Email tops the list once again as the strongest performing advertising channel in Datran Media’s third annual marketing and media survey released earlier this year. Of the over 3,000 industry executives from Fortune 1000 brands and leading interactive agencies surveyed, an overwhelming 80 percent listed email as a strong performer, with search ads and display ads taking second and third honors.
Email remains a high performer because users are willing to spend time reading promotional email. According to the View from the Inbox 2009 survey conducted by Merkle, permission email accounts for about a quarter of all time spent with email, topped only by email’s primary function of communicating with friends and family. Just over two-thirds of users surveyed considered themselves generally open to receiving promotional messages through their email accounts. Irrelevancy and high frequency were the most likely reasons cited for opting out.
The fact is, permission email works. To tap into that success, it’s vital for companies to round up the email addresses of willing current and potential customers. With phishing scams reaching so many, wary consumers are on the look-out for unknown email sources. A whopping 84 percent of those participating in the Merkle survey looked to companies with which they had an existing relationship as a source of reassurance that the email was legitimate.
Tags: email strongest advertising channel, marketing and media survey, sauce technology