Email marketing, while still a prominent marketing tool, is most effective today as a nurturing platform than for acquiring leads, according to research conducted by Pardot, a leading provider of marketing automation for small and mid-sized businesses. Pardot conducted an online survey in June of 2012 to determine the role of email in B2B marketing strategies. The survey covered topics ranging from email marketing best practices to usage and testing, and was completed by more than 100 anonymous B2B marketers in the United States.
Finding What Works
Creating successful email campaigns requires trial and error and many B2B marketers rely on testing to improve their campaigns. According to the survey, 58% of respondents test to see what type of content results in the best click-through-rates; 57% test for a correlation between subject lines and open rates; and 46% test to see how open rates are affected by time of day.
Marketers report the following trends:
- 44% of respondents agree that sending emails on Tuesday results in better open rates.
- 53% have had the most success sending emails between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.
- 53% say that Friday is the worst day for email open rates.
- The most effective offer to include in an email is an invitation to a webinar.
- White papers are the second-most effective when it comes to generating responses, followed by case studies.
- Less-popular content includes freebies, discounted services, limited time offers, and personal, text-based emails.
While testing to improve response rates is popular, fewer marketers are conducting deliverability testing. Only 33% are doing SPAM analysis prior to email deployment, indicating that perhaps results could improve if more marketers checked content against major SPAM tools. In addition, only 25% of marketers test their emails for accurate mobile rendering.
“As email marketing tools become more powerful, we expect to see a greater focus on personalization, smarter segmentation, and an increase in the use of email metrics,” remarked Blitzer.