Demographics

The most e-marketing tactics implemented in 2009  were tweeting e-mail newsletters and sending out blog entries to e-mail lists, according to a survey of US small businesses by e-mail marketing company AWeber.  Fewer than 4 in 10 small businesses were engaging in those activities, and only about a quarter had e-mail sign-up forms on their social profiles or links within e-mail messages to follow them on social sites.

Social media marketing tactics US small businesses integrated with their e-mail marketing campaigns in 2009 (% of respondents):
- Tweet my e-mail newsletters: 36.01%
- Broadcast blog entries to my e-mail list: 35.14%
- Add sign-up forms on social media pages like Facebook: 25.38%
- Include "follow us" links in e-mail messages: 23.56%
- Place a link to each email message on social media pages: 20.0%
- Include share options in e-mail messages: 13.10%
- None: 31.87%

Many more small businesses have plans for the coming year, and more than ¾ consider integration of e-mail and social at least somewhat important. A majority plan to allow users to sign up for e-mails directly from social media sites like Facebook. This tactic allows e-mail marketers to grow their lists-cited as the top benefit of integrating social and e-mail by one-third of respondents-by allowing consumers to use their channel of choice and sign up on their own terms.

Almost half of small businesses will include "follow us" links in their e-mails, and about 44% will include share options in their messages. Just 13.1% of respondents had such options in 2009.

According to a study by e-mail marketing company GetResponse, including a social sharing option in an e-mail increased their clients' click-through rates from an average of 7.2% to 8.7%, and including as many as three different sharing options boosted the rate to 11.2%.

(eMarketer, June 2010)

Multichannel campaigns will find greater success when marketers are aware of consumer preferences and behaviours, according to findings from a Forrester Consulting study commissioned by ExactTarget.  Just 32% of US marketing decision-makers surveyed in July 2009 said they knew how their customers behaved across channels, and only 37% were aware of consumers' channel preferences.

In June 2009, ExactTarget found in its "2009 Channel Preferences Survey" that Americans' opinions about permission marketing were changing.  Respondents' preference for e-mail and text messaging was greater than the year before, and direct mail was losing ground fast.

Change in preferred channel of permission-based promotional messages among US internet users, June 2009 (% change):
- E-mail: +3.6%
- Text messaging: +2.9%
- Phone: +1.4%
- Instant messaging: +0.6%
- Social media: +0.3%
- Direct mail: -8.6%

Now, consumers choose e-mail at a rate of three-to-one over any other channel for marketing communications. But permission is key.  Half of consumers said unsolicited messages were unacceptable even from companies they did business with regularly; this was up from about a quarter in 2008.

Interestingly, as e-mail gained in popularity for marketing messages, internet users reported using it less for their own written communications, down 10% points year over year.

Written communication method used most often by US internet users, June 2009 (% of respondents):
- E-mail: 57% (down from 67% in February 2008)
- Text messaging: 24% (up from 16%)
- Social networks: 10% (up from 3%)
- Instant messaging: 5% (down from 8%)
- Letters/postcards: 3% (down from 5%)

In spite of Web users' increased use of social networks for written communication, they were not very open to receiving marketing messages through such sites.  ExactTarget found that 70% of monthly Facebook users who were fans of a brand said they had not given companies permission to send them information through the channel; again marking the importance of explicit opt-ins and channel preferences. (eMarketer, October 2009)

E-mail marketers are used to seeing reported delivery rates around 95%. However, data from Return Path, an e-mail services company, indicates they may be missing the hard truth. Hard bounces, which are admittedly rare, are not the only reason for non-delivery of e-mail. ISP and corporate filtering systems quietly weed out messages without informing the sender. Some messages end up in bulk or spam folders, while others are, according to Return Path, "completely missing". In all, Return Path found 79.3% of permission e-mail messages made it to inboxes in North America in the first half of 2009.

Average inbox placement rate for permission commercial e-mail in North America, First half 2009 (% of e-mails sent):
- Inbox: 79.3%
- Missing: 17.4%
- Junk: 3.3%

In the US alone, the inbox placement rate was slightly higher, at 82%. It was even more difficult for e-mail marketers to reach business subscribers. Only 72.4% of business-to-business (B2B) e-mails were delivered to inboxes.

Successful delivery rates varied widely by ISP. In the US, Gmail subscribers were hardest to reach, with a 23% failure rate. Hotmail and MSN were close behind, at 20% each.

Many marketers are still resistant to implementing the best practices that make email deliverability more likely and more consistent, according to Return Path. We still see programs with high frequency, low value and lack of segmentation. Welcome messages, efficient opt-out procedures and appropriate permission levels are all best practices recommended by Return Path. (eMarketer, August 2009)

94.1% of marketing e-mails were delivered in Q1 2009, according to the "Q1 2009 Email Trends and Benchmarks" report by Epsilon. In addition, 22.1% of e-mails were opened and 6.1% were clicked through. Open and click-through rates were up slightly from Q4 2008 when rates were 20.9% and 5.8% respectively. Deliveries were down compared to Q4 2008 when it stood at 94.4%.

How often e-mails were opened and clicked varied with the industry of the sender and the size of the list.

In Q1 2009, general financial services e-mails were opened most frequently in North America, followed by general business products and services, and credit cards and banks. The least popular categories were apparel, publishing and media, consumer packaged goods and electronics.

Click-through rates in January through March 2009 were highest for consumer packaged goods, followed by general financial services and pharmaceuticals. (eMarketer, July 2009)

Two out of five marketers say that sponsoring a Web site or page is the most effective way online to enhance a brand's perception, according to the 2009 Advertising Effectiveness Survey conducted by Forbes magazine. 

Respondents to the survey said the most effective tools for generating conversions, such as a sale, are: search engine optimization (48%); e-mail marketing (46%) and pay-per-click search marketing (32%).

Looking ahead, those surveyed said they expect viral marketing and search engine optimization will likely see the biggest increases in allocation of marketing budgets in the coming six months. Ad networks, they said, will likely see the biggest decline in share of marketing budgets during that time. (ClickZ, June 2009)

18% of US e-mail marketers interviewed in February-March 2009 said that they are not tracking the effectiveness of their campaigns, according to eROI. Reasons for not tracking varied. Most marketers not tracking site conversions did not know how. Lack of time and budget were also concerns.

Similarly, the biggest reasons for not tracking e-commerce conversions were lack of knowledge and budget. (eMarketer, April 2009)

In the travel industry where so much activity has moved to the online arena, it's crucial that companies communicate effectively and efficiently with their customers, according to a report by Epsilon "Flying High: Measuring the Value of Email Marketing for the Travel Industry". In fact, recipients of travel e-mail showed even higher loyalty than retail (56%), consumer packaged goods (55%), pharmaceutical (44%) or finance (40%) category recipients, with 63% saying in October 2008 that they were more likely to buy from companies that sent them e-mail.

A whopping 92% of respondents who received travel e-mail thought it was a "great way" to learn about new products and offerings. More importantly, consumers often took easily measurable actions such as booking online, clicking links and downloading coupons after receiving e-mail from a travel company.

Actions taken by US e-mail users as a direct result of receiving an e-mail from a travel company, October 2008 (as a % of respondents):
- Book travel online 79%
- Click link to e-mail to learn more: 73%
- Visit aggregator site: 71%
- Search for reviews: 66%
- Download/print coupon: 66%
- Visit a new destination: 55%
- Try a new hotel: 55%
- Share coupon or forward e-mail: 45%
- Try a new airline: 35%
- Type/copy URL directly into browser: 33%
- Contact travel agent: 14%

(eMarketer, February 2009)

Promotional e-mail volume accelerated in October 2008 and reached a peak in December 2008 when retailers sent consumers a monthly average of 14.6 e-mails, according to the "Retail E-Mail Year-End Trends for 2008" report from Smith-Harmon.

Average number of promotional e-mails sent by US online retailers, by month in 2008:
- January: 8.8
- February: 8.2
- March: 8.9
- April: 9.2
- May: 9.3
- June: 9.0
- July: 9.2
- August: 9.1
- September: 9.5
- October: 10.2
- November: 11.3
- December 14.6  

Smith-Harmon's analysis of the top 100 retailers revealed that 90% of them increased the number of e-mails they sent during the holidays. However, e-mail marketing still accounts for only 1.5% of direct marketing budgets in the US, according to Smith-Harmon. (eMarketer, February 2009)