Email marketing is still one of the most efficient marketing channels available. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing is projected to generate a return on investment of $43.52 in 2009. This is more than twice search marketing and other marketing channels.
- Photo by Francesco Marino
However good that ROI is, it may be understated. That’s due to cross-channel tracking issues. Tracking the effectiveness of an email marketing effort when recipients respond offline leaves you pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to tie purchases back to the original email. Though some companies attempt to track these actions by using coupons and unique phone numbers, these are not always perfect mechanisms for tracking and are not being utilized by many companies.
Tracking visitors who call or visit the store as a result of an email is certainly difficult to measure. However, according to Epsilon, 67% of subscribers say they’ve purchased products offline as a direct result of receiving an email from a retail company. This makes sense when you think about the call to action in many email messages drives visitors to a phone or store. And, according to Forrester Research, email is as effective at driving action offline as it is online, with 44% of all subscribers inspired to take action online versus 41% offline. This just reiterates the fact that it is so important for marketers to figure out how to improve tracking of these actions.
One other messaging component that can not be forgotten is mobile. A recent Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) survey revealed that 54% of those surveyed were interested in mobile as a point of contact with companies they do business with, and 70% would allow brands to target them on their mobile devices given the right incentives to sign up.
There is so much opportunity for email / mobile marketers and the ROI results show that this is still a great marketing channel.
