The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has just released its latest National Email Benchmarking Report for Q2 2009. The quarterly benchmark always makes for interesting reading, so we’ve cast our eyes over the latest installment to bring you the key observations.

Email Marketing Matures

Perhaps most telling is email marketing’s transition from the  ‘teenager’ of the marketing mix to the accountable and ROI infused workhorse, perhaps  in part  due to the recession. This was seen through a bigger focus on strategy rather than tactical sending.

Despite a heavier reliance on email marketing, the number of sends dipped during the recession as budgets tightened. But email marketing is still showing strong signs of recovery and in Q2 2009, hit an all time high of 60 million emails sent per ESP (email service provider).

Adapting for Social Media

The report also highlights the impact of Social Media on email marketing, suggesting that recipients are expecting more authenticity, reciprocity and value from their messages.

The most telling sign of the importance of Social Media though is the realisation that “share with your network” (SWYN) – a feature that dotMailer was the first to implement – is more effective than “forward to a friend” for improving reach and response of email campaigns; which is why the dotMailer team is expecting SWYN to be big this year.

Adapting for Smart Phones

The continued rise of email via smart phone has also caused a stir, although confusion remains over what the accepted standards are for the right format and getting the right landing pages for a variety of mobile devices.

Balancing Acquisition Marketing

Finally, the popularity of acquisition emails seems to be on the rise, taking up a third of emails sent, despite their poorer response rates and the recession. However, delivery rates for acquisition emails have dropped 6% year on year, down to 83%. Unique opens have also dropped by almost a half to 12% and unique click-throughs dropped by 60% down to 5%.

This expansion into acquisition campaigns means marketers have had to use less targeted and lower-response lists, which is likely to be knocking overall results. The reports suggests that “burnt fingers syndrome might be contributing to the cyclical nature of investment in these campaigns” as marketers must find the sweet spot at which to stop investing in acquisition. Unique open rates for retention remained steady at 23%.

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The DMA opened voting today for the 2010 DMA council elections, including the Email Marketing Council.

If your organisation is a DMA member then this is your chance to have a voice within the direct marketing industry. Each member organisation can nominate 5 voters who can vote for as many candidates as they choose.

dotMailer’s MD, Tink Taylor, and dotAgency’s Digital Director, Skip Fidura, are both standing for re-election.

To find out more and cast your vote go to www.dma.org.uk and follow these steps:

1. Login or register (then once your password is confirmed by email you can login)

2. Click on ‘View Personal Profile’ in the top right hand corner of the homepage

3. Check ‘Email Marketing’ in the Member Updates section

4. Go back to Home and click on the blue Elections banner in the left hand column

5. Click ‘Council Elections’ at the foot of the left hand column

6. Click ‘Email Marketing Council Voting’ at the foot of the left hand column

Then vote away!

By Tink Taylor

Ready Steady Email is extending its reach across the UK. After successful events in London and Bristol, Edinburgh is the next city to host this unique half day workshop, run jointly by the DMA and IAB.

Benefit from up to date advice from industry leaders and use what you have learned in the interactive session where you will go head to head with your email marketing peers to create the winning email marketing campaign pitch to a brief.

Ready Steady Email gives you insight into email marketing and all of its key elements. Read more about the event on the DMA blog and website and book.

By Tink Taylor

Just a quick shout about the latest Email Benchmarking Report published by the Direct Marketing Association.

The Email Benchmarking Reports are an excellent source of information and statistics to help you assess your own campaign performance against the combined statistics across the majority of emails sent via the major Email Service Providers.

The report for Q2 2008 shows that email is still bucking the trend for reducing marketing spend as a result of the recession. An increase in the use of email for retention campaigns shows that marketeers are understanding the importance of relationship building as well as using their client base and organically collected data to continue to drive sales and retain business.

The Email Benchmarking Report can be downloaded from the DMA website where you can also find further information on the DMA and the Email Marketing Council, on which myself and Skip Fidura – dotMailer’s Digital Director – both serve.