3 actions to help it survive (and thrive)

email marketing is a fundamental element of marketers’ toolkits. New gardener Research shows that it is proving to be the most effective channel across multiple stages of the buying journey, from generating demand to driving conversions and customer loyalty.

And yet, all too often, this important channel is left unloved, and the focus is more on the rapidly changing advertising or social media landscape. For years, marketers have gotten away with this dynamic scot-free, but we are seeing cracks developing that, if left untreated, will result in an irreparable drop in channel performance.

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A key signal is that average email open rates are declining as ads are filtered out of inboxes and consumers stop bothering to check those folders. Through surveys, Gartner has found that the vast majority of both B2B and B2C customers feel overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive from brands. Worryingly, these customers say they unsubscribe when they find email irrelevant — which is easier than ever.

To maintain clicks, many marketers have fallen into the trap of sending out more campaigns, but that only covers up the gaps. To avoid continued degradation of the channel’s performance, sending more (or fewer) emails is not the solution. Instead, marketers must broadcast better emails. Let’s look at three ways to do this:

1: Build your email strategy around ongoing value

If you want to send better email, you first need to focus on the value you’re trying to provide over time. It may sound obvious, but often marketers fall into a pattern where they gain leads by first giving them something they want, like a one-time discount, but then don’t know how to keep their interest long-term, and finally have to start again.

Avoid this by making it clear what digital value exchange you offer your customers. In fact, enrollment incentives do not have to be a cost center. It can be as simple as being more explicit about the benefits of a newsletter or account when signing up, capturing topic preferences, and including the privacy policy upfront. Gartner’s Genius Marksor those considered best in class by key elements of digital marketing are more likely to have mobile sites that do.

Of course, if you’re clear about the benefits by saying “you won’t benefit much,” people won’t sign up. So, defining the value proposition for your audience and creating a long-term resource plan makes the difference between email marketing success or failure.

2: Prioritize before personalization

When it comes to personalization, marketers typically start in one of two places: where it’s easiest, e.g. B. in the subject line, or where it is the most obvious use case, e.g. B. Abandoned cart messages. It often stops there – because anything beyond that becomes really difficult.

The timing of the message delivery is important (e.g. receiving an email after you forgot an item in your shopping cart), but tailored help is even more important for driving business value. If you can do both, all the better. Look for signs that a customer isn’t ready to buy and needs help figuring out how a particular product might fit. This type of triggered nurturing is so powerful because it positions your brand as helpful, not just reactive.

Historically, marketers have struggled to create and manage enough content to support more automated or triggered learning paths via email. Today AI projects like ChatGPT have the potential to change that, but will still take time and effort. In the meantime, marketers should prioritize the areas they automate based on the business value generated by emails to specific audience segments.

3: Optimize your emails using the most appropriate KPIs

The latest release from Gartner Multichannel Marketing Survey found that marketers who use three or four KPIs are the most likely to exceed their goals. Too many and you have to focus on too much; too little and you don’t have enough insight to identify problems and close gaps.

The question is: what should you focus on? With email marketing, it’s easier to say what not to focus on. Open rate data is less accurate than ever, making it unsuitable for reporting without extensive adjustments. Instead, bottom-of-the-funnel metrics like conversions or click-through rates are more valuable, since those are fundamentally the goals of this channel.

However, the top-performing marketers don’t just use channel-specific metrics. Instead, they combine them with broader business goals. Gartner found that marketers use return-on-engagement metrics (e.g., revenue generated per email, cost per click) and relationship metrics (e.g., customer satisfaction score, or CSAT) far more often than their competitors surpass their performance goals.

Email marketing will probably never truly die out, but it will lose value to businesses as we continue on the path we have chosen. Last but not least, since other marketers don’t change, these actions should result in you being able to overtake your competitors.

Matt Moorut is Director Analyst in the Gartner Marketing PracticeLive presentation on this and other topics at the 2023 Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpotaking place May 22-24 in Denver, CO.