Why are email marketing goals not achieved?
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 7:23 am
Today we will discuss the main reasons why brands often fail to achieve their email marketing goals. We will discuss a series of variables that make it difficult for the effectiveness and performance of the email marketing strategy to be as desired and that objectives such as generating and increasing traffic and visits to the website, increasing user engagement, generating more sales in e-commerce or those linked to inbound marketing are not achieved.
Below we have selected the six most frequently repeated reasons. We will analyse them and finally see which of them is the one that is repeated in the majority of companies.
1- Lack of knowledge
Lack of mastery in the discipline can be one of the reasons why the expected objectives are not achieved in the field of email. It can lead to problems when it comes to getting the most out of the tool used, the campaigns and the analysis of the results.
However, according to data recorded in the study we published on the State of Email Marketing in Spain in 2022 , only a few (18.5%) companies claim to have a basic command of their organization's email marketing. We can see how more and more companies are increasing their knowledge in the discipline. 44.4% have an intermediate command and 37% have an advanced command .
2- Budgetary limitations
The investment that is dedicated to any area of marketing can also have a close relationship with the expected result. Not having the necessary budget, for example, to invest in the necessary tools or to have the necessary equipment, ends up affecting daily work and the objectives achieved.
According to the data extracted from vp hr email lists our study, for the majority of the companies surveyed (48.1%), the investment they make in email marketing actions represents less than 10% of the total marketing budget , a percentage that remains the same as last year (48.6%). However, the number of companies that invest 40% - 60% of the budget is decreasing, we are talking about 1.9% in 2020 versus 7.1% in 2020/2021.
Regarding the investment they plan to make in email marketing in the medium term, companies are clearly divided. They agree that this will increase (50%) or remain the same (50%) , but that it will certainly not decrease.
3- Lack of internal resources (people and/or time)
Another reason that can lead to undesirable performance of our email marketing program is the lack of internal resources, such as time and a dedicated team. Often, the burden of email marketing management falls on a single person or a very small team that must deal with strategy, management, analytics, etc. In fact, it is the most common reason among marketers in the sector, 53.7% .
Having to keep track of so many variables makes it difficult to devote all the time you would like to implementing new ideas, testing new strategies, in short, squeezing all the juice out of your email marketing program. One way to solve this problem is to outsource email marketing services. By doing so, the client can replace the time they spend on execution tasks with time dedicated to other tasks with greater added value, such as defining the strategy and analyzing results.
4- Technological deficiencies/deficiencies
When we do not have the necessary and appropriate tools to develop our email strategy, the results we want to obtain can be altered. Other times we do have the infrastructure but it is not aligned with the needs of our email marketing program or we do not know how to get the most out of it.
In this case, 37% of marketers feel represented by this insight.
5- Support from management
Management support is also essential and is reflected in the results we can achieve thanks to this channel. When it is not given the necessary importance in terms of time, budget or resources, it ends up affecting the metrics and performance of the program. In fact, 11.1% of email specialists identify with this problem .
6- Database quality
A low-quality database, with many inactive/non-existent users and outdated addresses can cause low opening and click rates and poor performance of our email marketing actions. To do this, it is important to clean our database when necessary.
In this case, 37% of marketers consider that the quality of their database is a major problem in achieving the objectives of their email marketing program.
In short, here we can see in general terms the insights that are most often repeated. As we said, the lack of internal resources (people and/or time) is the most recurrent problem among marketers . We will see if these results are maintained or not over time.
Below we have selected the six most frequently repeated reasons. We will analyse them and finally see which of them is the one that is repeated in the majority of companies.
1- Lack of knowledge
Lack of mastery in the discipline can be one of the reasons why the expected objectives are not achieved in the field of email. It can lead to problems when it comes to getting the most out of the tool used, the campaigns and the analysis of the results.
However, according to data recorded in the study we published on the State of Email Marketing in Spain in 2022 , only a few (18.5%) companies claim to have a basic command of their organization's email marketing. We can see how more and more companies are increasing their knowledge in the discipline. 44.4% have an intermediate command and 37% have an advanced command .
2- Budgetary limitations
The investment that is dedicated to any area of marketing can also have a close relationship with the expected result. Not having the necessary budget, for example, to invest in the necessary tools or to have the necessary equipment, ends up affecting daily work and the objectives achieved.
According to the data extracted from vp hr email lists our study, for the majority of the companies surveyed (48.1%), the investment they make in email marketing actions represents less than 10% of the total marketing budget , a percentage that remains the same as last year (48.6%). However, the number of companies that invest 40% - 60% of the budget is decreasing, we are talking about 1.9% in 2020 versus 7.1% in 2020/2021.
Regarding the investment they plan to make in email marketing in the medium term, companies are clearly divided. They agree that this will increase (50%) or remain the same (50%) , but that it will certainly not decrease.
3- Lack of internal resources (people and/or time)
Another reason that can lead to undesirable performance of our email marketing program is the lack of internal resources, such as time and a dedicated team. Often, the burden of email marketing management falls on a single person or a very small team that must deal with strategy, management, analytics, etc. In fact, it is the most common reason among marketers in the sector, 53.7% .
Having to keep track of so many variables makes it difficult to devote all the time you would like to implementing new ideas, testing new strategies, in short, squeezing all the juice out of your email marketing program. One way to solve this problem is to outsource email marketing services. By doing so, the client can replace the time they spend on execution tasks with time dedicated to other tasks with greater added value, such as defining the strategy and analyzing results.
4- Technological deficiencies/deficiencies
When we do not have the necessary and appropriate tools to develop our email strategy, the results we want to obtain can be altered. Other times we do have the infrastructure but it is not aligned with the needs of our email marketing program or we do not know how to get the most out of it.
In this case, 37% of marketers feel represented by this insight.
5- Support from management
Management support is also essential and is reflected in the results we can achieve thanks to this channel. When it is not given the necessary importance in terms of time, budget or resources, it ends up affecting the metrics and performance of the program. In fact, 11.1% of email specialists identify with this problem .
6- Database quality
A low-quality database, with many inactive/non-existent users and outdated addresses can cause low opening and click rates and poor performance of our email marketing actions. To do this, it is important to clean our database when necessary.
In this case, 37% of marketers consider that the quality of their database is a major problem in achieving the objectives of their email marketing program.
In short, here we can see in general terms the insights that are most often repeated. As we said, the lack of internal resources (people and/or time) is the most recurrent problem among marketers . We will see if these results are maintained or not over time.