Email Continues to Deliver Strong ROI and Value for Marketers

The Growing and Engaged Email Audience: Mobile Trends and Performance Insights

Despite periodic claims of declining, email continues to thrive as a core marketing channel. Its sustained success, however, hinges on marketers addressing the impact of mobile usage, increasing message volume, and data-driven personalization. These trends are detailed in eMarketer’s report, “Email Marketing Benchmarks 2016: Relevancy, Frequency, Deliverability, and Mobility.”

Email’s Strong ROI

Email remains a top performer in delivering a return on investment (ROI). A June 2016 survey by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Demand Metric found that email generated a median ROI of 122% – over four times higher than formats like social media, direct mail, and paid search.

Similarly, a March 2016 Econsultancy study found that email marketing was cited most frequently by agency professionals (80%) and in-house marketers (73%) as the tactic with the most substantial ROI. Despite representing just 16% of total marketing budgets, email contributed to 23% of total sales – a testament to its efficiency.

Revenue Growth and Market Penetration

Email’s contribution to revenue continues to rise. In December 2015, a survey by the Relevancy Group (sponsored by PostUp) revealed that 24% of U.S. email marketers attributed over a quarter of their overall revenues to email initiatives, up from 13% in 2013.

The expanding email user base fuels this growth. In 2016, eMarketer estimated 240.1 million U.S. email users, representing 89.8% of Internet users and 74.1% of the population. By 2020, this number is expected to grow to 258.9 million.

Performance Benchmarks

While email maintains strong ROI, evolving audience behaviors and best practices require marketers to refine their performance measurements.

• Open Rates and Click-Through Rates (CTR):
  Epsilon’s Q1 2016 analysis of emails sent in North America revealed an open rate of 33.3%, the highest since Q1 2014. CTRs, though declining in recent years, slightly recovered at 3.4% in Q1 2016.

• Deliverability:
  The nonbounce rate (percentage of emails delivered) was 95.6%, marking its lowest since 2014.

Embracing Data-Driven Insights

Marketers increasingly rely on performance metrics to adapt to audience behaviors. A February 2016 Origami Logic survey found that nearly half of North American marketing professionals measured email performance metrics at least weekly. However, many focused on a limited set of signals, with 32% tracking three or fewer, highlighting room for deeper analytical approaches.

The Mobile Shift

The shift to mobile is reshaping email engagement. To remain effective, marketers must optimize content for mobile devices, where more users are accessing email. Personalization and relevance, driven by data insights, are key to meeting the expectations of this mobile-savvy audience.

Conclusion

The email audience is growing and becoming more engaged and mobile-oriented. By embracing mobile-first strategies, leveraging performance metrics, and maintaining data-driven personalization, marketers can ensure email remains a powerful and adaptable channel in their toolkit.