The DMA Email Marketing Council’s 2010 National Client Email Report has arrived. It provides fascinating insight into the progress the email marketing sector is making, at least according to the first paragraph. When previous reports are compared it demonstrates the way email marketing is developing and highlights trends.
Of the companies polled 90% replied that they regard email marketing as being important to their business and just over half expected to increase their email marketing budget over the next year. So it would appear that all the work you have put into increasing the number of subscribers in your email lists has been worth it.
The report runs into 47 pages and if you feel inclined to give it a run, see: www.dma.org.uk/news/nws-article.asp?id=5177 . However, much to everyone’s relief I assume, there is an executive summary in which cause and effect seem apparent.
There are a number of rather worrying trends. For instance, only just over half of organisations have invested in the central control of email processes which is a reduction on 2009. One would expect that as email marketing becomes more professional and established such basic good practice would increase. But there is more.
Only 42% use welcome messages, and there was a fall in the use of win-back campaigns, purchase confirmations, thank-you messages and cart abandonment emails. When everyone involved in email marketing must know how vital protection of email lists is, this is remarkable.
B2C organisations in particular have increased their monthly rate of sending emails so the finding that 52% of organisations have no strategy on the maximum number of emails sent to each subscriber is of concern. Further B2B organisations are more likely to just remove an address without trying any form of reactivation attempt.
So it comes as no surprise that though deliverability is the top concern, organisations are growing increasingly worried by engagement rates, particularly click and opt-out rates.
The report is well worth reading in its entirety but the obvious conclusion from the findings highlighted above is that the basic tenets of good practice are not being followed despite the considerable evidence to support their effectiveness. If you wish to protect your email lists then the report highlights where many fail.