Only 32% of E-mail Marketers Carry Out a Regular Amount of Testing
E-mail marketers have lost sight of the basics, according to a study from Econsultancy sponsored by Adestra. Among the findings is that less than a third of e-mail marketers carry out a regular amount of testing and that just one in eight are able to put a figure on the amount of their e-mail budgets wasted thanks to non-delivery.
The study, titled “Email Marketing Industry Census 2011,” is the fifth annual edition and is based on the survey of nearly 900 digital marketers. To begin, Adestra shares some of the biggest burdens for e-marketers today. Among them are the push for relevance, the rise of automation, the continued mystery of deliverability and the rise of social media.
“Overall, the message is clear – while some aspects of email marketing are improving, others aren’t (and some are even getting worse),” Adestra notes. “It seems marketers need to adopt a ‘back to basics’ approach – to avoid some key areas dropping off your radar, ensure you are consistently covering all the basics.”
One of the findings of the study is that 32 percent of respondents say they carry out a regular amount of testing for their e-mail marketing campaigns. Meanwhile, 30 percent say they occasionally carry out testing, while 25 percent say they infrequently carry out testing and 13 percent say they don’t test at all.
In terms of the specific types of testing being carried out, 72 percent of companies say they are most likely to test subject lines, while 62 percent are likely to carry out pre-send spam testing, 53 percent are likely to carry out tests related to the time/day of the week, and 53 percent are likely to carry out tests related to name/address.
The number of companies testing landing pages has declined 9 percent since last year’s study, according to Econsultancy. “Landing pages are a key part of the conversion process, yet just 32% of client side respondents are carrying out such tests. Also, just 32% are testing for frequency of emails, something which can be a key factor in keeping customers engaged and reducing spam reports.”
Another key problem area the study found was deliverability. Just 12 percent of respondents say they know how much of their e-mail budget has been wasted due to non-delivery, down from 17 percent in 2010 and 18 percent in 2009.
For companies that are able to put a figure on this kind of waste, they pegged it at 10 percent, while agencies pegged it at 14 percent.
What do companies see as the biggest factors for improving deliverability? Cleaning and updating lists (64 percent), the relevance of e-mails to recipients (52 percent) and sender reputation (44 percent) were the top answers, according to the study.
Among the other findings in the report are that 72 percent of companies rate e-mail as “good” or “excellent” in terms of ROI. Also, since 2007, automated campaigns are up 30 percent.
The study also found that 57 percent of marketers don’t integrate social media and e-mail, while 45 percent of respondents see these as separate channels and 52 percent don’t see social media as a channel for acquiring new e-mail subscribers.
Source:
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7239-email-marketers-need-to-get-back-to-basics-study
