2020 State Of Email Report Reveals The Critical Need For Email Is Rising, As 78% Say Email Is Important To The Overall Success Of Their Company

By MTS Staff Writer On Sep 15, 2020

Survey of over 2,000 marketers conducted by Litmus and Convince & Convert unveils industry averages, best practices

Litmus, a leader in email marketing, releases its report, “2020 State of Email, Fall Edition,” during Litmus Live Week, the premier conference for email practitioners and marketing leaders. The study found 77% of marketers say email is one of their two most effective marketing channels. Additionally, 78% of marketing executives indicate email marketing is vital to the overall success of their company, which is a 7% increase from last year. Every marketer should leverage an email-first approach because it not only informs email strategy but overall marketing effectiveness.

To capitalize on the potential of email, ROI must be properly measured and reported. Just 16% of respondents believe their company measures email marketing’s ROI well or very well. Furthermore, 45% cited ROI measurement of email marketing efforts as poor, very poor, or non-existent.

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“The ‘2020 State of Email, Fall Edition’ report showcases why email should be front and center in every single marketing mix,” said Melissa Sargeant, CMO of Litmus. “In today’s marketing environment, with brands working to break through the clutter of digital advertisements in an efficient and timely manner, personalization and targeted messaging needs to take priority. Not only does email offer unmatched ROI, but it creates authentic human-to-human connections and experiences with customers. These also provide insights and data which can influence organization-wide messaging and multichannel marketing strategy. Simply put, email is trusted by executives despite innovations and developments arising within the martech space because it’s a tried and true method for disseminating information.”

Other best practices within an email marketing strategy, as indicated by the report, include personalization and ensuring email lists are up-to-date and active. Utilizing subscriber data within email can also inform strategy and messaging within other channels, because, in order to receive the communication, the recipient must opt-in, confirming their interest in the brand. Eighty percent of respondents reported that their company personalizes its emails based on subscriber data, but more than a third said they don’t remove inactive subscribers from their mailing list unless they opt-out. With outdated email lists, marketing teams can hurt their ROI, defeating the purpose of personalizing emails. Additionally, outdated email lists lead to security issues. More than half of respondents indicated they seldom run emails through a spam filter test to identify possible deliverability problems before sending.

Litmus’s second annual report consists of survey results from over 2,000 marketers. The report shares key findings of email marketing ROI, designing and coding trends, and budget details, as well as COVID-19’s impact on email programs, and much more.

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Additional takeaways from the report include:

Four out of five respondents would give up their brand’s social media for 12 months, rather than give up email marketing for 12 months
94% of respondents reveal email is one of their three most effective marketing channels
54% of marketers expect to send more emails in 2020 than they did in 2019, while 60% of marketing executives said they also planned to send more emails in 2020
Nearly 90% of respondents are conducting A/B tests on their emails, and more than one-quarter do so “often” or “always”
More than half of respondents indicated they never or rarely run emails through a spam filter test to identify possible deliverability problems before sending an email

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