News release: - 6th February 2007

Largest survey of UK email marketers shows half don’t know their ROI

- £84m of untracked email campaigns

TFM Show, London–Adestra and E-consultancy have carried out the largest survey of UK email marketers ever – The Email Marketing Industry Census 2007 surveyed over 500 in-house and agency respondents across different industry sectors.

The overriding and most worrying finding is that almost half (47%) of marketers are not tracking how much revenue their email campaigns are making. This means companies don’t know which campaigns are generating sales and which are not (or which ones have increased awareness, for non-transactional campaigns).

With its major sales/communications potential and low cost, email marketing is undeniably a fast growing industry: 78% of companies are set to increase their email marketing spend (according to DMA, November 2006); and the email services market is growing at 20% per annum (according to E-consultancy’s Email Marketing Platforms Buyer’s Guide).

However the growth cannot continue in the longer term without the systems in place for tracking the results back to spend. £178m was spent in the UK on email marketing platforms and services in 2006 (according to E-consultancy), therefore a staggering £84m is untracked marketing budget which may or may not be working. Which other channel would be able to get away with spending this much without knowing the impact?

Paul Crabtree, marketing director at Adestra, says: “It is critical for future growth, and makes basic business sense, to be able to measure ROI. In fact, it can severely stunt growth if you can’t measure ROI as it will make proving the business case for extra investment almost impossible. The point is that email marketing is probably the most direct channel to be able to measure ROI – and it is a relatively simple process to enable it.” – See top 5 tips to measure ROI below.

In the survey over 80% of respondents say their email marketing could be more effective. Paul explains: “Despite most marketers wanting their email campaigns to be more effective – and who doesn’t–as half can’t measure their ROI they have no basis for improving in future. The first thing they need to do is have a system for accurately tracking deliverability to the inbox, through to actual sales and therefore ROI.”

Of companies that were able to measure ROI, the figures are promising: More than half of company email marketers (55%) say that their ROI from email is three times or more. Almost a third of company respondents (32%) say that their ROI is five times or more. By way of comparison, 64% of Agency / ESP respondents say that their clients’ ROI is typically 3 times or more, and 28% say the ROI is five times or more.

Using an Email Service Provider, such as Adestra, means marketers can take advantage of tools and techniques to monitor ROI over time, improve deliverability rates and improve the effectiveness of their email channel.

Top 5 tips on how to measure ROI

When sending targeted, personalised campaigns to the designated database, ensure the following steps are taken to help measure ROI

1. Ask each customer how they found out about you 2. Invest in web analytics to track all orders back to where they began their web session from. 3. Use an email marketing provider that can integrate with your web site to track orders 4. Monitor other inbound channels (telephone lines) and use discount codes/ special offers/ unique phone numbers to label enquiries and orders. Database systems like Wyvern Magic make this possible without massive investment 5. Allocate and spend unrushed time analysing the performance of each campaign

To request The Email Marketing Industry Census 2007, visit www.adestra.com/census

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About Adestra Ltd

Fast, responsive and knowledgeable

Adestra is an email marketing agency with one aim–to be the email marketers’ first choice partner. Working closely with our clients to meet their individual email marketing needs, Adestra provide ASP email marketing tools and email marketing bureau services to UK companies operating in the B2B and B2C marketplaces. In addition, advice and training for both tactical and strategic plans is available.

Adestra’s Message Focus email marketing tool is today’s best email marketing system and the only one designed for advanced email marketers. Web-based, this ASP application enables users to manage all aspects of their email marketing program–message design, data management, broadcasting for optimal deliverability and detailed reporting all through a secure web interface requiring no software installations.

Adestra’s product and corporate information is located at http://www.adestra.co.uk

About E-consultancy

E-consultancy is an online publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research and how-to guides. E-consultancy, named Publisher of the Year at the 2006 AOP Awards, also publishes buyer’s guides and has a directory of 100,000+ third party internet marketing white papers.

E-consultancy has 47,000 registered users and more than 145,000 unique user sessions per month (audited by ABC Electronic). It is popular among internet professionals because of its practical, time-saving advice and insight.

http://www.e-consultancy.com/about/

Press Contacts

Jim Buchanan, PR Consultant

Em: Jim.Buchanan@adestra.com

Tel: 07725 25 71 94

Paul Crabtree, Marketing Director

Em: Paul.Crabtree@adestra.com

Tel: 01865 24 24 25