Why More Enterprise Marketers Will Rely on Email in 2023

The number of channels that B2B customers use has doubled in the past five years, according to McKinsey. Yet, marketers continue to rely on email as a core channel for their omnichannel efforts.

OMI recently partnered with Ascend2 to survey 133 enterprise marketers (working for companies with 500 or more employees) on their digital marketing strategies and tactics, including how and why email continues to make an impact.

We shared the results with the public and the study was featured in several leading marketing trade outlets, including MediaPost, Spiceworks, MarketingProfs, and more. Here are some of the key takeaways from these articles:

Enterprise Firms Are Succeeding With Email

The MediaPost article points out how much enterprise marketers use and depend on email marketing, with 94% of respondents agreeing that an effective email program is critical to their strategy and 53% of that group saying they strongly concur.

And enterprise marketers are good at it, with 95% saying they’re successful at email marketing, a higher success rate than those seen in other disciplines, according to the MediaPost author.  

Personalization and AI in Email Marketing

Spiceworks shared many of the findings from the study, including how enterprise marketers can use data, testing and AI to improve their email marketing. Email personalization tactics beyond first and last name is the most important test to perform for 39% of respondents, followed closely by timing and frequency (38%), and for 35%, testing calls to action (CTA) is most important.

The article also highlights how enterprise marketers say AI can benefit email campaigns in various ways, including:

• Better email retargeting (39%)
• Understanding customer lifecycle (39%)
• Improving deliverability (34%)
• Personalize email newsletters (32%)
• Optimize sending times (28%)
• Automate email copy (26%)
• Make segmentations (20%)

Top Email Trends and Challenges

The MarketingProfs article highlighted the top email trends enterprise marketers are planning to use in 2023. Study respondent cited:

• Automation (64%)
• Mobile-friendly design (59%)
• Personalization beyond simply the recipient's name (54%)

When it comes to challenges, the biggest email challenge for enterprise marketers is increasing engagement (cited by 59%), followed by measuring performance (47%).

The full survey, “Email Marketing: New Research for the Enterprise Marketer,” is available for download here.

We hope this research is valuable for you and your organization and we’re so glad it was shared with these media outlets to reach new audiences. The more we understand how enterprise leaders are executing email to maximize results, the better we can plan for success in the New Year.

Whatever is on the horizon for new technology, channels and selling strategies, I believe email will continue to anchor marketing outreach. On that note, wishing you a very Happy New Year from all of us at OMI.

Did you know? Over 75 million of OMI’s 100 million manager- and professional-level and above contacts are matched to the LiveRamp RampID graph, including 65 million records from our SMB and medical market databases. Contact us today to learn more about building a custom audience.