Nearly all e-mail marketers measure their campaigns, but many do not use the results to support their budgeting goals, according to EmailStatCenter.com's "State of Email Metrics" survey, sponsored by Campaigner.
More than one-half of respondents said they measured results 24 to 48 hours after deployment. However, fewer than one-fifth said they measured their annual results.
“Marketers must continually evaluate and benchmark their campaigns, in addition to looking at them immediately after the send,” said Luc Vezina, vice president of marketing at Campaigner, in a statement.
Although e-mail campaigns were usually measured for success, only one-half of e-mail marketers said they used the metrics for budgeting or forecasting.
Respondents had a range of e-mail marketing budget amounts, but the greatest number of marketers (31.7%) budgeted less than $50,000 annually. More than one-fifth did not know their budgets.
In 2007, more online marketers planned to increase their budgets for in-house e-mail lists than for any other online ad tactic except for search marketing, according to MarketingSherpa.
The numbers suggest that customer retention took priority over acquisition, as only 10% of respondents said they planned to spend more for e-mail to third-party lists.
Learn what types of e-mail metrics are best to measure against your goals. Read the eMarketer report,
E-Mail Marketing: Getting Through to Customers, today.