by Jeff Rice, Senior Research Analyst

Chart: List growth found to be most advanced email marketing process

Q. Please select the statement that best describes the process your organization uses to plan, execute and measure the performance of the following activities.



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An organization’s maturity phase is determined by the process it uses to plan, execute, measure and report on email marketing programs. MarketingSherpa breaks down email marketing maturity into three stages: Trial, Transition and Strategic.

• Organizations in the Trial phase (32%) do not have a process or guidelines for their email programs


• Organizations in the Transition phase (42%) have informal processes they sporadically perform


• Organizations in the Strategic phase (26%) have formal processes in place that are routinely implemented

The purpose of this segmentation is to examine the differences in email marketing performance by organizations in each phase of maturity, and demonstrate the benefits of improving email processes.

Marketers state they have the most strategic processes in place for list building and list hygiene maintenance. The MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report found 32% and 28% of Strategic marketers perform these activities, respectively. The intuitive philosophy of “the money is in the list” may have driven the creation of processes to ensure a healthy list of quality and active subscribers.

The complexity of reaching a target audience with meaningful messages drives the need for more repeatable processes around creating relevant content, and joining conversations across multiple communication channels. This is reflected in the two areas dominating the Transition phase.

Marketers in the Trial phase of testing and funnel optimization have a tremendous opportunity for growth. Implementing testing procedures can quickly enhance an email program’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Moreover, optimizing email to have a greater impact on the Marketing-Sales pipeline will enable email marketers to justify the channel’s value to an organization.

For additional research data and insights about email marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report – Research and Insights for Engaging Email Subscribers.

Useful links related to this chart

MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report

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B2B Marketing: Building a quality list

Email Marketing: How to overcome segmentation challenges and deliver targeted content