%20Research/Adestra/2015/Draft%20report/uk.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-campbell/4/807/74a/enfile://wookie/Shared/Content/Research/Sponsored%20Research/Adestra/2015/Draft%20report/nl.linkedin.com/in/jvrijn/enfile://wookie/Shared/Content/Research/Sponsored%20Research/Adestra/2015/Draft%20report/uk.linkedin.com/in/kathpay/enfile://wookie/Shared/Content/Research/Sponsored%20Research/Adestra/2015/Draft%20report/uk.linkedin.com/in/stephenderbyshire/enfile://wookie/Shared/Content/Research/Sponsored%20Research/Adestra/2015/Draft%20report/uk.linkedin.com/in/tawatson/en




4. Methodology This is Econsultancys ninth Email Marketing Industry Census 2015, published in

association with Adestra. Many of the questions have been repeated over this time period,

enabling us to compare data and look at trends.

There were just over 1,000 respondents to our research request, which took the form of an online

survey in January and February 2015. Respondents included both companies or in-house

marketers (64%) and supply-side respondents, including agencies, consultants and vendors

(36%).

Information about the survey, including the link, was emailed to Econsultancys user base,

advertised on our website and promoted on Twitter. The incentive for taking part was access to a

complimentary copy of this report just before its publication.

Detailed breakdowns of the respondent profiles are included in the Appendix.

If you have any questions about the research, please email Econsultancys Research Director,

Linus Gregoriadis ([email protected]).
mailto:[email protected]




5. Findings

5.1. Approach to email and use of email marketing

providers

5.1.1. Approach to email marketing

The proportion of companies using web-based email applications has dropped to its lowest level

since 2008. There has been a decrease of eight percentage points (from 47% in 2014 to 39% this

year) in the proportion of companies using an application service provider/hosted service for

their email marketing.

Companies are 28% more likely than in 2014 to be using an in-house system, with 37% of

company respondents saying thats the case.

Company respondents

Figure 1: Which of the following best describes your organisations approach to

email marketing?

Respondents 2015: 600




Voice of the experts

Brands are spending time and money changing technology, but there remains an under-investment in people

and a resistance to change that prevents them building an integrated customer experience.

There is a growing trend for building in-house capabilities that started in 2013, and has accelerated in 2014-15

with 37% of respondents now using in-house solutions. This is an increase of 85% since 2012 (then 20%) and

demonstrates a continuing trend away from the dominance of SaaS-based ESPs.

The shift to in-house capability has not addressed some of the key barriers to improving programme

effectiveness and delivering an integrated customer experience, including poor quality data (54%), lack of

strategy (46%), lack of integration (43%) and lack of skills (33%). Whilst organisations are able to change

technology relatively quickly, business change to allow the delivery of customer-centric or data-driven strategies

takes longer. Most organisations (51%) believe they are utilising less than half of the capabilities provided by

their current ESP. If organisations fail to deliver business change or to better integrate their data alongside the

implementation of new technology, they will not be able to unleash the technology they have invested in and will

fail to deliver integrated customer experiences.

Stephen Derbyshire, Head of Digital Marketing, CACI

Less than one in five companies (17%) are taking a mixed approach to their email marketing. In

comparison, as seen in Figure 2, agency respondents are more than twice as likely as in-house

marketers to say their clients are using a mixture of web-based email applications, in-house

systems and fully managed services from third parties.

Compared to last year, the proportion of agencies saying their clients use a fully managed service

has decreased by seven percentage points.

Agency respondents

Figure 2: Which of the following best describes your clients approach to email

marketing?






5.1.2. Email campaign performance

Remaining relatively consistent with past results, company respondents are most likely to rate the

performance of their email campaigns as good (37%) or average (44%). However, this year has

seen organisations become slightly more likely to self-assess their performance as poor.

While companies are slightly more likely to rate their email campaigns as excellent (4% versus

3%) compared to last year, 15% of client-side respondents assigned themselves a poor rating, up

from 12% in 2014.

Comparatively, agency respondents were more positive regarding the performance of their clients

email campaigns (Figure 4). More than half (51%) rated their clients email performance as

excellent (6%) or good (45%), compared to 41% of responding companies deeming their email

campaigns performance as above average.

Company respondents

Figure 3: How do you rate the performance of your companys email campaigns?

Respondents: 600


There seems to be a case of familiarity breeds contempt with email where its been around for so long and

worked well as a core channel that its just become part of the furniture. Marketers need to raise expectations and

pursue a more ambitious approach to achieving best practice in their email campaigns. The technology vendors

have done their part by standardising features such as: CRM integration; data management; dynamic content

rendering; behavioural retargeting; social integration; testing and optimisation. Marketers must look to leverage

these to deliver enhanced customer experiences and ultimately greater ROI.





In order to see if there is a relationship between company size (in terms of number of employees)

and email performance, the data from the respective questions was cross-tabulated, as seen in

Table 1.

Although there were no clear-cut trends, the analysis revealed some interesting insights.

Organisations with more than 5,000 employees are two and a half times more likely to declare the

performance of their email campaigns as excellent compared to the remaining respondents.

Meanwhile, small companies with between ten and 100 employees are most likely say their

campaigns performed poorly.

Company respondents

Table 1: Cross-tabulation of responses for How do you rate the performance of

your companys email? and How many employees are there in your

organisation?

Excellent Good Average Poor

Fewer than 10 3% 33% 53% 11%

10-100 3% 40% 38% 19%

101-1,000 4% 40% 44% 12%

1,001-5,000 4% 33% 51% 12%

More than 5,000 10% 36% 42% 12%

Agency respondents

Figure 4: How do you rate the performance of your clients email campaigns?






5.1.3. How email technology providers are used

Figure 5 illustrates the email-related services that company respondents are using via their email

technology providers.

Given that email is known for its measurability, it is not surprising that measurement and

analytics is the most commonly used email-related service. However, the proportion of

companies acquiring this information from their email provider has dipped by 5%, from 77% in

2014 to 73% this year.

Meanwhile, 21% more organisations are using their email technology provider to execute at least

part of their segmentation activity. Most organisations are engaging in basic segmentation

(Figure 31) and more than half (51%) of the responding companies do this via their email

technology provider, which shows that the value of email technology platforms goes beyond email

deployment for most companies.

Companies are also significantly more likely to be using their email technology as part of their

design and copywriting efforts (27%, up by nine percentage points), activities that take the

majority of email marketers time as shown by Figure 14.

Company respondents

Figure 5: Which email-related services provided by your email technology

provider do you use?






The use of design and copywriting functionality is even more evident from the agency

perspective. The proportion of agencies stating their clients are using the design capabilities of

their email technology provider has grown by 47% since 2014, from 45% to 66%, just two

percentage points behind measurement and analytics (68%).

Also seeing a significant increase is strategy and campaign planning (from 34% in 2014 to 55%

this year). As email becomes further embedded within the heart of multichannel marketing

campaigns2, organisations should be spending more time planning their campaigns in order to

maximise the expansion of emails remit.

Agency respondents

Figure 6: Which email-related services do your clients typically use?



2 https://econsultancy.com/blog/66114-why-email-is-vital-for-multichannel-marketing/
https://econsultancy.com/blog/66114-why-email-is-vital-for-multichannel-marketing/




The majority of organisations are still unlikely to be using their email technology provider for

activities that are not email-related. Close to two-thirds of companies (63%) are not using their

email provider for any activities relating to other digital marketing channels, representing a 6%

decrease from last year.

Organisations which are now broadening the use of their email technology are most likely to be

using it for CRM, which has seen a 23% increase in use since 2014.

Company respondents

Figure 7: Do you use your email provider for any of the following activities?



Voice of the expert

More businesses are using their ESPs for CRM, which is telling. These days, ESPs offer more depth and width of

functionality, going from a point-solution to being part of the marketing centre that puts the customer (and its

data) at the heart. These are built to be so well integrated that no additional CRM data layer or data warehouse is

needed. The introduction and digitisation of more channels demands the software to suck up, sort and store

customer data, and then spit it out in a way thats useful and liberating for marketers.





The opposite is true among agency clients. According to supply-side respondents, just under a

third (32%) of their clients are not using their email technology beyond email-related activities, a

33% increase compared to last year.

Barring multichannel campaign management (increasing from 24% to 27%), agency clients are

less likely to use their email providers for these activities compared to last year, especially CRM

(from 59% to 46%), mobile marketing (from 29% to 20%) and display advertising (24% to 14%).

Agency trends

Figure 8: Do your clients use their email provider for any of the following

activities?






5.1.4. Proportion of email functionality used

The proportion of companies making significant use of their email platform continues to rise,

with 49% of respondents stating they use at least 50% of their email systems functionality. This

compares to 46% last year (Figure 10).

Just 15% of companies are using up to a quarter of their email systems functionality, a slight

decrease from 2014 and the smallest proportion of companies since the first Email Census in

2007.

Companies are using on average 49% of their email systems functionality slightly more than

the proportion agencies indicated (45%).

Figure 9: What proportion of your/your clients email systems functionality do

you think you/they are using?

Company respondents: 551

Agency respondents: 300


Not using all of functionality of an email system is not necessarily bad. It can very well be a sign that a brand

made clear choices in their tactics and ambitions and has insight into priorities and where the real value-add is

for them at this stage. Or perhaps the brand is using best-of-breed functionalities outside of the ESP system.





Company trends, 2010 2015

Figure 10: Proportion of email systems functionality used

A cross-tabulation of the proportion of email system functionality used against the ROI of email

marketing shows that there is a trend where email ROI goes up when the use of email

functionality increases.

Organisations that are using more than three-quarters of their email systems functionality are

over six times more likely to rate the ROI from email marketing as excellent (34%, compared to

only 5% of those who use up to a quarter of functionality).

Companies also appear to be less able to derive results from minimal efforts compared to last

year. Organisations that are using no more than a quarter of their email systems functionality are

71% less likely to rate email ROI as excellent and 37% more likely to rate email as less than good

in terms of ROI.

Company respondents

Table 2: Cross-tabulation of responses for What proportion of your email

systems functionality do you think you are using? and How do you rate email

marketing in terms of ROI?


2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015

0-25% 17% 5% 36% 32% 29% 44% 17% 19%

26-50% 21% 27% 46% 42% 27% 22% 5% 9%

51-75% 23% 20% 51% 53% 24% 25% 3% 2%

76-100% 37% 34% 47% 43% 14% 21% 2% 2%




Voice of the expert

The message couldnt be clearer, by upping your game and taking advantage of the more complex capabilities

present most email solutions, such as segmentation and triggered emails, ROI is improved. Excellent performers

are making a lot more use of their email systems. However, the use of more advanced functionality necessitates a

better strategy and resource to execute too. As more effort is needed to create and set-up campaigns. But those

that do invest in better strategies are reaping the rewards over those who dont.


Agency trends, 2010 2015

Figure 11: Proportion of email systems functionality used




5.1.5. Most important attributes of an email technology provider

Among company respondents, user-friendly interface continues to be the most important

attribute of an email technology provider, with 59% of companies saying thats the case. However,

this marks a decrease of five percentage points since last year.

Ease of use is important, especially as technology platforms (and the organisations that use them)

continue to place a greater premium on user experience. However, it is possible that with this

playing ground becoming relatively level, this may become more of a hygiene factor over time.

Meanwhile, marketing automation capabilities (58%), ability to integrate (50%) and cross-

channel marketing capabilities (35%) are deemed as more important attributes of an email

technology provider than last year.

The common thread between these three attributes is that they allow the user to do more with

their email marketing. The value of email is becoming less restricted to the performance of

campaigns and as organisations seek to maximise emails potential in other areas, the ability to do

this through email technology is pivotal.

According to agency respondents (Figure 13), the most important attribute of an email technology

provider is low cost (52%), which is closely followed by user-friendly interface (48%).

Interestingly, account management is deemed among the most important attributes by 50%

more agency respondents than last year (27%, up from 18%).

Company respondents

Figure 12: What are the most important attributes of an email technology

provider?



Note: Respondents could check up to three options.





Im not surprised to see companies citing marketing automation, integration and cross-channel marketing

capabilities as increasingly important features of their email platform. This reflects the shift towards email as

part of integrated, multichannel CRM programmes rather than a more tactical, standalone communications

channel. Clients are looking to become multichannel rather than multiple channel marketers.


Agency respondents

Figure 13: What do your clients regard as the most important attributes of an

email technology provider?







5.2. Resources

5.2.1. Time spent on email activities

As was the case in previous years, email marketers are most likely to be spending the largest

portions of their time on the aesthetic components of their campaigns.

Nearly three in five company respondents (58%) are spending more than two hours on design

and content. Although this is an 8% decrease from last years figure (63%), it is still nearly 50%

more than the proportion of companies spending over two hours per campaign on strategy and

planning (39%).

Despite the proportion of companies engaging in basic segmentation, an alarming number are

still spending minimal time on the optimisation of their campaigns. Five in every six company

respondents (83%) are spending two hours or less on optimisation, the same as last years figure

(Figure 15).

While using segmentation often results in improved performance, optimisation can help refine

and amplify the variables causing success. This capability is even more important given the

increased importance respondents have placed on using email in conjunction with other

marketing technologies.

Company respondents

Figure 14: For a typical campaign, how many hours are spent internally on the

following email-related activities?

Respondents: 450




Company respondents 2014 results for comparison

Figure 15: For a typical campaign, how many hours are spent internally on the

following email-related activities?

Respondents: 538




Agency responses are relatively similar to that of their company counterparts, with design and

content (62%) and strategy and planning (34%) being the areas where their clients are most

likely to spend an excess of two hours per campaign.

Compared to their client-side counterparts, agency clients are 41% more likely to be spending

more than two hours on optimisation (24% versus 18%), however they are also more likely to not

be doing any optimisation at all (33% versus 27%).

Agency respondents

Figure 16: For a typical campaign, how many hours are spent internally by clients

on the following email-related activities?

Respondents: 244




5.2.2. Responsibility for email marketing

Responsibility for email marketing continues to be the remit of individuals and teams who have

broader marketing responsibilities. Around two in five companies have assigned their email

marketing to an individual (37%) or team (34%), as part of their wider marketing responsibilities.

However, both of these options are slightly less popular than last year, with decreases of 8% and

11% respectively. Compared to last year, organisations are more likely to assign individuals (13%,

up from 10%) and teams (12%, up from 8%) dedicated to email marketing.

Agency respondents reported minimal change from last years results regarding the responsibility

of email marketing within their clients organisations. Close to half (45%) of agency clients are

using individuals as part of their broader marketing duties, while 17% have assigned dedicated

resources (either individuals or teams) to email marketing.

Company respondents

Figure 17: Who is responsible for email marketing within your organisation?






Agency respondents

Figure 18: Who is typically responsible for email marketing within your clients

organisations?



As expected, the larger the company, the more likely they are to have dedicated human resources

assigned to email. Organisations with fewer than ten employees are more than two and a half

times as likely to have an individual responsible for email marketing as part of their wider

marketing responsibilities than those with more than 5,000 employees (56% versus 20%).

At the other end of the spectrum, organisations with more than 5,000 employees are nearly three

times as likely to dedicate an entire team to email marketing compared to respondents with less

than ten employees (22% versus 8%).

Company respondents

Table 3: Cross-tabulation of responses for Who is responsible for email

marketing within your organisation? and How many employees are there in

your organisation?

No-one

Individual as part of wider

marketing responsibilities

Individual dedicated to

email marketing

Team, as part of wider marketing responsibilities

Team dedicated to

email marketing

Fewer than 10 8% 56% 19% 8% 8%

10-100 3% 44% 6% 42% 5%

101-1,000 1% 36% 19% 30% 14%

1,001-5,000 2% 31% 13% 33% 20%

More than 5,000 2% 20% 9% 47% 22%




Table 4 shows how the top five sectors (in terms of number of respondents) have assigned

responsibility of their email marketing. Technology and telecom organisations are most likely to

place an individual in charge as part of their wider marketing responsibilities, with more than half

(51%) indicating this.

Companies in the retail and publishing & media sectors are around twice as likely to have a

dedicated team responsible for email compared to those in financial services and technology &

telecom.

Company respondents


marketing within your organisation? and In which business sector is your

organisation? (top five sectors only)

No-one

Individual as part of wider

marketing responsibilities

Individual dedicated to

email marketing


Team dedicated to email

marketing

Retail 2% 26% 15% 35% 22%

Publishing and Media

2% 29% 16% 33% 20%

Financial Services

2% 38% 17% 33% 10%

Technology and Telecoms

2% 51% 7% 29% 10%

Travel and Leisure

3% 32% 16% 38% 11%

According to the cross-tabulation below, organisations that have dedicated resources for email

marketing are more likely to rate email marketing as excellent or good in terms of ROI.

More than three-quarters of respondents with dedicated individuals or teams (both 78%) gave an

above average rating, ten percentage points more than businesses that are using a general

marketing team for their email marketing and 18 percentage points more than those using a

marketing individual with broader marketing responsibilities.

Company respondents


marketing within your organisation? and How do you rate the following

channels (email marketing) or disciplines in terms of return on investment?


No-one 0% 25% 38% 38%

Individual as part of wider marketing responsibilities

21% 39% 31% 9%

Individual dedicated to email marketing

31% 47% 16% 5%


19% 49% 27% 4%

Team dedicated to email marketing

30% 48% 20% 2%




5.3. Volume of email and budget

5.3.1. Number of emails sent

Figure 19 illustrates how many emails companies and agency clients are sending on a monthly

basis.

More than two in five companies (41%) and nearly half of the responding agencies (47%) reported

that they (or their clients) are sending less than 50,000 emails each month. Meanwhile, at the

other end of the spectrum, 9% of client-side respondents have reached email totals exceeding 5m,

more than double the proportion of agency clients (4%).

Interestingly, companies are more likely to be sending less than 50,000 emails and more than 1m

emails compared to last year. The proportion of companies sending less than 50,000 emails

increased by 11% since 2014 (Figure 20), after reaching its lowest point in the history of the Email

Census. The proportion of those sending more than 1m emails per month is the highest in the

nine-year history of the Email Census.

Figure 19: How many emails does your / your clients organisation send each

month?






Company trends: 2010 2015

Figure 20: How many emails does your organisation send each month?


Table 6 shows a cross-tabulation of how many emails the five best represented sectors send on a

monthly basis. Retail and publishing & media businesses send the largest numbers of emails,

with 26% of respondents in both sectors indicating they send more than one million emails a

month. Meanwhile, technology and telecom organisations are most likely to send less than

50,000 emails, with nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents stating this.

Company respondents

Table 6: Cross-tabulation of responses for In which business sector is your

organisation? (top five sectors only) and How many emails does your

organisation send each month?

Less than 50,000

50,001-100,000

100,001-250,000

250,001-500,000

500,001-1 million

> 1 million

Retail 18% 9% 5% 14% 7% 26%

Publishing and Media

32% 5% 8% 8% 3% 26%

Financial Services

36% 23% 9% 9% 6% 9%

Technology and Telecoms

62% 9% 13% 7% 7% 2%

Travel and Leisure

26% 9% 6% 17% 21% 9%




5.3.2. Proportion of sales from email marketing

After trending positively last year, companies appear to be attributing a smaller proportion of

their sales to email marketing than they were in 2014.

Client-side respondents are, on average, generating a fifth (20%) of their sales from the email

channel (slightly down from 22% last year). This comes with 65% of company respondents

attributing 20% or less of their sales to email marketing, an increase of seven percentage points

since last year.

Similarly, agency clients are deriving, on average, 21% of sales from email, down by two

percentage points from last years average of 23%.

Company respondents

Figure 21: Approximately what proportion of your total sales can you attribute to

the email marketing channel?


Respondents 2014: 393 | 2013: 536




Agency respondents

Figure 22: Approximately what proportion of your clients total sales can they

attribute to the email marketing channel?






5.3.3. Annual spend on email marketing

The annual spend on email marketing is a question that has been asked in every iteration of the

Email Census since we carried out the first survey in 2007. This year, the highest proportion of

company respondents have reported spending less than 5,000 annually on email.

Just under two in five company respondents (39%) are restricting their spending on email to the

smallest bracket, spending no more than 5,000 per year on the channel. Just over a third (35%)

are at the other end of the scale, spending more than 25,000 on email.

One in three agencies say their clients are spending 5,000 or less on email marketing, a 27%

increase since 2014. Meanwhile, the proportion of agency clients spending more than 25,000

has decreased by 21% to 34%.

Figure 23: How much do you / your clients spend on email marketing per year?






Company trends: 2010 2015

Figure 24: How much does your organisation spend on email marketing per year?




5.3.4. Proportion of marketing budget spent on email marketing

As the chart below shows, companies have also reduced the proportion of marketing budget spent

on email. Client-side respondents are spending on average 13% of their marketing budgets on

email, down from 16% 12 months ago. Compared to last year, companies are 17% more likely to be

allocating no more than 10% of their marketing budgets to email marketing.

The decrease in email spend is in line with the decrease in sales derived from the channel. While

more information would certainly be required to determine the cause and effect, and although its

not possible to know how organisations are replacing the lost sales that were previously attributed

to email, the reduction across the board illustrates that contrary to many beliefs, email is neither

free nor redundant.

Agencies are seeing an even steeper decline in spend among their clients. The average share of

budget allocated to email among agency clients is 15%, a four percentage point decrease from last

years average of 19%.

Company respondents

Figure 25: What proportion of your total marketing budget does email marketing

account for?






Agency respondents

Figure 26: What proportion of your clients total marketing budget does email

account for?






5.4. Effectiveness and practices

5.4.1. Ranking of channels for return on investment

After leaping to the top of the list last year, email is again the second to SEO in terms of return of

investment from the perspective of client-side respondents. More than a fifth (22%) of responding

companies rate email as excellent and a further 44% rate it as good. The proportion of

companies rating email as above average in terms of ROI is seven percentage points less than

those rating SEO the same, after being one percentage point ahead last year.

However, when examining in-house and agency respondents together, both email and SEO are

equally as likely to be described as excellent in terms of return on investment.

Figure 28 illustrates the year-on-year change in the proportion of client-side respondents rating

marketing channels as excellent or good for return on investment. While organisations are 4%

less likely to rate email as good or excellent compared to last year, the proportion of those saying

the same about SEO and PPC has increased significantly (by 9% and 19% respectively). Similarly,

the proportion of companies rating social media as good or excellent in terms of ROI has

increased by 9%.

Company respondents

Figure 27: How do you rate the following channels in terms of return on

investment?

Respondents: 502




Company trends: 2015 versus 2014

Figure 28: Change since 2014 in proportion of companies rating channels as

excellent or good for ROI




Despite the changes between the positioning of email and SEO from last year, there has been

minimal change in how client-side marketers view these two channels in terms of return on

investment since 2008, as seen in Figure 29. On the other hand, mobile marketing, which would

have been in an embryonic stage of development in 2008, is significantly more likely (+94%) to

be perceived as having an excellent or good ROI.

Company trends: 2015 versus 2008

Figure 29: Change since 2008 in proportion of companies rating channels as

excellent or good for ROI




Although client-side respondents are now more likely to state SEO is a more efficient channel in

terms of ROI, agency respondents appear to disagree. Nearly four in five agency respondents

(79%) rated email as excellent or good 4% more than the proportion rating SEO the same

(76%).

Agency respondents

Figure 30: How do you rate the following channels in terms of return on

investment?

Respondents: 271




5.4.2. Email marketing practices

Company and agency respondents were asked to identify the practices which are part of their

current and future email marketing efforts. More than three-quarters (76%) of companies stated

that they are doing basic segmentation, while an additional 15% are planning to implement this

in the future. Its also worth noting that both of these figures have remained unchanged since

2014.

Also among the most common practices is optimising email for mobile devices (61%). After

growing by 88% last year, the proportion of companies doing this has increased again, by 30%.

The only other practice to see significant growth in adoption from last year is web-based

behavioural targeting (20%), which has increased by 43% as shown in Figure 32.

Similarly to 2014, advanced segmentation is the practice most likely to be on an organisations

wish list with 44% planning on doing this. This is followed by behavioural targeting (39%) and

content personalisation (36%).

Company respondents

Figure 31: Which of the following practices are a part of your email marketing

efforts?

Respondents: 480




Nearly three-quarters (73%) of company respondents that are doing basic segmentation rate

email marketings ROI as excellent or good, compared to 41% of companies who are not doing it

at all (Table 7). As high as this is, doing advanced segmentation seemingly places organisations

in an even better position to be successful, with 86% of client-side respondents who are doing it

rating email marketings ability to deliver on ROI as above average (Table 8).

Company respondents

Table 7: Cross-tabulation of responses for Which practices are part of your email

marketing efforts? (basic segmentation) and How do you rate the following

channels (email marketing) in terms of return on investment?


We do this 24% 49% 24% 3%

Planning this 18% 31% 35% 16%

We dont do this 10% 31% 41% 18%

Company respondents

Table 8: Cross-tabulation of responses for Which practices are part of your email

marketing efforts? (advanced segmentation) and How do you rate the following

channels (email marketing) in terms of return on investment?


We do this 29% 57% 13% 0%

Planning this 21% 48% 26% 5%

We dont do this 17% 33% 38% 12%




Company trends

Figure 32: Change since 2014 in use of practices


The two most successful email initiatives Ive seen recently both related to behavioural retargeting emails based

on web activity. One was following up on abandoned search activity and the other exploration of loyalty point

redemption alternatives. In both cases a timely, triggered email follow up with relevant content achieved saw a

step change in open and click-through rates versus standard campaign metrics. I believe that this tactic will

increasingly become mainstream over the next year or two.





According to supply-side respondents, basic segmentation is the most commonly practised email

marketing activity, with 74% of agencies reporting its use among their clients. As with their client-

side counterparts, the next most popular email practices are optimising email for mobile devices

(63%) and encouraging sharing of content on social networks (62%).

Agency respondents

Figure 33: Which practices are a part of your clients email marketing efforts?

Respondents: 257




Agency trends

Figure 34: Change since 2014 in use of practices




5.4.3. Barriers to effective use of email

The quality of the email database continues to be the most common barrier to effective email

marketing. Over half (54%) stated this as one of their top three barriers, making it the only barrier

experienced by more than half of the responding companies.

A significant proportion of companies have also experienced a lack of strategy (46%), integration

(43%) and segmentation (42%) as stumbling blocks in their email marketing efforts. However,

the good news is that all but one of these four (lack of integration) are being experienced by

slightly fewer organisations than last year.

Agency respondents are 13% more likely to cite the quality of email database as an issue than

company respondents (61% versus 54%). A lack of strategy is also common among agency clients

(55%), as is a lack of relevant content (42%). While this was not as common among company

respondents (36%), it has become more of a prevalent issue, rising by 16% from last year.

Company respondents

Figure 35: Which of the following have you experienced to be barriers to effective

email marketing?


Respondents 2014: 591 | 2013: 682





Agency respondents

Figure 36: Which of the following have your clients experienced to be barriers to

effective email marketing?


Respondents 2014: 247 | 2013: 311


Voice of the expert

Good data lies at the core of successful email. A well targeted okay offer will do well, a badly targeted excellent

offer wont. There are few shortcuts to a quality email database, it takes time and effort but the value of the asset

built makes it worthwhile. So given the fact that a quality email database is seen as a major barrier, its surprising

that time after time on email strategy audit and consulting projects I find list building probably gets the least

focus of all email activities. Whats been done to improve list growth should be part of monthly and quarterly

review plans and not just review of campaigns, content and creative.





5.5. Marketing automation

5.5.1. Email providers marketing automation capabilities

After introducing a new set of questions on marketing automation in last years Email Census, the

research has asked respondents the same questions in order to see the effect marketing

automation has had on email campaigns.

Company respondents are slightly more likely to say their email providers marketing automation

capabilities are advanced, increasing by two percentage points to 43%. However, companies are

still most likely to say their email providers offer basic automation capabilities.

Comparatively, agency respondents are much more likely to say that the marketing automation

capabilities provided by their clients email providers are basic. Close to two-thirds of agencies

(64%) stated this, with only 19% describing the automation capabilities as advanced.

Company respondents

Figure 37: How would you describe your email providers marketing automation

capabilities?






Agency respondents

Figure 38: How would you describe the marketing automation capabilities

enabled by your clients marketing technology?






Figure 39 shows which automated capabilities email platforms are providing to their customers.

Similarly to last year, most organisations have access to automated/triggered email messaging

(67%) via their email provider. Re-send to non-openers (56%) is a new capability added to the list

this year, as is dynamic content generation (48%).

The top four most common automation capabilities among agency clients are the same as those

specified by company respondents. While slightly more agencies say their clients email providers

offer automated/triggered email messaging (70%), re-sending to non-openers (61%) and

integration with other marketing channels and technologies (53%), companies are slightly more

likely to have access to dynamic content generation than their agency counterparts indicate (48%

versus 45%).

Company respondents

Figure 39: Which marketing automation capabilities does your email marketing

provider offer?



Note: Re-send to non-openers and dynamic content generation are new options for this years survey.




Agency respondents

Figure 40: Which marketing automation capabilities are typically offered by your

clients email marketing providers?



Note: Re-send to non-openers and dynamic content generation are new options for this years survey.




5.5.2. Automation triggers

Figure 41 shows which triggers or behaviours companies and agencies are using to send out

automated emails.

The most prevalent use of automated emails among company respondents is when a user signs up

on the website. Around two-thirds (65%) of responding companies are using subscription or sign-

up to website as an opportunity to send automated emails.

Company respondents

Figure 41: Do you send out automated emails based on the following triggers or

behaviour?


Respondents 2014: 241 | 2013: 449




Compared to last year, companies are significantly more likely to send an automated response to

a website visit / sign-up (59% compared to 46% in 2014). However, apart from the

aforementioned triggers, abandoned basket (37%) and lapsed customers (34%), most triggers are

being used by less than a third of the responding companies.


It is wonderful to see the uptake in the majority of these automated tactics within the last year but the list of

automated programmes doesnt stop here. Im a firm believer in identifying where your biggest pain point is and

seeing if an automated programme can help to solve this. For example, if the majority of your customers have

only ever purchased once, then you can set up an automated second purchase programme in order to nurture

them to make a second purchase. Replenishment programmes are also great revenue generators because they are

very customer-service focused.

Kath Pay, Director of Customer Success, cloud.IQ

In comparison, agencies indicate their clients are making greater use of the triggers available to

them. Only one trigger, content viewed on site (32%), is used by less than a third of agency

clients.

Agency respondents

Figure 42: Do your clients send out automated emails based on the following

triggers or behaviour?

Respondents: 129

Email Marketing Industry Census 2015

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