The internet is awash with reports on email marketing published by various organisations. They should obviously be treated with care and in many cases should be tested in case they are particular. What is dangerous is that most of the shocking conclusions are those which support prejudices.
I doubted that most email marketing companies tested designs. Free email marketing templates are obviously of tremendous help but I always assumed that most companies just filled in the blanks. It would appear from a recent report that my unevidenced belief is correct, with just a fifth testing layout.
It is reassuring in an obverse way. If you are testing then you have an advantage over the other 80%. What is more remarkable is that it takes little effort and the advantages are of real benefit to ROI.
Testing is an essential, or so anyone who tests would conclude, yet considerably fewer companies don’t test than do. This is shocking as one of the main advantages of email marketing is that it is provable. It is all about testing.
However, the report found that less than half of companies taking part in the survey did not target emails. In other words, they sent the same email to everyone on their email marketing lists.
As with all reports, one must look for any bias. The company that organised the research has an axe to grind, and as all of the correspondents were customers of theirs, there was already some obvious partiality. Even so, the conclusions, at least as far as percentages are concerned, are surprising.
The company specialises in automation and, as you would expect, there is a fair amount of coverage on the subject. They are selling a webinar, so take care with their conclusions on the matter.
You might be wondering what this has to do with you. You test, you track your customers’ use of your website, and, unlike the vast majority of your competitors, you have regular reports sent to you on cart abandonment. If anything, this report suggests you can take it easy.
It’s not that simple of course. Whilst you already have an advantage over most of your competitors, it should be noted that half of them do target emails. Not only that, it is probably your main competitors who do so, the ones you are fighting against for a share of the market.
The report’s conclusions point towards most companies not really trying, which is a good thing from a selfish point of view. If they aren’t targeting they are not worth considering as they will probably fail, or at the very least underperform.
You should believe such research. If you one of the 80% who don’t test copy, who just fill in the blanks on the free email marketing template without much thought, or even don’t bother to target, the most basic of processes, then the report shows that you are not alone. You should change now, even if you think your performance is up to scratch. If you don’t exploit these gaps, perform to your highest potential, someone else will.
