eCircle have conducted a Christmas Email Marketing survey of European marketing industry experts, which has revealed email as the single most important marketing channel for driving sales during the Christmas period this year. The survey we sent out asked questions about email spending, send-out frequency, revenue expectations and the importance of different online marketing channels. Over 40% of the industry experts we surveyed said email was a “very important” channel to generating additional sales during the Christmas period, which of course was music to our ears! In contrast, social media was considered the fourth most important channel.
With 20% behind the email channel, SEO and SEM were both viewed as ‘very important’ by 33% of the respondents. Only 19% viewed display as ‘very important’ whilst affiliate marketing scooped just 16% of the vote.
The survey also found that whilst 93% of experts believe email will increase overall consumer spending and 40% think that email marketing can generate up to a 10% increase in sales over the Christmas period, only a third said they would increase the frequency of their campaign by 10%, and a third wouldn’t increase their email activity at all. This is a clear indication that the attitude towards email has dramatically shifted over the course of 2012. Marketers have moved away from batch blasts and generic newsletters to much more targeted, personalised and relevant email communications. The research confirms that marketers are strategically sending these quality campaigns, recognising that they don’t need to increase the frequency of generic communication to drive a high return.
I look forward to seeing how this more targeted and personalised approach develops further in 2013…
