IBM: Email marketing offers big ROI

Armonk, N.Y. – Although email has reached the point it is often considered a “legacy” technology, email marketing efforts still provide substantial ROI.

The 2015 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study from IBM quotes the Direct Marketing Association as saying for every dollar spent on email marketing efforts, there is a return of $44.25.



In addition, brands that used email campaigns triggered by a person’s previous action, such as a recent purchase or the resetting of their password, drove higher customer engagement. According to the study, these campaigns (known as transactional emails) produced an open rate of 72% and average click-through rate of 30%.



However, analyzing specific industries, IBM found retail/ecommerce missed the mark, producing some of the lowest customer engagement rates. These low rates result from retailers that continue to rely on traditional batch-and-blast methods, which lack the personalization that today’s consumer demands.