Close
Join 237,000 weekly readers and receive practical marketing advice for FREE.
MarketingSherpa's Case Studies, New Research Data, How-tos, Interviews and Articles

Join our thousands of weekly newsletter readers:

Best-of Weekly
Chart Of The Week
 

We value your privacy. We will not rent or sell your email address.

No thanks, take me to MarketingSherpa

First Name:
Last Name:
Email:
Text HTML
Mar 05, 2013
Article

Marketing Research Chart: Email marketing ROI

Email to a Colleague   Post a Comment   Permanent Link   Print Version   Free Newsletters  
SUMMARY: In this week’s chart, we learn about marketers’ perceptions of email marketing ROI. Be sure to share your own analysis of this chart in the MarketingSherpa LinkedIn Group for a chance to be published in a future blog post.
As we learned in the 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, our survey respondents overwhelmingly believed email was viewed by their organizations as a producer of strong ROI. To build upon these findings, we also asked marketers …

Q: What is the estimated ROI from email marketing programs for your organization?

View Chart Online


Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart



When asked to estimate their email programs' return on investment, our surveyed marketers claimed an average ROI of 119%, with B2B and/or B2G marketers claiming the highest return at 127%.

A notable disparity was found when breaking down this data by overall email volume. According to our respondents, organizations that sent more than 100,000 emails per month estimated a 94% average ROI, while those who sent fewer than 100,000 messages per month averaged 139%.

In a subsequent question in the Benchmark Report, we asked respondents how they believed budget allocations would shift for 2013. Of those who responded, 64% indicated their organizations' investment in email marketing was expected to increase.

Points to Consider

Have you experienced ROI for your email spends similar to these? To what would you attribute any substantial differences? Have you noticed any discernible patterns of ROI that you’d attribute mostly to the number of messages sent? How have your ROI results affected future budgeting?

For more information about email marketing, download the free excerpt from the 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report. Be sure to share your own analysis of this chart in the MarketingSherpa LinkedIn Group for a chance to be published in a future blog post.

Useful links related to this research

Email Marketing: Show me the ROI

Marketing Metrics: Is the emphasis on ROI actually hurting Marketing?

Marketing Research Chart: Email marketers who quantify ROI are in the minority




Email to a Colleague   Post a Comment   Permanent Link   RSS   Free Newsletters  
See Also:

Comments about this Chart

Mar 05, 2013 - Jefferson of The Salvation Army says:
ROI tends to be much higher in standard mail marketing when you mail fewer as well, because you are focusing a more targeted audience (at least you should be if you are mailing less). Of course with email marketing the physical cost of mailing more is nearly negligable. So why does ROI trend down? Really this chart itself doesn't say anything yet, but it does open up additional questions that should be asked. Does this discrepency hold true when the QTY is high because of a large number of addresses as opposed to a smaller number that sends out new content on a much more frequent basis? My hypothosis is that these numbers are much more a result of frequency than database size. Overemailing can result in a numbing effect for those receiving the content and of course the highest cost in email marketing is content creation (if you are not buying expensive lists). More creation, higher cost, lower ROI. Of course, lower ROI does not always mean the wrong strategy.


Mar 05, 2013 - Robert of www.mailaya.com says:
Great to read that email marketing still has top ROI and investment therein increases. This article confirms that it's about targeting and the right list. Just blasting high volume without target won't do the trick, but engaging customers and focussing on the actives helps with deliverability and ROI.



Post a Comment

Note: Comments are lightly moderated. We post all comments without editing as long as they
(a) relate to the topic at hand,
(b) do not contain offensive content, and
(c) are not overt sales pitches for your company's own products/services.










To help us prevent spam, please type the numbers
(including dashes) you see in the image below.*
→
Invalid entry - please re-enter




*Please Note: Your comment will not appear immediately --
article comments are approved by a moderator.

Improve your marketing

Join our thousands of weekly Case Study readers:
Note: Already a subscriber? Want to add a subscription?
Click Here to Manage Subscriptions
Improve your marketing -- and save money on every purchase

Sign up today for a MarketingSherpa Membership.

Benefits include:

  • Get every Special Report for FREE (usually $97 each)
  • Get every 30-Minute Marketer for FREE (usually $47 each)
  • Save 20% on every purchase
  • Ask the Librarian for help in locating marketing research
  • Enjoy other member-only perks
Get more info and sign up for a MarketingSherpa Membership here.
MarketingSherpa Community
Join thousands of marketers and get FREE access to practical Case Studies, research and training on email, demand gen, SEO, social media and more.
Join


Upcoming Webinars
  • Email Optimization: A discussion about how A/B testing generated $500 million in donations

    Wed., June 19, 2013
    3:30 - 4:00 p.m. EDT
    Register for our next Free Webinar
New Research
Latest SherpaBlog Posts
Upcoming Events

Marketing Research Chart of the Week:
New every Tuesday

Click to view this article

Sherpa Sponsorship Opportunities

Weekly Book Giveaway


Questions? Contact Customer Service at (877) 895-1717 (outside the US and Canada please call (401) 383-3131), service@sherpastore.com

Email Marketing Delivered by ExactTarget

Web Analytics powered by Omniture

© 2000-2013 MarketingSherpa, LLC., ISSN 1559-5137
Editorial HQ: MarketingSherpa LLC 1300 Marsh Landing Parkway Suite 106, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

The views and opinions expressed in the articles of this website are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect in any way the views of MarketingSherpa, its affiliates, or its employees.