Boosting Subscriber Engagement Marked as 2016’s Top Email Marketing Initiative
Marketing professionals continue to value customer engagement, and new research shows that they are making it a priority for 2016. The “2016 Marketing Trends Survey” published by StrongView and Selligent has found that “increasing subscriber engagement” is the top initiative for email marketers in the coming months, with 34 percent of respondents citing this goal.
“Improving segmentation and targeting” and “improving data analysis to better understand customer context” were ranked second and third, respectively. To achieve their 2016 email marketing goals, about 60 percent said they intend on raising their budgets over the course of the year.
In addition to email, marketers intend to use a wide variety of other resources to achieve their overall marketing objectives. Social media (56 percent), display (56 percent), and mobile (52 percent) are expected to increase in use and budget.
“Email marketing is an established and profitable channel that will be seeing increased investment in 2016 as marketers continue to rely on it as a vital part of their omni-channel strategies,” said Andre Lejeune, CEO of Selligent. “It’s encouraging to see marketers break down siloes to use channels like email, social media, and web together to create a better and more unified experience for consumers.”
Providing an Omni-Channel Experience to Buyers
Although marketers would like to use more channels to cater to buyers, providing an omni-channel experience has not always been easy. A study published by Accenture and SAP Hybris in 2015 revealed that “sharing customer data and analytics between channels, countries and locations” remains a top challenge for marketers utilizing an omni-channel strategy.
The research also revealed that B2B customers and prospects are now using several channels during the buyer’s journey. Most begin by visiting consumer marketplaces, such as Amazon or eBay (33 percent), or turn to search engines for information (26 percent).