Report: Fortune 500 Companies Focused on Marketing Tools in July 2016

New research has shed light on exactly which methods leading enterprise marketers are turning to most frequently in 2016.

According to a study published by True Influence, “marketing tools” was the top trending marketing-oriented keyword among Fortune 500 companies in July 2016. This was followed by “online video marketing,” “marketing management software,” and “email marketing,” respectively.

The researchers also determined that some of these keywords could be placed into a single category. For example, “marketing automation tools” and “internet marketing automation” could fall under a general marketing automation category.

When analyzing the data in this manner, the study showed that terms related to email marketing comprised 50 percent of the top 10 tactics listed by respondents.

To conduct the study, True Influence monitored intent signals (online, digital activities such as visits to web pages across the internet, email opens, white paper downloads, and more) coming from Fortune 500 companies.

The Increasing ROI of Email Marketing

Marketers are seeing an ample amount of success and ROI with email marketing, according to previous research. The “Email Marketing Industry Census 2016” published by Econsultancy and Adestra found that 73 percent of companies rate their email marketing campaign performances as “good” or “excellent” in terms of ROI. This is a 66 percent increase from 2015.

Data also showed that companies that invest at least one-fifth of their marketing budgets on email are eight times more likely to see 50 percent more sales attributed to it.

Customization continues to play a role in email marketing ROI, according to the study. Companies that focus on personalization are twice as likely to report that their email campaigns are “excellent” or “good,” compared to their counterparts.