Marketing Research Chart: Less than one-third of organizations are sending relevant email communications

Dec 20, 2011

Article

Marketing Research Chart: Less than one-third of organizations are sending relevant email communications

Email to a Colleague Post a Comment Permanent Link Print Version Free Newsletters

SUMMARY: The importance of sending relevant email messages is frequently discussed by email marketers at conferences, webinars and on blogs. However, how many organizations achieve this objective?

To answer this question, we surveyed more than 2,735 marketers marketers for our 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report and asked how their organizations were sending email communications based on four key areas: relevant content, sending time, segmentation of subscribers, and the clarity of the conversion goal in the email. The findings are presented in this week’s chart.

by Jeff Rice, Senior Research Analyst

Chart: Current state of sending relevant email communication, by primary channel

Q. Please select the statement that best describes the current state in which your organization executes and sends relevant email communications.

View Chart Online

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

This chart highlights that B2C organizations lead the field in sending relevant email communications, sent on time to a segmented audience with a clear conversion goal at 32%. However, the majority of B2C marketers are broadcasting less relevant emails. The overall average for this study was 28%.

These findings are not surprising considering the complexity of sending relevant communications, not to mention the time and resource constraints of email marketers. A positive sign is 44% of B2B marketers are close to reaching this goal, and will need to refine internal processes to consistently send targeted emails on time.

Segmenting the data by organization size reveals large firms, with more than 1,000 employees, do not have a distinct advantage over their smaller rivals when it comes to sending relevant email communications.

Medium-sized companies seem to be the best suited for this process, as they are large enough to have ample resources, but small enough to have limited amount of competing emails and approval signatures.

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.