What separates high-performing email marketers from the rest of the pack?Introduction Executive Summary Email Marketing Objectives Email Marketing Challenges Email Marketing Tactics where email effectiveness is on the rise, its likely the result of an investment in time, tools, or acquiring skills to use email effectively.THE STATE OF EMAIL MARKETING 2019 13 FIGURE 5 Revenue growth in the past year is related to increased email marketing effectiveness. Email Marketing Effectiveness and Revenue Growth Significant increase Slight increase Holding steady Slight decline Significant decline 31% 34% 32% 27% 21% Revenue increase Revenue decline Revenue flat 11% 10% 14% 17% 3% 3% 4% 4% 45% 44% When analyzing this email effectiveness data, an interesting relation- ship came to light between revenue growth and email effectiveness. Study participants were asked to characterize their organizations revenue growth during the most recently completed fiscal year, using the following categories: Figure 5 displays this relationship between revenue growth and email marketing effectiveness. There are certain cautions to note when looking at correlations in data. Statisticians and marketing research analysts are always quick to point out that “correlation is not causation” and that adage applies here. It is an oversimplification to imply that investing to increase email marketing effectiveness guarantees revenue growth. Managing an effective email marketing program isnt a guaranteed cure for all revenue ills, but this data shows it clearly can serve as a component in driving growth. This relationship between email marketing effective- ness and revenue growth should cause marketers to sit up and take notice. Their efforts to curate an effective email marketing program can play a key role in driving revenue growth. EMAIL MARKETING OBJECTIVES (15%) Significant increase (53%) Slight increase (8%) Slight decline (19%) Flat or no growth (5%) Significant declineTHE STATE OF EMAIL MARKETING 2019 14 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Email Marketing Challenges 2019 THE STATE OF EMAIL MARKETINGTHE STATE OF EMAIL MARKETING 2019 15 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The study inventoried the challenges of marketing through the email channel, as Figure 6 summarizes. Email Marketing Challenges The top challenge for 2019 remains the same, although at a lower severity than in 2018. Deliverability, however, has surged as a problem, up 12 percent year-over-year. A new challenge appears as a response option in the 2019 survey: “Lack of tools to optimize or personalize email,” and it ranks fourth in the 2019 list of challenges. The “Other challenge” response option elicited some insightful write-in comments, which we summarize here: Lack of engagement, list growth, data quality, email copywriting, technology stack limitations, internal silos. FIGURE 6 Competing for attention in the inbox remains the top email marketing challenge. Email Marketing Challenges Competition for attention in the inbox Poorly defined metrics Staffing/ Resource constraints Limitation of email service provider Email deliverability Low visibility into email performance Lack of tools to optimize or personalize email Lack of executive buy in Poor email performance Not experiencing any challenges Other challenge 6% 8% 6% 3% 45% 40% 37% 31% 25% 26% 26% 24% 24% 23% 23% 22% 13% 14% 21% 41% 54% 2018 2019THE STATE OF EMAIL MARKETING 2019 16 EMAIL MARKETING CHALLENGES While some debate may exist about the quality of open rate as a metric, the reality is that no other actions can occur that matter to email marketers unless emails are opened. Figure 7 compares open rates from the 2018 study with 2019 study data. The greatest change in the 2019 study comes in the middle of the range shown in Figure 7. In 2018, 39 percent of participants reported open rates between 11 and 20 percent. In 2019 that figure is 46 percent, and the increase comes from both ends of the range: fewer participants reported open rates of 5 percent or less, and fewer also reported open rates of more than 21 percent. FIGURE 7 The average email open rate for the 2019 study skews higher than in 2018. Average Email Open Rates for Bulk Sends 11 to 15% More than 25% 6 to 10% 21 to 25% 16 to 20% 5% or less 2018 2019 12% 8% 12% 12% 15% 16% 16% 19% 18% 27% 23% 22%THE STATE OF EMAIL MARKETING 2019 17 EMAIL MARKETING CHALLENGES Open rates correlate to email marketing effectiveness, and Figure 8 shows how strong the relationship is between reported effectiveness and open rates. The relationship between open rates and email marketing effectiveness is intuitive, and Figure 8 shows exactly what logic suggests we should see. Seeing the actual comparison numbers, however, is impactful. Over half of participants whose email marketing effectiveness is increasing enjoy open rates of 16 percent or more. Barely one-third of those whose email marketing effectiveness is decreasing report the same open rates. Investing to increase email marketing effectiveness will pay dividends in higher open rates. FIGURE 8 Study participants that report greater email marketing effectiveness also report higher open rates. Average Open Rates 24% both in-house 50% both in-house & outsourced B2C firms are more willing to invest in outside resources to help with their email marketing efforts. Looking at the use of resources from Figure 9, using the average open rates in Figure 7 revealed no significant difference in which resources were in use. In other words, lower open rates were not associated with heavier reliance on one type of resource over another. The resource use mix was virtually identical for open rates of 15 percent and below, and for 16 percent and above. Clearly, concerning open rates, other disciplines and best practices come into play.