Email marketing 'must compete with social media'

Email marketing will need to compete with social media more over the next 12 months, although the content of emails will still be of greater importance, claims an industry website.

Email marketing campaigns must focus their energies on competing with social media websites for the time of consumers, an online advertising website has suggested.

The results of a survey of email marketers by Marketing Sherpa showed that this challenge has come to the fore over the past year.

Only 23 per cent of people polled said that vying for the attention of online consumers was an important challenge last year, whereas 71 per cent believe that its importance will increase in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, the content of email marketing campaigns came top of the poll in terms of significance, with 76 per cent stating that it will be key over the next year.

The website explained: "While 'delivering highly relevant email content to recipients' continues to rank at the top, it is declining slightly in importance as email marketers conquer the complexity of this essential tactic."

This week, Marketing Sherpa advised email marketers to try to re-engage inactive subscribers as a way of increasing the number of consumers being reached.

07/10/2009