SURVEY: A recent study by Liana Technologies reveals that only 11% of marketers measure the ROI of email marketing

In early 2021, Liana Technologies conducted a survey about the current state of email marketing. The international survey was answered by 240 marketing and communications professionals from six different countries. In the survey responses, it became evident that the open and click-through rates of newsletters are still closely monitored but only one in ten marketers calculates the return on investment of their email marketing.

The Liana email marketing survey was sent to marketing and communications professionals in February and the results have now been published in the form of a guide. The survey was divided into five different key areas, which were email marketing team & strategy, email lists, newsletter design, email marketing analytics, and marketing automation.

Answers about email marketing metrics continued to highlight easy-to-track open and click-through rates. 90% of marketers monitor newsletter open rates and 85% monitor click-through rates. Not enough attention is paid to deliverability – only 35% of respondents pay attention to the deliverability of their newsletters.

One of the core findings of the study is that only 11% of respondents measure the ROI of email marketing. This may be because email marketing is not given enough importance by C-level executives. However, in the field of marketing, it is common knowledge that the return on investment of email marketing is very high compared to, for example, paid advertising. Therefore, it is possible that marketers are lulled into email marketing being worth the investment and not calculating its ROI due to possible lack of time.

In email marketing studies, design has received minor attention, so in this study, Liana Technologies wanted to make design one of the main categories.

Visual elements are an important part of newsletters and the design of the letters is closely linked to technical aspects, and also accessibility. A third of respondents mentioned accessibility when the question addressed what factors respondents take into account when designing a newsletter template. Nearly 90% responded that visuals and images are still the most important thing when designing a newsletter template.

“Good design ensures that the newsletter is a natural part of the company's overall brand image – and most importantly – supports the letter's message and the goals set for it,” reminds Joona Kauppi, head of Liana's design team.

For the study, Liana Technologies also collected data from approximately one billion emails sent using LianaMailer email marketing tool and obtained, for example, an average open rate of 26.5%. The guide published on the 5th of May, 2021 also contains averages broken down by region. The results of the survey use the answers of 240 marketing and communications professionals from Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong.

The guide can be downloaded from this link.

Additional information:
Fanni Mäki
Communications Manager
[email protected]