With this annual national survey we wanted to find out how Belgian companies are currently dealing with email marketing. We map their strategy in 2015 and reveal the trends and expectations of the Belgian email marketing landscape in 2016. The overall results of the Email Barometer reveal some interesting insights.
First and foremost, the results reveal that both B2B and B2C businesses invest more and more resources when it comes to email marketing. Where previous editions of this survey show that the marketing and/or communication department were in charge of all things email, those responsibilities now shift to online and even designated email marketers.
Furthermore, we see that Belgian email marketing has matured greatly during the last few years: it is now often moved to the center of the marketing mix. Overall results increased and marketers have clear goals and strategies when setting up their email marketing. They go for a healthy mix of both direct sales goals and relationship building. Instead of just sending mass mailings, they start off with a clear strategy and are starting to implement email marketing in every step of the customer lifecycle. A big trend for 2016 is still marketing automation, as it’s a great way to improve both time pressure and value for the audience. Context and targeting are key here.
Belgian marketers also indicate in this year’s results of the Email Barometer that they are still actively looking for inspiration and knowledge to improve their strategy. Evolutions and developments to their email marketing platform have a big role to play in this, as they indicate their platform and the information they get from it, are the main sources of new insights. This also means that if you want to make the most of your email marketing, choosing a platform that fits your needs is vital to help your strategy grow.
In 2016, email marketers will be increasing their overall volume, but at the same time they will also be implementing more ways of targeting, segmentation and automation. These two elements show that increasing the overall volume doesn’t necessarily mean that every contact will also receive more emails, but we’ll all be focusing more on sending the right information, tailored to the contacts’ needs and preferences.
With all these trends and evolutions, how do Belgian marketers feel about email marketing and its role in their businesses? How does email fit in their overall marketing strategy? How are they actually using email? And what results are they getting?
In this report we present the overall survey results and our interpretations by comparing the findings for companies in B2B and B2C.
Dive into the report and consult all the results!