"Email marketers must focus efforts on content, not devicesâ, new report highlights

Email marketers must invest their resources in producing relevant content rather than become fixated on new devices and advances in email technology, if they are to maintain consumer interest in the medium, new research published by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reveals.

Commenting on the findings of the DMA/fast.MAP 2013 Email tracker study, Dela Quist – CEO of Alchemy Worx, the report’s sponsor – said:

“While marketers put a lot of effort into keeping up with advances in email technology – accessing email via mobile devices, changes to the inbox such as Gmail tabs and so on – email usage and purchasing habits are still broadly the same.

“What motivates people to interact with brands via email hasn’t changed. If they trust a brand and it consistently gives them value, they will find your content or make that purchase using the device that’s most convenient. That’s why, as the report confirms, email continues to be one of the most powerful levers driving online revenue.”

According to the findings of the report, the number of consumers signed up to receive emails from brands they like and trust remains stable at 90%. Consumer approval of email marketing has remained unchanged in the past 12 months, with one in four people (28%) saying that more than half of the emails they receive are of relevance to them; 50% still find at least one in three emails ‘relevant or interesting’.

Saving money remains consumers’ preferred form of email content for the third year in succession.

The impact of new technologies, appears to be having little effect on the behaviour of consumers in response to email. Desktop remains the primary device for reading emails for 75% of consumers, with 57% saying they also access emails on a smartphone. However, most mobile users (68%) would wait until they’re on laptop to buy a product they saw in an email on their phone. Just 7% say they would actually buy straightaway using their phone.

James Bunting, chair of the DMA’s Email Marketing Council Benchmarking Hub and managing director at Communicator, observed:

“This year’s report shows us that marketers are continuing to do a good job of making their emails valuable. But what’s interesting is that it also points to changing trends that marketers need to react to. For example, there’s a move towards consumers actually reading email on mobile devices. The challenge for marketers is going to be to facilitate the next natural step: interaction with emails and purchasing.”

David Cole, managing director of fast.MAP, the report’s co-authors, added:

“Unlike marketing via static media such as landline and post, email communication has - since the advent of the smartphone and similar devices - become a constant, complicated game of cat-and-mouse.”

The Email Tracking Study surveys more than 1,000 UK consumers to monitor their perceptions, experiences and responses to email marketing. The study provides insight for marketers by comparing its results to those gathered in preceding years to highlight new and prevailing trends within the email marketing sector.

Download the DMA/fast.MAP Email tracker study

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Contact

Ed Owen, Head of PR
Tel. 020 7291 3324
Email ed.owen@dma.org.uk