Email marketing overtakes social media and SEO as the best marketing channels, according to research.
According to a 2014 Econsultancy Census, email marketing was rated as 'good' or 'excellent' for delivering returns on digital investment by 68% of the 567 respondents. On average companies attribute 23% of their total sales to email marketing up from 18% in the previous year.
As you'd expect, email marketers depend on the quality of their email database; 60% of those surveyed realise that data quality and integrity are a major barrier to effective marketing.
It seems that Social Media and search engine optimisation (SEO) have lost their shine when it comes to return on investment (ROI). In the survey of a range of organisations, conducted for the consultancy by digital specialists Adestra, the apparent benefits of Social Media were down 9% from 2013, with SEO falling 8% and Paid Search 6% lower than last year. In fact, 30% of respondents rated SEO as demonstrating a 'poor' ROI.
Perhaps surprisingly, winners in the ROI stakes were developments of older digital technologies, with email gaining 3% over the previous 12 months, while content marketing and offline direct marketing both rose 2%.
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