Email marketers are looking for better strategic integration of email within their broader programs, according to an Adobe and DMA survey [download page] of more than 260 email marketers from the DMA membership base. Asked which potential strategies could most impact their email marketing efforts, a leading 72% pointed to technology that enables a 360-view of customer/brand interactions. Many also foresee the impact of technology that enables real-time, cross-channel email insights (64%) and a CMO who values integration of email with other channels (60%).
The focus on the 360-view is a reflection of email marketers’ top challenge (among those identified), which is email-only visibility versus 360-degree view of customer interactions with the brand.
Meanwhile, the study reveals that there’s work to be done in integrating email with wider marketing activities; while 54% co-ordinate email messages with offline channels, fewer than half (46%) use information from other channels to inform their programs.
Overall, while email is part of a larger strategy for most marketers (64%), it’s not the channel driving it, as only 36% said that email is “the central means of communication for our cross-channel marketing strategy.”
That’s an interesting result, as results from a separate survey conducted by MarketingSherpa suggest that consumers still prefer email as a brand communication form above all others. Some 72% indicated a preference for companies communicating with them via email, ahead of communication channels such as postal mail (48%), TV ads (34%) and print media (31%), among others. This preference for email as a communication form has also been found in previous research.
In other results from the MarketingSherpa survey:
- 9 in 10 US adults like receiving promotional emails from companies they do business with, and 61% would like to receive them at least weekly;
- Consumers appear more likely to want more (29%) rather than fewer (20%) promotional emails, more (29%) rather than fewer (6%) personalized emails, and shorter (30%) rather than longer (1%) emails;
- Almost 7 in 10 have made purchases on account of emails; and
- Half of those who have abandoned an online shopping cart find reminder emails helpful.
For data-driven tips on how to increase email open rates, see the MarketingCharts Debrief, Why Consumers Open Brand Emails.
About the Data: The Adobe survey was fielded in November 2014. The study represented high- and low-volume email marketers in a range of industries.
The MarketingSherpa survey was conducted online within the United States from January 21-23, 2015 among 2,057 adults ages 18 and older. The online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
