Report: Email Marketing Still Leads as a Driver of Sales Revenue

As marketers look for more effective ways to reach out to their target audience, new research shows that they may want to stick to the tried-and-true method of email, specifically if they are looking to drive sales.

Cheetah Digital recently published its “Digital Consumer Trends Index 2021,” and statistics indicated that email is still overwhelmingly the number one driver of sales, with it outperforming SMS by 92% and banner ads by 39%. When respondents were asked about how they’ve made purchases over the past 12 months, the majority (45%) said via email.

That being said, social does not lag far behind in terms of reach. About 43% said that they had made a purchase via a post in social media over the course of the last year as well.

Ongoing Social Media Marketing Challenges

Although marketers continue to leverage social media to connect with their customers and prospects, previous research indicates that they are still struggling to analyze this channel and determine how it is contributing to sales revenue.

DemandLab conducted its “Revenue Attribution Outlook Survey,” and data showed that out of all of the top digital channels, social media marketing (44%) remains the most challenging to analyze in terms of attributing marketing results to sales revenue.

This was followed by content marketing (39%), display advertising (38%) and email marketing (33%). SEO remains the least difficult channel to analyze in terms of revenue attribution, coming in at only 18%, according to the report.