With the rise of social media, it may seem that email marketing is taking the backseat, but a recent study says otherwise. According to a survey conducted by Emailvision in November 2011, online marketing professionals in the United States and Europe place much importance in customized and targeted email marketing campaigns. In fact, a surprising 68 percent of respondents said that targeted emails are very important, while 28 percent of those surveyed believe it’s important to some extent. Furthermore, 7 out of 10 respondents believe that email marketing still plays an integral role in their internet marketing strategy, especially over the last 2 years. However, a follow up survey in December 2011 indicated that only 1 out of every 5 people surveyed played an active role in customizing their own email marketing content in campaigns.

Another survey, this time done by Alterian in January of 2011, showed that 43 percent of marketers made use of email segmentation to customize messages according to audience. Forty-four (44) percent of those surveyed utilized some form of email blasting—28 percent of that number utilized basic personalization, while 18 percent relied on mass email blasts. Only 18 percent of respondents in the Alterian survey admitted to firing away emails with consideration of individual customer data.

The Alterian report’s findings on using data at the individual customer level for target email campaigns coincides with Emailvision Global Marketing Survey, which shows respondents wanting to do more with the customer data in their hands. In fact, 1 out of 10 surveyed global marketers expressed belief that they’ve exhausted their options for exploiting customer data. A surprising 46 percent admitted to feeling they could make use of their customer data more effectively. This was followed by 37 percent of respondents who said they could significantly make more use of their data effectively.
Source: Marketing Charts