Current Email Marketing Trends and Statistics

Almost 40 years after the first email campaign was sent, we know this kind of marketing strategy is still going strong today, and even more so this year because of COVID-19. Over 55% of marketers say they're getting the best ROI from email campaigns these days. In fact, in a study by Seventh Sense, more than 50% of the survey participants said they will be increasing the number of emails they send to communicate with consumers and potential consumers due to the coronavirus. Hubspot found that email marketers are sending 27% more emails now than before COVID-19. 

Marketing via emails has been known to increase ROI, customer engagement, and brand loyalty, among other important factors. Some notable statistics are:

• 31% of B2B marketers believe email newsletters are the best method of growing leads
• 80% of professionals say that email marketing improves customer retention
• Every $1 spent on email marketing generates $32 in ROI
• Emails result in higher conversion rates than social media advertising, direct traffic to sites, and search advertising

Moreover, marketers are focusing on ways to improve personalization and 67% of marketers in research completed by eConsultancy and Upland Adestra said that something that requires improvement is the ability to personalize emails. This was a larger percentage of respondents than the percentages of marketers who thought email marketing needs better cross-channel data insights, segmentation, or marketing automation. That said, data integration is said to be the biggest hurdle for companies trying to personalize their email marketing. While personalized emails are most effective, they are also reported as being among the most difficult type of messaging to deploy when compared with other emails such as e-newsletters, birthday emails, and automated/lead-nurturing emails.

In 2018, Evergage conducted a study that found that marketers use personalization for the following top purposes:

• Tailored messaging or promotions based on audience segment (76%)
• Product or content recommendations based on audience segment (51%)
• Personalized emails at send time (49%)
• Emails triggered based on user behaviors (35%)

Even consumers say that personalized marketing is at least somewhat appealing to them. This is also evident in that studies have shown that birthday emails can generated over 340% more revenue per email than standard promotional emails. Also, personalized subject lines can potentially have 50% higher open rates than standardized email subject lines.

Tools that can help marketers create more personalized email experiences for their consumers include automated user journey management platforms. These kinds of softwares allow marketers to set triggers to send emails based on a user's behavior or activity and can be useful both for customer acquisition and transformation of consumers into loyal brand advocates. B2C companies who connect with consumers through automated emails have reported seeing conversion rates up to 50% and sellers who send a series of welcome emails have seen 13% greater revenue than those retailers who only send one welcome message. To be most effective, email personalization and automation needs to be well-integrated throughout the customer journey (including data integration) to see the benefits of increased conversion and retention rates.

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