Posted by John Vinson

If someone were to ask you, “Is the recession over?”, how would you respond? A Silverpop survey of 300 email marketers showed that nine out of 10 respondents believe the recession is still occurring. It can be really hard to define what an actual ‘recession’ is, especially to decipher when one is improving or worsening. Sometimes perception is more important than actual truth though, and it says quite a bit that most email marketers are pessimistic about the recession.

The numbers seem bad, and of those negative respondents, many believe there won’t be an improvement anytime soon. 20 percent of those surveyed believe the economy wouldn’t be considered “improved” until the fourth quarter of 2010. For every ying there must be a yang, so while marketers aren’t optimistic about the recession, their budgets for email marketing will be increasing. 40% of the marketers stated their budgets would increase in 2010, with most of the others saying it would stay the same.

Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop had this to say about the figures, “When consumers’ purse strings tighten, savvy marketers remain respectful but attentive, so their brands are top of mind when their customers are once again ready to buy.” He continues, “Today’s marketers are mindful of the important role relationship building plays in a successful marketing strategy, and they understand the unique ability of email to engage customers.”

Customer engagement continues to be a high priority for most marketers. Along with engagement, behavioral targeting proved to be effective. Sending emails to customers based on prior open and click trends worked adequately for 28 percent of the marketers surveyed.

One of the main concerns of marketers continues to be what the survey refers to as ‘inbox clutter’. I’m not sure a survey was needed for that revelation, as it’s been a concern of marketers for quite some time. Coupled with this, many are struggling to provide content relevant to potential readers.

What I consider the most interesting statistic of the survey, is the number of respondents who will be incorporating social media into their campaigns. Eight out of 10 people surveyed plan to incorporate social media somehow into their campaigns. Along with social media, 38 percent will add some sort of SMS option.
This was quite an interesting survey to absorb. While many marketers are worried about the overall state of the economy, it seems most are prepping for an improving or stagnant year. This tells me there might be some underlying optimism for email marketing in a down economy. This really shouldn’t be a huge surprise, as email marketing has relatively low budgets compared to other marketing campaigns. Here’s hoping for a good 2010 to everyone reading this.

About the Author: John is a staff writer for WebProNews.