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Three Steps to a Higher Return on Your Email Marketing Investment

By Megan Ouellet, Director of Marketing for Listrak
December 10, 2009

Marketers will face another tough year in 2010. 2009 was full of budget cuts and reallocations with 71 percent of global CMOs reporting cuts - the majority losing over 20 percent of their budgetsⁱ . The first half of 2010 will be even leaner for many marketers, but the news isn't all bad. The fat has already been trimmed. Marketers have moved away from expensive, yet passive advertising channels that push their messages to consumers and are embracing less expensive interactive channels that give them the flexibility to customize messages that lead consumers down specific paths individualized to their exact needs.

Image 1 - 2009 Marketing Budget Allocations
Source: Winterberry Group

Budgets for traditional media, such as print, direct mail, and broadcast advertising are shrinking as marketers find higher returns in their email, mobile, search, and SEO initiatives. The diagram on the right from the Winterberry Groupⁱⁱ shows how marketers "followed the consumers" in 2009 by reallocating their budgets to more personalized, interactive channels. Forrester Researchⁱⁱⁱ has predicted substantial growth in these channels through 2014. (Click the charts for more information.)

Image 2 - US Interactive Marketing Spend 2009-2014
Source: Forrester Research

The struggle that marketers will face in 2010 is how to implement the right interactive media mix in order to reach their goals. With limited budgets and resource constraints it can be tough to figure out which investments will provide the biggest returns. With so much at stake marketers must revamp their strategies quickly, but they must be careful to avoid the hype and only focus on areas that have proven results.

Here are three tips on how to maximize your marketing investment in 2010: