Last year in South Africa 500 million Rand was spent on email and digital direct marketing (Estimate from DMA SA). Internationally email marketing is ranked as the number one interactive marketing format worldwide (Borrell Associates, 2009). Email marketing is also currently ranked number one in terms of return on investment, compared with all other forms of direct marketing (Direct Marketing Association of America, 2008).
Direct email marketing has become an important part of any 360º integrated marketing campaign. Opt-in
permission based email marketing is beneficial as subscribers trust the content, therefore strengthening brand loyalty. There is a relationship between the recipient and the email channel which helps cut through the clutter,thus this medium addresses consumers‟ lack of trust and overall lack of attention to traditional advertising. With the recent rise in the importance of email marketing as part of the marketing mix, bulk email deliverability and sender reputation cannot be ignored.
According to the “Global Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, 2H 2009” study done by Return Path (for the US, Europe and Asia regions) between 14% and 20% of email marketing messages never make it to the inbox. If that international trend holds in South Africa as well, then many millions of Rands are wasted on nondelivered messages each year.
Click on the link below to download our full Bulk Email Deliverability Report.