New Survey: Email Marketing Leads Pack for Businesses Planning to Increase Marketing Budgets in 2009

Despite the current recession, there is a bright spot for email marketing. According to nearly a thousand respondents to “StrongMail’s 2009 Marketing Outlook” survey, more than half of business executives are planning to increase their marketing budgets in 2009, and the top area of investment by far is email marketing at 73% (search and advertising are next at 44% and 35% respectively). Conducted in December 2008, the survey generated responses across all industries, with strong representation in retail, financial services, technology and media/entertainment.

The reason email garners so much attention is clear. Not only is email a cost-effective channel, it also allows companies to deliver highly personalized, one-to-one messages – and, in this economic climate, delivering relevant offers and information will be critical for connecting with budget-strapped consumers and getting them to loosen their purse strings.

This focus on personalized programs like email and search is also underscored by the survey, which found that 81% of business executives plan to use information in customer databases, analytic tools and other resources to send more relevant email to consumers and prospects in 2009, or are currently considering in investing in tools that will enable them to do so.

As you finalize your 2009 marketing budgets, these projections should help you make the case for increased investment in email marketing. Another compelling statistic to add to your arsenal comes from the Direct Marketing Association, which estimates that commercial email will generate $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008, and that contrasts with $22.52 for non-email Internet marketing (SEO, ads) and $7.09 for catalog.

The ROI of email is certainly compelling, but making the right investment with the right strategy is critical for maximizing its effectiveness. The answer is not to send more email, but rather to assess your email programs and find out how you can make them more effective through relevance, testing and optimization. Leveraging customer databases and other backend systems will provide you with the information you need to send targeted messages, and testing tools will help you determine the best way to present those messages. As companies begin to shift more marketing dollars to email (and consumer inboxes pay the price), you can’t afford to send broadcast messages that get lost in the clutter.

If your organization is looking to make cuts in marketing, you should be prepared to defend email marketing as one of the most (and likely the most) cost-effective channels at your disposal. Even more, you should argue that a percentage of cuts from less targeted channels should be reinvested in email to drive even better results. The data from this survey will show that you’re not alone, and given the numbers, it’s likely that a number of your competitors will be adopting the same strategy. In fact, the survey found that only 4% of respondents plan to cut their email marketing budget.

As we head into 2009, consumers are likely to be more conservative with their spending, and companies ill-prepared to accommodate this shift in attitude will suffer. However, the companies that invest in the right strategy, technology and tools now will be able to weather the storm and come out ahead. As you begin to evaluate your own email marketing strategy, the resources and tips featured in the rest of this newsletter will help guide you in the process.

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Email Deliverability Success is a Strategy…
Not a Game, and Not an Accident

Location: Westin Kierland ~ Scottsdale, AZ
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm

Deliverability is an evolving challenge that encompasses permission, IP address reputation, and authentication, but also the email landscape includes newer challenges such as mobile delivery, image suppression, and domain reputation. Learn to create a strategy that produces optimal long-term results and what the trends are among the largest ISPs.

Speakers:
- Spencer Kollas, Director of Delivery Services, StrongMail
- Tom Bartel, CIPP, VP, Accreditation Services, Return Path
- Michelle Eichner, COO & VP of Client Development, Pivotal Veracity
- Chip House, VP, Marketing Services, ExactTarget

Event Details and Registration >>

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Email marketing is an extremely dynamic discipline that changes constantly with the introduction of new technologies, regulations and consumer behavior. As an email marketer, you're charged with keeping track of these changes and making the appropriate changes to maximize the ROI of your email programs.

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Leverage Segmentation to Drive Results:
Here’s How.

According to a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association, email remains the most profitable direct channel in a marketer's arsenal. In fact, the DMA estimates that email programs will drive roughly $21.9 billion in sales by the end of 2008. While this is a great statistic, email marketers can't become satisfied with their programs' results.

Remember, each of you is a single campaign away from your best customers' unsubscribe requests. How do you stay relevant? How do you drive performance forward and avoid the trap of resting on past accomplishments?

You do it by making a commitment to delivering more segmented and valuable digital communications. If you still send the same broadcast email to every member on your list, or need to up your game to improve your segmentation strategies, read on to learn some tips that'll help.

The Basics: Data
If you're just beginning to consider sending more segmented communications, the first step is to forget about email and think about data. The data attributes you collect about your recipients fuel your segmentation strategies. Evaluate the attributes available to you, and determine what segments you can create. The segments should allow you to create email campaigns that communicate specific messages to specific individuals.

A great way to get started with data segmentation is to develop "personas." In general, personas represent groups of customers based on everything from geographic regions to purchase histories. Personas make it easier to manage content as you begin more advanced segmentation.

Intermediate: Email technology
Once you have your data ready to go, you need to make sure you have the tools at your disposal to use it. The first thing to consider is how you connect your email solution to the data needed to drive segmentation. The easier it is for marketing to access customer data, the more likely you are to actually use it on a regular basis. Find an email solution that can connect directly to your database — or at least offer a direct view into the database to allow you to practice segmentation. Once the email solution has access to the data, be sure the process of building segments and dynamic templates is simple.

Advanced: External data
Now that you have access to customer data, have built personas that allow you to send much more relevant email and have a tool set that enables you to do so, what can help get you to the next level? Add enhanced data, which refers to appending database attributes such as demographic and socioeconomic data to your core house file. Once combined with your database, this information helps further define and segment personas for more relevant email communications.

The concept of using click-through activity on a Web site to drive email communication is nothing new, but only a small percentage of companies take full advantage of it. Start simple with things like shopping cart abandonment. Then work your way up to responding to specific searches for products that don't result in sales. Communicating with customers during the buying process can increase your program effectiveness exponentially.

Regardless of the extent to which you segment your programs, remaining relevant is the key to continued email success. Take small steps, but by all means, start moving forward now.

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A big part of deliverability comes down to best practices and having the right tools and technology to follow through with them. The good news is that StrongMail’s 2008 webinar series has touched on many of the core topics that will enable you to increase your email deliverability rates.

From determining the ROI from increased deliverability to practical tips for both marketers and IT, the webinar archives listed below will enable you to learn from experts and listen in on lively Q&A sessions. These on-demand events are a valuable resource for business leaders looking to take their email programs to the next level.

On-Demand Webinars:

> The ROI of Email Deliverability and Centralization
> The On-Premise Advantage for Marketing and Transactional Email
> Top 10 Things IT Needs to Know to Get Commercial Email Delivered
> 20 Quick Tips for Improving Your Email Programs
> Email Centralization: Practical Tips for Getting Started


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