Ian Gibbs, Director of Insights at the Data & Marketing Association (DMA UK), talks about the indicators that show email marketing is becoming more effective in recent years.
Depending on how you look at it, the cost of living crisis has either created a crisis in marketing effectiveness or created an environment of great opportunity for marketers.
While consumer wallets are tight, making it difficult to elicit concrete acquisitions or divestitures in response to marketing communications, the need to nurture customers through difficult times remains fundamental for brands. It has become an important role.
The email channel is perhaps uniquely effective in this role and continues to grow in relevance for consumers. Key metrics don't lie. Email remains an important part of the consumer's omnichannel journey.
The latest research from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA UK), the 'Consumer Email Tracker 2023' report (supported by Deployteq), takes a deep dive into consumer perceptions, likes and dislikes when it comes to email. The survey asked more than 2,000 consumers about their opinions on the emails they receive from brands and how they choose to interact with them.
Email metrics show improved efficiency
The report found that a growing number of consumers say they find email brand messaging helpful. In 2021, this number was only 15%, but now he has doubled it to 32%.
Marketers are happy to know that a growing percentage of consumers find a significant portion of the emails they receive useful. Inboxes are still crowded, so complementing your utility with great design, content, offers, and other value-added features can help you build cut-through.
Another key part of this improvement is the enhancement of list segmentation processes post-GDPR, allowing more marketers to use data insights to better understand their customers and identify the right opportunities and We try to engage with consumers at the right time.
Consumers continue to rank email first (64% rank it first) ahead of all other marketing channels to receive brand messages about discounts, offers, and sales. Masu). new products/services (53%); and advice, information, and reviews (44%).
Email stands out as the channel of choice for consumers at every point in the purchasing process, meeting their needs across multiple contexts. But email shouldn't be siloed. Most effective when used in conjunction with complementary channels. These channels also score high for pre- and post-purchase communication and customer service, from in-person contact to apps and social. media.
Click-through rates also increased for all types of email communications (see chart below). The fact that Apple MPP changes shift the focus from open rate optimization to click-through rates is an important consideration for email marketers. Click-through opportunities need to be clear, visible, easy to use, and have real utility for consumers.
Consumers are choosing how they use their email addresses
More and more people are using separate inboxes for personal and marketing emails. 37% of consumers currently keep their personal and marketing emails separate using different inboxes. This is a significant increase from 23% in 2021 (+14%).
Half of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 split their email addresses this way. Furthermore, 39% of women do so compared to 34% of men. A quarter of consumers go further. They use their specific email address to receive marketing emails from the “best friend” brands they trust most. Consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 are most likely to do this (37%).
In an era of ad saturation, consumer behaviors such as ad blocking and time-shifted viewing are becoming commonplace, avoiding brand messaging across channels. Email is also unaffected. Advertising exposure is controlled by consumers, can be turned on or off at their discretion, and can occupy an inconspicuous part of their lives.
While consumers claim to have multiple email addresses, each serving a different purpose, it's important to recognize that new services from email providers are changing the game.
Some products, including Apple, allow infinite addresses. Consumers can take advantage of this and effectively have one for each brand, so the email marketing situation can be more complicated than it seems.
Consumers are also increasingly concerned about how businesses obtain their email addresses, with more than a third (34%) wondering where they get their email addresses from. This often happens. It has become clearer that companies need to be completely transparent in their communications.
Marketer and consumer behavior improves email performance
A large part of email's value is its measurability, and performance metrics tell you exactly how your email subscribers are behaving, but not necessarily why.
Our Consumer Email Tracker helps you understand that there are many reasons why many metrics have improved over the past two years, influenced by both marketer and consumer behavior.
How marketers are improving targeting, content, and communication efforts at every stage of the customer journey, and segmenting personal and marketing emails to encourage a more receptive mindset when consumers view branded emails. Whether it's a growing trend or not, it's clear that email's effectiveness is increasing. At a reassuring pace.
