Annual e-Marketing Outlook 2014

Highlights

1. For the fourth successive year, Customer Acquisition remains the top choice as the primary marketing goal for marketers in India with 51% of the respondents choosing this option over customer retention or brand awareness.
2.  Social Media updates and Email Campaigns continue to dominate the minds of marketers in India (both at 35%) when it comes to preferred channels of customer engagement. While mail had significantly dropped last year (29% in 2013 vs. 39% in 2012), it now seems to be back in favour with a 21% growth in the number of marketers choosing it for 2013-2014.
3.  The number of marketers that don’t yet believe in engagement via smartphones, apps or email on the go has decreased by about 31% since last year. At the same time, 45% of the marketers surveyed said that they believe in mobile devices as an important aspect of customer engagement and are adapting their strategies to leverage it better. 
4. For 29% of the companies surveyed, e-Marketing currently contributes between 11% to 30% of their total sales revenue while an additional 19% chose the ‘31% to 50%’ option for the same. Out of these, 57% indicated that they plan to increase their e-Marketing budgets again in 2014 by 21% to 50%.
5. 65% of the marketers believe that Social Media integration in Emails can lead to increase in brand awareness and reputation. At the same time, 44% think it helps in extending the reach of their Email content to new markets and 24% said it helps in generating more qualities leads.
6. 47% of the respondents shared that they think that between a quarter to half of all their Email marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014. A further 25% were even more confident and chose the 50% to 75% option while 22% of the marketers were cautious and said that less than 25% of all Email Marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014.
7.  According to marketers in India, Content (at 50%), Frequency/Volume of sending (at 46%) and Black Listing/Sender Reputation (at 34%) are the top three factors impacting inbox deliverability rates for Email campaigns.