New research reveals that 91% of marketers believe poor email deliverability has a negative financial impact on their business, with 8% saying the effect was severe.
The study, Email Deliverability 2020: A Journey into the Inbox, from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) and email marketing company Validity, found marketers cite a number of problems when it comes to ensuring emails reach their target.
Twenty percent mentioned high bounce rates, 18% “IP address reputation”, 18% “low reader engagement/ spam complaints” and 17% cited “being blacklisted”.
“Email is a core medium around which to build a successful, multi-channel marketing campaign” said Tim Bond, head of insight at the DMA. “This is something we have heard from both customers and marketers, with the latter now reporting the return on email marketing investment at just over £35 for every £1 spent.
“Deliverability is the first step in email’s journey to the consumer’s inbox and it is crucial,” he continued. “Mistakes at this early stage may cause significant financial impact – as over 90% of marketers told us in this survey.”
A growing number of marketers rate their own best practice knowledge as “poor”, the study found – up from 10% last year to 16% this year.
Many marketers think the necessary skills and know-how for successful email deliverability are to be found elsewhere in their organisations, rather than with themselves – only 49% said their team’s knowledge of best practice was “good” and 17% said it was “very good”.
As to what they consider to be best practice and what their company does currently, most marketers views were aligned, with a tendency to focus on “compliance with legislation/standards” when it comes to best practice (40%) and what they actually do (38%).
“A good deliverability strategy needs to be both comprehensive and multidisciplinary,” said Guy Hanson, VP of customer engagement at Validity International.
“Deliverability success involves committing budget and resource if you are going to do it well, and those that do see positive returns from their investment.”
Sourced from DMA
