National email benchmarking report H2 2012

Email marketing finds itself in an unusual position. For the first time in recent history, the industry is not obliged to defend itself from accusations that the channel has become outdated in a multichannel digital world. On the contrary, newer channels like social media are now increasingly compared to email and asked to prove they can offer similar value. This turnaround is particularly noticeable in media coverage, with headlines such as “Stores Seeking Shoppers Find E-Mail Outdraws Facebook”1 or “Email Is Crushing Twitter, Facebook for Selling Stuff Online”2 replacing obsolete “Email is Dead” announcements.

The DMA's National email benchmarking report H1 2012 revealed a record volume of sent email and the National email client survey 2013 also painted a positive picture: around a third of respondents said email marketing accounted for at least half of all digital business revenue and 89% declared email to be “important” or “very important” to their organisation. 2011 and early 2012 also saw growing acknowledgement of the varied business objectives email can contribute to. Email was perceived as moving beyond standalone direct response sales to a more diverse role, delivering broader content, supporting other channels, underpinning multichannel initiatives, and driving loyalty, awareness and branding.

The industry also promoted more advanced tactics, particularly behavioural email and mobile optimisation. One issue for H2 2012 is how much this was reflected in actual email campaigns. Much of the newly positive media attention, for example, has focused on the direct sales aspect. So there are perhaps twin, and to some extent conflicting, evolutionary patterns developing – a move toward a more holistic approach to email, but also more intensive exploitation of its core strength: direct response. Does H2 2012 benchmarking data hint at the path the industry is taking?

Another issue is how metrics respond to the massive growth of mobile email: 41% of opened emails were opened on a mobile device in H2 2012. The equivalent figure in H2 2011 was 27% (and only 13% in Q4 2010)5. How did metrics change in H2 2012? After all, despite email’s strong position in the hearts, minds and bank accounts of organisations, unique click-through rates were at all-time lows in H1 2012.

National email benchmarking report H2 2012