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At extravision we like to keep our customers informed about the latest trends in email marketing; in the past weýve analysed the results of surveys, such as the Direct Marketing Associationýs annual e-commerce survey. We also regularly test the opinion of senior level managers and business owners and recently undertook a survey of our own. The results demonstrate that although most companies think that email will be an important part of their future marketing mix, few are collecting and managing email addresses that will enable them to do so now...
Throughout June and July 2002, extravision undertook a telephone-based survey of 500 UK companies across a variety of Industry sectors including retail, manufacturing and service.
Most of the respondents were decision-makers (98%) within their organisations being either Managing Directors, Sales/Marketing directors or Marketing Managers
The key findings:
- 74% said that they were considering email marketing in the medium/long term future
- only 27% were actually collecting and managing email addresses at the present time
- 26% admitted failing to collect any email addresses at all at present.
- Over three quarters currently spend a large proportion of their marketing budgets on traditional methods such as direct mail and telesales, however half of these companies admitted that response levels were low and they found it difficult to establish ROI.
Alastair Campbell, Sales Director of extravision, believes that the results of this survey indicate that the majority of UK companies are missing out on the clear benefits email marketing can bring. The survey further revealed that this reluctance to develop email based marketing campaigns was down to two main factors:
- 36% cited a fear of being perceived as a spammer,
- 34% admitted that they simply did not have enough email addresses.
In many ways, companies are right to worry about damaging their reputations with spam, and not having enough email addresses is obviously a hurdle, but with a little help these are two issues that are easily surmountable.
Personalisation and easy list building..
If the content of the email is written in a personal way to a named contact then thereýs no reason why it should be perceived as spam. Personalisation is one of the most important elements of successful email marketing, every email should be written as if it is a one to one, even if in reality it is one to many. Not only should it address the recipient by name and include some information about past history if possible, but it should also be written in an informal, chatty style.
As for collecting emails ý weýve found that one of the easiest and most successful ways of building an email list is to conduct a telesales campaign to customers. Emailing existing customers is a strategy we highly recommend at extravision. Not only is it more likely that your recipients will welcome an email from you because they know you, but itýs much easier to sell to someone who has bought from you previously than it is to sell to a stranger.
Trackable ROI
It is clear from the results of our survey that most managers do not feel confident about the ability of traditional methods to deliver Return on Investment. Not only does email marketing consistently deliver better results (20-30% compared to 2% for direct mail), but it is also much easier to track and prove. The Internet offers the ability to trace the behaviour of customers in a way that just was not possible previously. All campaigns we run at extravision have some level of tracking. It means that our customers do not have to guess which elements of a campaign have been the most or least successful. Measuring responses then enables them to deliver more and more successful campaigns and respond more effectively to customersý needs.
Summary
The problem for companies that are too cautious about email marketing is that getting permission to send emails looks likely to become more difficult in years to come with the adoption of EU directives into British law. extravision Sales Director Alastair Campbell warns: ýWith so many companies placing email marketing as a high priority for the future itýs my guess that those who fail to develop an email strategy now will lose competitive advantage as a result. If your competitors arenýt using email now you can bet they soon will be - better that you are already establishing personal relationships with your customers via email than allowing someone else that window of opportunity.ý
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