If 2013 was the ‘year of mobile’, are companies now ready to enter the age of the customer? Steve Denner (pictured) explores how email marketing can lead the way.
Last year was all about mobile, as email marketers really turned their attention to exploiting M-commerce. Around a fifth more companies took a more strategic approach to incorporating mobile optimisation into their email activities, reveals The Adestra/Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014 (based on a survey of some 1,100 marketers).
The Census indicates that mobile email has become the new reality, and marketers are integrating it into their workflow. As new technologies become mainstream, the hype dies down, and they are perceived as just another standard channel in the mix. The same happened with social media.
The Year of the Customer
Where 2013 was the ‘year of mobile,’ could this year be dubbed ‘year of the customer?’ If Forrester is correct in predicting that we are entering the ‘age of the customer,’ 2014 may well be the year marketers start to truly focus on the end-user. And what better place to begin developing a culture of customer obsession than email marketing? Email is a mature channel delivering proven results. To successfully use it you need to combine the available technology and human insight, and also take advantage of the email provider’s advice and support. Not convinced? Read on for key insights from companies that are getting it right.
In terms of Return on Investment, research shows that there is no better digital communications channel than email: 68% of companies rated it good or excellent. This marks a 3% increase since last year, surpassing search engine optimisation for the first time since 2009. Furthermore, email is also the best channel on which to focus your budget, as companies attributed 23% of their total sales to this channel. This is despite the fact they only spent 16% of their marketing budget on email.
And there are still significant areas for improvement in this mature channel. Such areas are campaign performance and automation, with over half of email marketers rating their own performance as average or poor. Implementing marketing automation is also considered a struggle as half deemed it unsuccessful.
Achieving results with automation
Companies understand the opportunities of automation, with 83% of companies declaring ‘more relevant communication’ as one of its main benefits. More than 70% of organisations are also aware that it can help ‘increase customer engagement’ and facilitate ‘more timely communication’ with customers. Nearly all companies have access to marketing automation capabilities provided by their email providers. So what’s the problem?
Despite the widespread availability of automation technology, most companies appear to be taking a timid approach towards it. Around half use ‘subscription or sign-up to website’ and ‘automated response to website visit/sign-up’ triggers, yet no more than 27% of companies report using other triggers or behaviours. This may well be affecting the success of automation programmes, as only 4% of companies have described their automated campaigns as very successful.
Finding the time to make it happen
Companies must make sure they are resourcing themselves effectively for email marketing. Planning, optimisation and reporting are all critical to ensure marketers understand buyer behaviour and improve response. Yet it appears marketers are spending too much time on the creative elements of their campaigns. Nearly two-thirds of companies are spending 2-8+ hours on design and content for a typical campaign. In comparison, around half as many are spending at least two hours on strategy and planning, and data quality. Worryingly, nearly one third admit to spending no time at all on optimisation.
Email’s role in the future
Marketers appear optimistic that email marketing will survive the supposed threats to its existence. Not only that, but they believe it will thrive in a fully integrated, personalised, yet not completely automated ecosystem. What’s more, two-thirds believe email will continue to be one of the highest channels for delivering ROI.
The vast majority of companies agree that email will be fully integrated with other marketing channels, and that all email communication will be completely personalised by 2019. However, marketers appear undecided as to what this integration will look like.
In summary
Accepting that we are entering the ‘age of the customer’, email marketing can point the way. Yet there is still a long road to travel to optimise its efficiency, interpret and use all the valuable data available. Equally, the ‘age of the customer’ is difficult to define. Which means companies must do a lot of work to implement strategies for exploiting their new customer obsession.
Steve Denner is a director at Adestra. Read the full results by downloading the census here.
