The Data and Marketing Association (DMA) has released a new study focusing on analysing email marketing campaign effectiveness, finding that campaigns including email are more effective than the average campaign.
In partnership with Campaigner (a Ziff Davis brand), DMA has analysed data from over 300 email campaigns and 1,000 cross-channel campaigns.
According to the association, emails generate 2.8 effects per campaign overall with 2.0 response effects and 0.5 business effects.
“These campaigns are above average performers in generating response and business effects, but below average at generating brand-building effects, giving a useful indication of where the channel’s strengths lie,” DMA said.
“Email marketing tends to under-perform against campaign averages for generating brand effects, yet at the same time it is not totally ineffective in this field, accumulating 0.3 brand effects per campaign on average.”
As a result, email is a less frequently used channel for ‘shifting the dial’ on brand metrics like brand awareness, consideration, and purchase intent.
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“The events of the last two years have placed greater importance on the role of the email channel, and indeed all personalised customer comms. With a progressive and active CRM strategy, an up-to-date and replenished email list, and engaging personalised creative, email can deliver the audience engagement that marketers crave,” DMA director of insight Tim Bond said.
“There is no use in flying blind, relying on open rates and click-through rates if they cannot be tied back to meaningful commercial outcomes for an organisation. As the original one-to-one digital channel, email has a unique opportunity to get measurement right.”
The research’s findings highlight that growth in ‘customer retention activity’ worked well in 2020, while in 2021 incremental demand decreased from existing customers. The association found that email generates the largest number of effects (3.1 effects per campaign) when used to target new customers, compared with 2.6 effects in retention campaigns.
Bond added: “While predominately used for customer retention, the email channel is also a customer acquisition driver. However, a focus on email contact acquisition is needed by all brands to boost its effectiveness here. By the same token, although primarily used as a direct response platform, email can also have a significant brand impact for organisations – shifting the dial on the attitudinal metrics than are so important in stimulating future demand.”
The DMA study also showed that email is more effective when part of a multi-channel campaign than when used in isolation, as a 29% increase in the total number of effects was recorded for multi-channel as opposed to ‘solus’ email campaigns.
Campaigner director of client services Amy Doyle concluded: “A thoughtful and consolidated approach to email marketing, focusing on the collaborative effects it could have when planned in line with your other brand and customer-driven outreach programs, rather than a program with a plan of its own, is what is needed to drive the greatest impact to and results for your business.”
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