For the eighth consecutive year, MarketingSherpa has conducted new research and comprehensively rewritten the 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report to provide marketers the data and insights needed to make informative marketing decisions. In this study, more than 1,100 marketers shared their valuable experience about what’s working (and what’s not) in email marketing today, to help you better understand how to accelerate email performance.
Here are some of the highlights from the Report:
Top Objectives for 2011: What email marketers are trying to achieve
A few years ago, increasing sales revenue wasn’t the most important objective for email marketing; it was the most significant challenge. Many marketers have long since overcome this challenge to quantify email ROI. Today, 78% rate the use of email to ‘increase sales revenue’ very important. Email isn’t limited to top line objectives. The objective rated as very important second most often is improving customer relations/retention. Email is the communications channel of choice for customers and prospects who wish to be kept informed.
How organizations perceive email marketing ROI at budget time
The perception of email marketing ROI is more positive in the B2C channel, yet the outlook that email will eventually produce ROI is greater in the B2B channel. Looking at this long term, we see organizations in the B2B channel catching up with their B2C counterparts in terms of positive perception and increasing investment.
Organizations with a method of quantifying email marketing ROI
You can’t determine if email marketing is producing a return on investment unless you have a reliable method for quantifying it. Surprisingly, nearly 6 in 10 organizations don’t. During the recent difficult economic times, marketers have been pressed harder than ever to prove the business value of their marketing investments. Yet, when it comes to email marketing, only 41% have formulated a solution for doing so.
The changing marketing budget landscape
The shift in budgets from offline to online tactics continues. While the majority of organizations will increase online budgets in 2011 with very few reporting a decrease, those organizations decreasing budgets for direct mail, print ads and broadcast ads far outweigh those planning an increase. The traditional online workhorse tactics (Web site, search and email) continue to receive the budget increases they deserve. New to this exclusive group benefitting from budget increases is social media marketing. Social marketing is still in the early stages of proving business value but expectations are high and so is the financial commitment to succeed.
Substantial email marketing budget increases projected for 2011
32% surveyed said their budget would stay the same as 2011 and 31% said they intend to increase their budget anywhere from 10% to 30%. No question about it; email budgets will continue to rise in 2011. As organizations become (cautiously) optimistic about the improving economy, purse strings are starting to loosen, and email marketing is a primary beneficiary. In addition to economic forces, email is earning increased investment because it continues to prove itself as one of the most (if not the most) effective tools in the marketing toolbox.
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