Marketer Email Tracker 2021

According to our ‘Marketer Email Tracker 2021’ report - produced in partnership with Validity - email remains the channel brands use the most (72%) to engage with their consumers across the whole customer journey.

This is followed by social media (66%) and online ads (59%).

Over the last year, conditions brought about by the pandemic have challenged many brands to think differently.

Many marketers have embraced the challenge and started to look at email as much more than just a sales channel.

Indeed, while sales have remained a key focus for many organisations’ marketing (35%), this has reduced (24%) for email programmes.

During a year where virtual communication has been essential for brand survival, the average proportion of marketing budgets spent on email passed the 20% mark for the first time (21.3%) with 45% of the businesses spending over a fifth of their marketing budget on email.

For context this is a record since the DMA started the annual email tracking series in 2015.

More encouraging news is marketers’ estimate of email’s return on investment (ROI), up to £38.33 for every £1 spent – a figure that has risen steadily from £29.64 in 2016.

2020 also brought new challenges for email professionals: concerns around the lack of data, access to it, or its quality (52%) have significantly increased (up 10% from last year’s report).

Furthermore the percentage of marketers mentioning marketing technology issues has risen to 38% this year, up 14% from last year’s figure.

As Guy Hanson, Deputy Chair of DMA Email Council & Vice President of Customer Engagement at Validity International commented:

“It’s good to see email marketing budgets continuing to increase, but concerning that marketers are struggling more than ever with data and technology challenges.

High quality data – that is accurate, up to date, and aligned with the purpose for which it was collected – means companies can create relevant messaging that builds stronger relationships and delivers increased value.

Therefore, it is essential for businesses to not neglect investment in this precious resource, as well as the talent and technology that utilise it”.

If you are keen to learn more about how the relationship between brands and consumers via email has evolved and how the channel has developed during the last year, download the full report below.

Marketer Email Tracker 2021

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