Email marketing census reveals campaign ROI inadequately tracked

A recent email marketing industry census has revealed poor measurement and tracking of return on investment (ROI).

by Helen Leggatt

Results of Adestra’s Email Marketing Industry Census 2007 show that, despite high levels of investment, 47 percent of the 500 email marketers surveyed failed to measure any changes in revenue resulting from email campaigns.

Budget restrictions (39%) and strategy (36%) weren’t the major reasons for lack of ROI tracking. Of the 81 percent who admitted they weren’t using email as effectively as they should be 42 percent put it down to lack of training and skills.

Without accurate tracking there is no way marketers can assess the success of their email campaigns. The channel is a useful marketing tool as is demonstrated by 64% of agency and email service provider respondents saying their clients’ ROI is around 3 times or more, and over a quarter (28%) claim ROI is five times or more.

“Despite most marketers wanting their email campaigns to be more effective – and who doesn’t - as half can’t measure their ROI they have no basis for improving in future,” said Paul Crabtree, marketing director at Adestra. “The first thing they need to do is have a system for accurately tracking deliverability to the inbox, through to actual sales and therefore ROI.”