Some 85% of online marketers admit their email marketing campaigns fail to exploit the customer data they hold – with only 20% of them using basic personalisation techniques to tailor their communications.
That is one of the stark findings of a global study, carried out by Emailvision at the tail end of 2011, which shows that although email is now more important to their overall marketing strategy
than two years ago, targeting opportunities are being
missed.
The research appears to back Silverpop’s annual Top 100 Retailers Study, which claimed online retailers could be missing out on millions of pounds worth of business by failing to follow the basic rules of email marketing – including following up cart abandonment and keeping in regular contact.
The Emailvision study adds that while email persists as a strong, high-ROI channel, there is a clear understanding by marketers that customer data remains an untapped source of opportunity for their online marketing.
The full findings include:
97% of responders believe that sending well-targeted, personalised emails is an “important” or “very important” factor in achieving the best response rates
Only 55% of responders said they were satisfied with their ability to segment and target their customers by basic demographic data, purchase behaviour, relationship to the brand or response rates
Only 20% of those questioned said they were personalising all of the emails they send
More than 85% of marketers recognise they are not fully utilising the available customer data provided by their email-based campaigns.
Tim Watson, an email marketing specialist and board member with the UK DMA, said, “Most online marketing managers are not using the full range of available data to maximize the effectiveness of their messages, but the good news is that marketers clearly understand the importance of data in email marketing. With visibility and actionable data, marketers know they have a tremendous opportunity in 2012 to take their email marketing to the next level.”
The research was conducted in November 2011. 700 organisations from 10 countries (UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia and Switzerland) were surveyed.
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Charlie says: You could understand this if we were in the early days of email marketing but with the discipline now well and truly established it is baffling to see so many firms failing to exploit the data at their disposal. Still, the only way is up, as they say…