Commentary

It's Raining Emails: Most Brands Are Sending More, But Engagement Is A Challenge

Most brands are sending more email this year to some degree, according to Email Marketing Automation, a study by Ascend2. 

Of the brands polled, 74% are increasing their send, 36%, significantly, and 38% moderately. Another 20% are staying the same, and a mere 6% are decreasing their volume, 3% significantly. 

But emailers face challenges, the most difficult ones being: 

  • Maintaining an engaged list — 45% 
  • Reducing spam complaints — 37% 
  • Increasing email list size — 34%
  • Achieving measurable ROI — 33%
  • Integrating email data with other systems — 29%
  • Leveraging personalization effectively — 28%
  • Optimizing for mobile — 22% 

And the respondents listed several areas for improvement:

  • Personalization — 43%
  • Data quality — 39%
  • Email design — 34% 
  • Messaging — 33% 
  • Types of content — 28%
  • Calls—to—action (CTAs) — 23% 
  • Automation — 21% 
  • Testing — 16%
  • Segmentation — 15% 

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Despite all this, 38% rate their email programs as very successful at meeting the goals set for them — or best in class.

Another 50% say they’re somewhat successful, and 12% are unsuccessful. 

The brands polled do a certain amount of testing before they mail. They test: 

  • Design — 43% 
  • Deliverability — 36%
  • Subject lines — 35% 
  • Subscriber verification—32% 
  • Accessibility — 31%
  • Sender reputation/spam score — 28%
  • HTML validation — 25% 
  • Device/Email client display — 23% 

Their most effective automated emails are: 

  • Welcome/thank you — 49%
  • Survey/feedback — 46% 
  • Re-engagement — 32% 
  • Remarketing — 11% 
  • Personal event — 30%
  • Transactional — 21%
  • Onboarding — 18% 
  • Abandoned cart — 15% 

How long should they keep an inactive subscriber before removing them from the list? Most would wait a fair amount of time:

  • 2-6 months — 31% 
  • 6-12 months — 28% 
  • More than one year — 25% 
  • 1 month or less —16% 

Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 298 marketers in December 2020. Of those, 31% were B2B, 40% were B2C and 29% were B2B and B2C equally. 

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