Keeping Lists Engaged Proves A Challenge

Email has a proven track record of driving sales — even more so than other popular online channels. And, it looks like marketers are showing no sign of stepping back from using this effective channel in the near future, with close to three-quarters of the almost 300 marketers surveyed [download page] by Ascend2 and its research partners saying they expect to increase the volume of sent email campaigns significantly (36%) or moderately (38%) in the year ahead.

Even though email is considered effective, marketers have run into some challenges when trying to optimize their email marketing strategy. For almost half (45%) of respondents, maintaining engagement with email subscribers is considered one of the most challenging of email marketing strategy objectives. This may prove even more of an obstacle as there is often an inverse correlation between volume and engagement.

Marketers have been using automation to aid their efforts in email engagement for some time now. Ascend2’s research found that marketers cite automated series such as welcome/thank you (49%) and survey/feedback (46%) as two of the most effective for email engagement. Re-engagement (32%), remarketing (31%) and personal events (30%) are considered among the most effective by fewer marketers surveyed.

Separately, an earlier study from SparkPost and Survey Monkey shows that, when it comes to post-purchase emails, consumers are more likely to engage with emails that offer information on special deals and discounts, requests to review products and tips for using the product or service purchased.

Along with maintaining an engaged subscriber list, marketers responding to this latest survey also say they are finding it difficult to achieve objectives such as reducing spam complaints (37%), increasing email list size (34%), and achieving measurable ROI (33%). Only about 1 in 5 (22%) say they find it difficult to optimize for mobile.

Improvements Leading to Effective Optimization

With personalization leading to an array of benefits including improved loyalty, revenue and retention, it makes sense that more than two-fifths (43%) of marketers believe that personalization is one of the most important characteristics to improve for effective optimization.

Data quality often goes hand-in-hand with personalization, but it is sometimes a hindrance if marketers are not able to access reliable data. As such, 39% of respondents listed data quality as a characteristic they are prioritizing for improvement, while others feel it is important to improve email design (34%), messaging (33%) and types of content (28%).

Testing and Inactivity