Email marketing is as lucrative if not more than before

Around 97 percent of consumers and 94 percent of marketers are using email, and email lovers are amongst marketers' most valuable customers, says a new study by Forrester Research Inc. entitled “Email Marketing Comes of Age”. Not only do they spend more online, buy impulsively and are prepared to pay for convenience, they are also great advocates, forwarding emails they value to others.

The report’s author, Shar VanBoskirk, compared marketing emails with direct mail and allayed any fears that email may have lost its effectiveness, reports DMNews.com. “It should not be a concern that it’s lost its effectiveness, it is still very powerful. It’s just that it’s become like direct mail, which is still an effective marketing tool, but people aren’t as excited about it.”

Even though email click-through rates have hung around the 5 percent mark for the last few years, the study says the audience is steady and the consumers remain valuable. Those who purchase items advertised via email, says the report, spend 138 percent more online than those who don’t purchase through email.

During 2007, email strategies will begin to mature and become more sophisticated. Marketers need to be aware of, and respond to, consumer behaviour in order to maximise response rates and encourage engagement, while ensuring adequate analytics are in place to turn the data into valuable information.

Tags: click through rates, email marketing, Forrester Inc, online shopping, online spending