Email Marketing Strategies: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

The saying is ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,’ but that is not the case for an old but important marketing tactic of email.  

In fact, Ascend2’s research study, Email Marketing Survey Summary Report, finds that email marketing professionals are learning new tricks. The real trick a having the latest research on how to use email to generate new leads, acquire new subscribers, and generate sales.  

The Email Marketing Survey Summary Report provides insight into difficult questions like: 

  • What are the primary objectives of an email strategy?  
  • How many companies are Best-in-Class?  
  • What are the most critical challenges to success (know the challenges in advance to prepare how you will handle your challenges)? 
  • How much are budgets changing for email marketing? NOTE: this information will help you make the argument to get more budget.  
  • How do I prioritize objectives versus challenges as I build my email strategy? 
  • What are the most effective types of email? 
  • How is effectiveness changing for the types of emails used?  
  • What are the most difficult types of emails deploy? 
  • What combination of resources (in-house, outsourced to a specialist) are other companies using? 

Here are a few noteworthy findings for the Asend2 research study: 

Finding #1: Objectives Versus Challenges 

Analyzing how marketing professionals view the difference between primary objectives and critical challenges provides a valuable perspective for developing priorities for a successful email marketing strategy.  

Finding #2: Effective Types of Email

A majority of marketing professionals believe that a combination of personalized messaging and single-topic/dedicated email creates the most effective type of email used for marketing purposes. Meanwhile, only 17% consider plain-text email effective. 

most effective types of email marketing chart

Finding #3How Effectiveness is Changing

While nearly two-thirds (64%) of marketing professionals say email effectiveness is improving moderately, a total of 21% consider email effectiveness to be worsening to some extent. 

how email marketing effectiveness is changing chart

Download the Email Marketing Survey Summary Report and put it to work in your own marketing strategy.