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WOWING WITH CONTEXTUAL EMAIL MARKETING A report on the state of email personalisation in Europe in 2016

Authors: Dr Dave Chaffey and Robert Jones, Smart Insights

Wowing with contextual email marketing: personalising for better results © Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited. Please go to www.smartinsights.com to feedback or access our other guides. 2

CONTENTS

Foreword by Movable Ink ...............................................................3

Executive summary .........................................................................4

Introduction ......................................................................................6

Personalising Lifecycle emails ....................................................12

Options for targeting to improve contextual relevance ................... 16

Types of dynamic content used ...................................................20

Evaluating email marketing ..........................................................25

Barriers to contextual personalisation ........................................27

Appendix ........................................................................................31

Further examples and resources .................................................31


FOREWORD

Foreword by the research sponsors: Movable Ink

As consumers, we have the world at our fingertips. We can access pretty much anything we want in a couple of clicks. That’s a lot of power. As marketers, we can no longer build our messaging around what we want our customers to know. Instead, we must create personalised experiences based on the data our customers share. In the new era of customer-led marketing, we must combine content and context in real time to create rich, relevant customer experiences.

However, many marketers are unsure how to evolve their programs to succeed in the Age of the Customer. Many hit a wall with their strategies because they’re delivering traditional marketer-led campaigns, rather than adapting to the context of the customer.

The good news is that, although the shift to consumer-led marketing may seem daunting, most EMEA marketers already have the data they need. Whether it be device-type, location or time of day, marketers are beginning to think about how they can adapt their content at the time it is opened, in order to increase click and conversion rate.

Read on to learn about the current state of contextual personalisation in EMEA and how the most effective email marketers are standing out in a crowded inbox.

Movable Ink. September 2016.

Movable Ink’s is a next generation platform, integrated into your ESP and embedded with powerful new capabilities that make email marketers faster, smarter, and more measurable than ever before.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FROM MOVABLE INK

þ Everything You Need to Know About Contextual Marketing

þ A Guide to Building a Better Email: Newsletters

þ A Guide to Building a Better Email: Welcome Series

http://bit.ly/2d13r5u

http://bit.ly/2d30AMf

http://bit.ly/2cB51cV


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This research from Smart Insights and Movable Ink explores the use of personalisation in the dynamic world of email marketing. The findings, recommendations and examples will help you understand which techniques are most popular with marketers in Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) and provide inspiration for more personalised, more engaging campaigns.

1. Promotional emails, welcome emails and newsletters dominate lifecycle email

campaign strategies; birthday, abandoned browsing and abandoned cart emails are

less popular in comparison.

The results suggest that marketers are moving away from one-off event emails to drive

revenue, such as birthdays and anniversaries, instead opting for email sequences such as

welcome series and on-going campaigns. The report revealed that birthday emails are not

rated as highly by marketers, with almost half (49%) of respondents not using them and

almost 1 in 5 (17%) saying they are not important to their email marketing strategy. Around

half of respondents said promotional emails (51%) and welcome series (50%) are the most

important campaign types when it comes to generating online sales.

2. Many EMEA marketers are failing to exploit the full range of email targeting options to

personalise their emails

Behavioural targeting is the most common segmentation method for marketers (54%).

However, 14% use none of the targeting options we suggested which included behavioural,

contextual, demographic and value options. Forty-six per cent use demographic targeting,

including age, gender and other demographic profiling information collected throughout the

buying cycle. Contextual targeting is still in its infancy, with only 29% of marketers currently

using real-time data to segment their email recipients.

3. Many companies are failing to exploit the full range of dynamic content options

When it comes to creating engaging email content, marketers are commonly incorporating

product reviews and video (41%) into their campaigns. In addition, animated gifs (27%)

and live social media feeds (25%) are being used. In order to make their emails more

relevant for their customers, marketers are updating this content at the time of open (45%)

and using real-time location data (40%). This suggests that marketers are not getting

the most out of their dynamic content, as they are not using all of the tageting options

available to them.

http://www.smartinsights.com/about/?utm_source=managing-digital-marketing-2015&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=mdm15


Executive summary

4. Most businesses are limited to fairly basic campaign measurement metrics

EMEA marketers are still relying on email open (78%) and conversion rates (59%) to track

campaign success, rather than using metrics related to list engagement, email dwell time or

monetary analysis.

5. Defining a strategy is the main barrier to contextual email personalisation

Senior managers are bought into email marketing personalisation, with nearly half (48%)

of respondents saying senior management buy in is not a problem. However, lack of email

communications strategy (46%) and budget (41%) are viewed as barriers. Traditionally,

email marketing has been a low cost marketing channel, which can create challenges when

requesting additional budget for advanced email tools.

Conclusion and recommendations

As a trend in email marketing in EMEA, we are witnessing a shift away from marketing-led communications. Instead, marketers are seeing the biggest return when they focus on on-going, customer-led email series that provide unique content to customers.

Product reviews and video are the most effective types of content to engage subscribers. In terms of targeting, marketers are using fairly traditional email segmentations, such as age, gender and location. The adoption of contextual and value-based personalisation is still in its infancy.

Email marketing’s reputation as a low cost marketing channel has affected marketers’ ability to leverage contextual personalisation, despite the opportunity for increased ROI. However, having allocated budget, marketers find that senior management buy-in is not a barrier.


INTRODUCTIONTHE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF EMAIL PERSONALISATION

Email marketing is evolving and more EMEA marketers than ever are using different methods of engagement to drive up response and sales. In this report with our partner Movable Ink, we’ll explore the dynamic new personalisation and segmentation methods that are being blended with new types of marketing content to increase conversions.

Email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of marketing and, compared to other marketing channels, has one of the highest levels of return on investment. The latest DMA UK National Client benchmark report revealed an average ROI of £38 for every £1 spent on email marketing1. In addition to this, even with the popularity of social media, Email is the preferred method of personal communication for most people too.

The need for personalisation

Due to increased competition in the inbox, EMEA marketers need to be constantly innovating in order to stand out and increase ROI. The DMA report showed that nearly one fifth of respondents had an ROI of £70. In this report we will show you how email marketing is becoming personal for recipients; you’ll see what options are out there and how they are being used.

In a world where customers expect more relevant communications, personalisation helps EMEA marketers engage and wow customers by making the message unique and engaging. We’re familiar with personalisation on websites, especially in ecommerce such as with Amazon and their “recently viewed” products and recommendations based on search queries. Yet the sophistication of email personalisation has traditionally been lacking.

By using the multitude of data collected from customer interactions with websites and email, we can infer preferences to deliver a more personalised experience. This can include relevant products, recommendations, articles and other content from live data sources such as social media and stock inventory.

The route to improved email personalisation

Since EMEA marketers started adding “first name” to email campaigns, personalisa-tion has always had a place in the world of email marketing. Research summarised by

1 UK DMA. 2015 UK National Client Benchmarking report

http://content.marketingsherpa.com/data/public/reports/benchmark-reports/EXCERPT-BMR-2013-Email-Marketing.pdf

http://dma.org.uk/research/email-roi-increases-53-to-ps38-compared-to-2013-thanks-to-new-techniques-and-approaches


Introduction

Marketing Sherpa has shown that Personalised email subject lines alone were found to increase open rates by an average of 29%2.

Yet, a 2015 study suggested that 90% of EMEA marketers were not confident in using personalisation, despite the growing number of inspirational examples.

It’s no surprise that personalised email is becoming more widely used. A study by Experian found that email personalisation can deliver six times higher transactions. However, the study also notes that 70% of brands are not taking advantage of this opportunity.

Wowing with contextual email marketing 2016 © Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited. Please go to www.smartinsights.com to feedback or access our other guides.

6

For example, Starbucks personalise their emails based on what the brand knows about its individual customer’s interests. They recently revealed that they plan to expand their targeting beyond email communications to their mobile app. Dropbox have previously sent emails to users who have logged on to multiple devices to remind them that they can download Dropbox onto multiple devices. It’s no surprise that personalised email is becoming more widely used. A study by Experian found that email personalisation can deliver six times higher transactions. However, the study also notes that 70% of brands are not taking advantage of this opportunity.

Boden needed to deliver a highly targeted data driven personalization campaign to lapsed purchasers. Research and methodology Thank you to everyone who took part in this survey, without your feedback we would not be able to provide such valuable insights. Respondents include 400 Smart Insights members and Movable Ink clients. The study had respondents from a variety of transactional Ecommerce sectors and non-Ecommerce sectors: Retail 22%

Travel 6%

Boden wanted to reactivate high-value customers by creating a personalised story for each customer. Using CRM data, such as first name, first purchase date and last purchase, Boden created 19,977 unique emails for 19,977 customers. The campaign was hugely successful, increasing their revenue per email by over 2000%, with one in ten recipients making a purchase.

2 Marketingsherpa.com Email marketing

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/personal-subject-lines

https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/10/01/nine-out-of-10-marketers-lack-confidence-in-personalisation/

https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/10/01/nine-out-of-10-marketers-lack-confidence-in-personalisation/

http://marketingland.com/study-70-brands-personalizing-emails-missing-higher-transaction-rates-revenue-73241

http://content.marketingsherpa.com/data/public/reports/benchmark-reports/EXCERPT-BMR-2013-Email-Marketing.pdf


Introduction

Research and methodology

Thank you to everyone who took part in this survey, without your feedback we would not be able to provide such valuable insights.

Respondents include 400 Smart Insights members and Movable Ink subscribers.

The study had respondents from a variety of transactional Ecommerce sectors and non-Ecommerce sectors:

Retail 22%Travel 6%Financial services 10%Other 63%

Most respondents hold senior positions in marketing with responses from Email marketing specialists too.

Marketing Manager or Director 45%Digital Marketing Manager or Director 26%Ecommerce Manager 3%Email Marketing Specialist 15%UX Specialist 3%CRM Manager or Director 6%

About Smart Insights

Smart Insights provides actionable marketing resources to help businesses succeed online.

Our Expert members use our planning and management templates, video courses and guides to Plan, Manage and Optimise their marketing investments using best practices defined in our RACE Planning framework.

See these 10 reasons why Expert members use our resources.

More than 130,000 members use our blog, sample marketing templates and weekly Digital Marketing Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and keep up-to-date with the developments that matter in digital marketing.

We have grouped our member resources on our Email marketing Toolkit. If you’re serious about improving your Email marketing we recommend our in-depth 7 Steps guide to

Email marketing which shows how to develop an email strategy and gives tips on making your emails more effective. Other resources for Expert members include:

http://www.smartinsights.com/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

https://www.smartinsights.com/membership/expert-member-reasons/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

http://www.smartinsights.com/toolkit/email-marketing/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

https://www.smartinsights.com/guides/email-marketing-7-steps-guide/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016



Introduction

þ Email marketing effectiveness audit spreadsheet

þ Email campaign calculator spreadsheet

þ Email contact strategy template

About the authors

Dr Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of digital marketing management advice site Smart Insights. He is author of 5 bestselling books on Ecommerce including Total Email marketing (2003 and 2005) and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice (6th edition 2015) and was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 2004 as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing.

Robert Jones has worked in digital marketing research for 5 years. He is a researcher and marketer who has a Psychology Masters and has built and managed online research panels, using digital marketing techniques to build them along with creating engagement programs and content strategies to keep users active. He has covered the whole spectrum of research from interviewing participants, to moderating focus groups, writing questionnaires, scripting surveys and producing actionable insight reports. He is a member of The Market Research Society (MRS).

For our Expert members – The Smart Insights Email marketing toolkit

This sample guide will introduce you to some key issues for improving your email marketing.

For more strategic AND practical recommendations, Smart Insights Expert members can consult the other resources in the Email marketing toolkit in the members area. We recommend you:

þ Score your capability using our interactive benchmarking tool which gives you

a score for 7 areas of Email marketing and then recommends where to focus

þ Complete the e-learning which takes you through key areas to improve your use

of Email marketing with each section marked off as you complete it

þ Download our ebooks on best practices including our 7 Steps guide to email

marketing and marketing automation guide.

þ Download our actionable templates, including contact strategy and email

forecasting spreadsheets to help you plan your campaigns.

http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/email-marketing-healthcheck/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/email-marketing-campaign-calculator/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016


http://www.smartinsights.com/about-dave-chaffey//?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-allan-jones-36906348?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile_pic



Introduction

If you have any questions on selecting an email provider or any other aspect of digital marketing, do ask us via our Digital Marketing Answers community.

About our partners, Movable Ink

Founded in 2010, Movable Ink pioneered the application of contextual experiences to email and has powered over 150 billion live content impressions. Movable Ink clients can use any email service provider to deliver dynamic content that changes, in real-time, according to the context of each individual consumer. More than 350 innovative companies including ASOS, eBay, House of Fraser and Virgin Holidays use Movable Ink to Market in the Moment and optimise their email campaigns to drive ROI. The company is headquartered in New York City with offices in London and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.movableink.com

Research findings and recommendations

In common with all our member resources, we have written this report to make it actionable and practical. We want to help make a commercial difference to your business. The results presented from this research are structured around practical activities companies can use to follow a more strategic, planned approach to email marketing. Each section is

http://www.smartinsights.com/community/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

http://www.movableink.com/


Introduction

structured around questions that EMEA marketers can ask to review their email marketing approach and, more generally, their approach to managing digital marketing.

How is this report structured?

The report covers these 5 sections, summarising the use of these techniques and giving examples of best practices.

þ Personalising lifecycle emails: We discuss the techniques being used to

personalise lifecycle emails

þ Targeting and contextual information: We explore how contextual information is

being used to segment email recipients

þ Increasing engagement with dynamic content: We demonstrate the types of

dynamic content being used to increase engagement

þ Evaluation of email marketing: We indicate the metrics used to measure the

success and ROI of email

þ Barriers to contextual personalisation: We discuss the barriers of using

contextual personalisation in email marketing


1 PERSONALISING LIFECYCLE EMAILS

There are many opportunities for all types of businesses to improve the relevance of their email communications by personalising their emails across the customer lifecycle. Retailers have the richest range of options to personalise emails as shown in this summary by email marketing consultant Kath Pay, author of our guide to advanced lifecycle marketing3.

Yet our research shows that promotional emails, welcome emails and newsletters dominate email campaign strategies; with birthday, abandoned browsing and abandoned cart emails less popular in comparison, however this could be because the customer data is not held or the technology is not in place to capture or to use this data.

3 Smart Insights Expert member guide: Advanced Lifecycle Email Marketing

http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/advanced-lifecycle-email-marketing-guide/


5 BARRIERS TO CONTEXTUAL PERSONALISATION 1 PERSONALISING LIFECYCLE EMAILS

Promotional campaigns naturally dominate the email marketing landscape with over half (51%) saying that such emails are very important when it comes to driving sales revenue. Considering there is much discussion in the conversion rate optimisation (CRO) sector about sending abandoned cart emails, 45% of EMEA marketers are not sending abandoned browse emails and 43% are not sending abandoned cart emails. EMEA marketers may be unable to do this with their current ESP and therefore may need to invest in other tools. The least effective lifecycle email was birthday promotional emails with just under half (49%) saying they don’t use these at all. However, birthday emails are more relevant to brands in certain industries, such as fashion and hospitality.

Whilst it was expected that abandoned cart emails would have been popular, it seems that marketers have yet to see their value, opting for regular newsletters and promotional emails to drive engagement and conversions. Reactivation and retargeting emails are growing in popularity with just over a third (33%) saying they are very important and a further 40% saying they are important.

Whilst it was expected that abandoned cart emails would have been popular, it seems that marketers have yet to see their value opting for regular newsletters and promotional emails to drive engagement and conversions. Regular newsletters are as popular as ever with over 90% of marketers using them and 82% rating them as important or very important for driving sales revenue.

Reactivation and retargeting emails are growing in popularity with a third (33%) saying they are very important and a further 40% saying they are important.



Example of a restaurant, Pizza Express, birthday promotional email.

Email retargeting conversion rates are between three and five percent higher compared to standard site retargeting.

Email retargeting is an established technique in the behavioural retargeting world. Other retargeting includes site retargeting on display and text networks and search retargeting. Traditional retargeting does have its flaws, for example a user visits your website several times and converts but the user is still shown retargeting ads, which is wasted ad spend. Email retargeting can be far cheaper as it doesn’t involve paying for clicks and impressions on third party websites.

Welcome email series are another established lifecycle marketing approach amongst retailers. They can be engaging and personal without being intrusive. Return Path reviewed emails sent by 100 major retailers and found that 75% of retailers sent welcome emails. The research also found that the welcome email is the best time to grab your customer’s attention and can help with future email deliverability, by identifying fake email addresses early on.

https://blog.retargeter.com/retargeting/email-retargeting-use-cases

http://returnpath.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Return-Path-Welcome-Email-Study.pdf



This example4 from retailer Zulily shows how welcome email sequences can engage using a variety of techniques, including referrals, discounts and encouraging activity across social networks.

4 5 Email welcome sequence example from Zulily (Curated on Pinterest by Chad White)

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/38210296811092494/


2OPTIONS FOR TARGETING TO IMPROVE CONTEXTUAL RELEVANCE

Demographic segmentation, behavioural and value-based targeting are the most common ways EMEA marketers are segmenting their email campaigns.

While the vast majority of EMEA marketers are using at least one form of targeting, only a small percentage (participants selected an average of 1.85 options) are using all of the targeting options available to them, suggesting a missed opportunity. Let’s examine each option in more detail.

1. Demographic profile targeting. Demographic information, such as age, gender and location,

is commonly the first step when it comes to email personalisation, as most businesses collect

this data when customers sign up online or make a purchase. Therefore, the use of demographic

targeting will always be a popular choice.

2. Behavioural insight. EMEA marketers are using behavioural information such as abandoned

browse and abandoned baskets to send targeted emails to their customers. In the example below

EE displayed not just the product name and image, but also specific details on the chosen plan.


2 TARGETING AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION

Email from EE explaining that a chosen product from an incomplete purchase has been saved

in the user’s basket so they can complete the purchase.

3. Value-based targeting. Value-based targeting is based on the past spend or future potential

spend of customers, for example based on lifetime value. Our report shows that value-based

targeting is used by over 4 in 10 EMEA marketers (43%).

4. Contextual targeting. Contextual targeting is, in simple terms, the use of real-time information,

such as geo-location, device and weather. It is differentiated from traditional segmenting as it

doesn’t rely on demographic information, instead it uses real-time sources to adapt the email

content at the moment it is opened.

While not as widely adopted as demographic and behavioural targeting, thirty per cent of EMEA marketers are using contextual data to personalise their email campaigns. With contextual marketing doubling ROI (Movable Ink active client data 2014) from email campaigns, this report shows there are still many untapped opportunities for EMEA marketers.



Real time information sources

We explored the use of real-time data in more detail - the fuel behind contextual marketing. The results show that time of email open data (45%) is the most common type of contextual data used by EMEA marketers.

HotelTonight used contextual marketing in an email campaign designed to encourage customers to take a spontaneous break. The company sent an automated email that pulled in offers based on three factors: the last location searched, the recipient’s real-time location and the address provided in the recipient’s profile. The email not only provided a personalised and convenient user experience, but automating the deals saved their marketing team significant time and resources, whilst also increasing conversion rate by 250%.

Interestingly, one third (33%) of EMEA marketers are optimising their email content at the point of open using real-time transactional data, for example purchase history, average order value and last order amount.

Real-time inventory information is used by just over one in ten (11%) and real-time weather information is used by 9% of EMEA marketers. The results suggest that EMEA marketers who have adopted contextual email marketing start with simple implementations, before exploring more advanced use cases through API data.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/movableink-marketing/2016/Lookbooks/Movable%2BInk_Ink5_Summer_2016.pdf



One exciting example of real-time weather targeting was created by Virgin Holidays.

Virgin Holidays promoted its Holidays Sale by creatively showcasing live weather conditions for the user’s location and advertised destination using animated gifs. In the live email the rain drops run down the screen and the pool shimmered.


3 TYPES OF DYNAMIC CONTENT USED

There are many new digital engagement strategies available within email, so it’s important for brands to stay ahead of their competition by testing the latest techniques. We asked EMEA marketers about their use of dynamic content in email that can be used to create a more engaging and relevant experience.

Product reviews and video are most widely used by EMEA marketers, with 42% using product reviews and 41% using video to engage their subscribers.

Product reviews

Product reviews are user-generated content that can engage subscribers, empower users and encourage purchases. Reviews have even been shown to potentially reduce

product returns, which is good news for the ecommerce world.

http://www.msi.org/reports/the-impact-of-online-product-reviews-on-product-returns/

http://www.msi.org/reports/the-impact-of-online-product-reviews-on-product-returns/



In this example, Lancome used real-time data through APIs to pull in live stock availability and user ratings for their products.

Video

Video is booming and EMEA marketers are embracing it more than ever. Facebook has

launched 360 video and Pinterest is even getting in on video too. By adding video to email it’s possible to increase click through rates by up to 300%.

Animated gifs are going mainstream and are no longer just used in social messaging streams; 27% of respondents use animated gifs to engage their email recipients.

https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/17/can-360-degree-video-campaigns-be-more-than-just-a-fad/

https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/17/can-360-degree-video-campaigns-be-more-than-just-a-fad/

https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/17/pinterest-joins-the-video-ad-battle/

https://movableink.com/blog/how-pet-supplies-plus-boosted-open-rates-with-video-email/




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Courtesy of statisticbrain.com

TalkTalk personalised their email experience with a first name greeting targeted by time of day. In addition, they included a preview of a recommended movie based on past viewing history. Live social media (27%), location such as local store promotions (25%) are additionally commonly used to engage.

TalkTalk personalised their email experience with a first name greeting targeted by time of day. In addition, they included an animated preview of a recommended movie based on past viewing history.

Live social media (27%) and location such as local store promotions (25%) are additionally commonly used to engage subscribers.



Financial Times included a live branded Twitter feed in their US election campaign with the goal of boosting social engagement. The feed not only increased participation in social conversations around article topics, it offered an automated feed of fresh, relevant content.

Countdown timers were not as commonly used to drive engagement according to this research. However, they may work well for deals that are available for a limited time. In the example below, the Wyndham promoted a 72 Hour Sale. The email aimed to increase engagement and ultimately drive incremental revenue by providing incentives for customers to book at participating locations. The countdown timer was used to create a sense of urgency to take advantage of the discounts.



Other data points, such as live weather and rate information kept recipients up to date each time they checked back into the email to explore booking options. They made the email more visually appealing by adding in images of the featured hotels - giving potential customers a sneak peek at the property and an incentive to click to explore more.


25



4 EVALUATION OF EMAIL MARKETING

Measuring the effectiveness of email campaigns is important as it enables EMEA marketers to elevate customer engagement, boost click-through rates and most importantly, increase sales. In this report, we asked EMEA marketers which metrics they use to evaluate email personalisation performance.

Email personalisation effectiveness measurement

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Other

Email dwell time

Conversion rate

Time of email open -

e.g. morning vs evening

Recency, frequency and

monetary analysis of value

of subscribers

Engagement of list, e.g.

‘hurdle rates’ of 6, 12 month

active subscribers

Sales value per 1000

emails sent

Response measured by open

and clickthrough rates78%

29%

22%

25%

58%

13%

25%

4%

As would be expected, open rates and click through rates are the most popular basic metrics with almost eight in ten (78%) using such metrics. 6 in 10 (59%) also measure conversion rate.

We were surprised that other metrics to compare commercial effectiveness and engagement effectiveness were less commonly used.

Sales value per 1000 emails sent is a good benchmark to compare different email marketing campaigns, as it is a fairly easy metric to calculate and track over time. However, just 3 in 10 (29%) EMEA marketers are using this metric, since it is not an ‘out of the box’ report provided by all email service providers.

Recency, frequency and monetary analysis is carried out by a quarter (25%) of EMEA marketers and 1 in 5 (25%) measure the engagement of their list, such as churn rates and hurdle rates of 6 month or 12 month active subscribers. List engagement is important as, like any marketing list or community, people do naturally drop off and when they do, it’s


4 EVALUATION OF EMAIL MARKETING

best for them to make a conscious choice to return in the future rather than spamming them.

Email dwell time was the least used metric, used by only 13% of those who responded to the survey. Dwell time is important for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) benefits on websites but less so for email marketing.

Research by Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has found that almost 3 in 10 (29%) use ROI to measure email marketing effectiveness.

http://www.adinton.com/blog/what-is-dwell-time-and-why-do-i-need-it/

http://dma.org.uk/uploads/ckeditor/National-client-email-2015.pdf


5 BARRIERS TO CONTEXTUAL PERSONALISATION

We have seen in the report that the promise of increased relevance though personalisa-tion techniques, leading to increased ROI is not being fully utilised by all EMEA marketers. We asked what barriers were hindering contextual personalisation to understand common problems.

Email marketing budgets are tight and therefore a barrier when it comes to investing in additional email software. However, senior managers are bought into email marketing and more specifically the use of contextual personalisation. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see whether budgets and strategies are built with contextual marketing in mind.

Lack of strategy

The largest barrier to the use of contextual personalisation is the lack of email communications strategy (45%).

Contextual marketing is a new option for EMEA marketers and has not been built into email marketing strategies previously. As inboxes become increasingly cluttered, brands



need to be as relevant and engaging as possible, regardless of when, where or how someone chooses to engage with them. Contextual marketing allows them to do that, so it is likely that we will see it being factored in to new strategy and budget planning.

Budgets

One of the biggest barriers to contextual marketing technology is budget (41%). Email marketing is perceived as being low cost, which can mean that additional budget is allocated elsewhere. However, budget should not be restricted for such an effective marketing channel.

It is noted in a Litmus blog article that often email marketers “underfund their top performer” and that email budgets are often fashioned by internal politics. However, email marketing budgets were expected to increase in 2016.

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) email marketing has an ROI of 3800% and according to McKinsey, the average order value is three times higher from email marketing compared to social media marketing. Chief Marketer have also reported that email marketing’s ROI was 28.5% in their studies compared to just 7% for direct mail.

Platforms not up to scratch

Email service providers (ESP) are not offering the contextual personalisation functionality that EMEA marketers desire, as just over a third (35%) of EMEA marketers said their current email platform was a barrier. Therefore, third party platforms that integrate with ESPs will become integral to EMEA marketers wishing to adopt contextual personalisation in their email campaigns.

https://litmus.com/blog/top-10-email-marketing-stats-of-2015

http://www.emailmonday.com/dma-national-client-email-report-2015

http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/why-marketers-should-keep-sending-you-emails

http://www.chiefmarketer.com/direct-mail-gets-most-response-but-email-has-highest-roi-dma/



Conclusion

Email marketing is a popular marketing method because of its high ROI compared to other channels. However, many marketers are yet to build a strategy which is a major barrier to its use. When it comes to engaging customers, video and product reviews are the most effective types of content used in email campaigns. Newsletters, promotional campaigns and welcome emails are the most popular types of email sent. Behavioural targeting is popular and contextual targeting is gaining esteem in the industry.

!KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS

Using the insights in this report you can make a difference to your conversions and email marketing success. Here are some recommenda-tions when using contextual personalisation in email marketing:

þ Go beyond newsletters: abandoned cart emails and content related to specific site actions can be implemented easier than you might have thought.

þ Mix it up with dynamic content: include live content in your emails to engage more than ever before.

þ Use contextual information to send appropriate emails, not everyone in the UK needs to know there is a discount for a store in Manchester.

þ Segment even further with behavioural insights: use behavioural segmentation to share the most relevant messaging with each unique customer. Relevancy is appreciated by recipients.

þ Formulate a solid email communications marketing strategy: probably one of the most important things you can do; this will guide the direction of your email marketing, creating a consistent, compelling experience for your subscribers. It will also help you to make sure you’re including the most engaging content and taking advantage of targeting opportunities.

þ Allocate sufficient email marketing budget: email marketing is the most effective marketing channel in terms of ROI. By spending more on tools like contextual marketing platforms, you have the opportunity to drive increased conversions and revenue.

Appendix: who took this survey

The survey was taken by over 400 B2B and B2C professionals made up of Smart Insights members with some respondents from the Movable Ink database.

Over 2 in 10 were in retail (22%) and most were in a senior marketing position such as marketing managers or directors (45%) or digital marketing managers (26%).


APPENDIXFURTHER EXAMPLES AND RESOURCES

We hope you have found the examples and techniques in this report interesting and inspiring! Do let us know any comments to @SmartInsights or https://www.facebook.

com/smartinsights. In the meantime, here are some further resources to take your email marketing to the next level.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCESSmart Insights Expert member Email marketing advice

We have grouped our member resources on our Email marketing Toolkit. If you’re serious about improving your Email marketing strategy we recommend our in-depth 7 Steps guide to Email marketing which shows how to develop an email strategy and gives tips on making your emails more effective. Other resources for Expert members include:

þ Advanced Lifecycle Email marketing guide

þ Email marketing effectiveness audit spreadsheet

þ Email campaign calculator spreadsheet

þ Email contact strategy template

We hope you have found this report useful to compare against your approaches to digital marketing and inform your investments.

Do let us know if you have any comments or questions via @SmartInsights or our community.

https://www.twitter.com/SmartInsights

https://www.facebook.com/smartinsights

https://www.facebook.com/smartinsights



http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/advanced-lifecycle-email-marketing-guide//?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016

http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/email-marketing-healthcheck/?utm_source=movable-ink-2016&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=movableink2016



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