email marketing on the increase

According to the results, 81% of respondents plan to increase their email marketing spend this year. 50% of these firms plan to increase direct marketing and 45% plan to invest in their landing pages.

A spokesman for Alterian commented on the results: "These figures certainly indicate tremendous opportunities for marketers to use email and online marketing techniques linked with traditional direct marketing tactics to establish competitive advantages and serve customers better than ever."

Of the 500 companies that took part in the survey, around 35% are actively using email marketing in conjunction with other online marketing methods (advertising, PPC) whereas 18% treat their email marketing activity as a standalone channel.

Many have found the transition from traditional marketing methods to email less than smooth, with 32% claiming they have experienced difficulties integrating existing customer data into their email marketing system. There is still a hint of resistance to full-on acceptance of email marketing, with 36% of companies polled running separate departments to handle online and offline activity.

Interestingly, the survey turned up an unexpected trend: whilst mid-sized campaigns (1-10 million emails per month) were generally outsourced, the smallest and largest campaigns (more than 10 million emails per month) tend to be handled in-house.