OK, it’s not that fresh anymore but according to a survey, conducted by Hurwitz & Associates for Ontario-based email marketing service provider Campaigner (a solution of Software-as-a-Service communication services and solutions company Protus), almost half of North American small businesses use email marketing today.
Campaigner’s “2009 State of Small Business Online Marketing Survey” found that 46% of small businesses surveyed rely on email marketing to help them find new customers, keep existing ones and grow their businesses. Hurwitz & Associates gathered responses from 259 North American businesses with 1 to 20 employees.
Furthermore the report reveals that 36% of the surveyed small businesses plan to start using email marketing in the coming year.
When questioned about their concerns in designing and executing email marketing campaigns, respondents reported the following top challenges:
1) Concerns that my customers will view email marketing as spamming
2) Too many email campaigns are filtered out by spam filters
3) Poor response rates
Survey respondents cited the following as their top criteria for choosing an email marketing provider:
1) Ease-of-use
2) Quality of customer support
3) Price
When asked more detailed questions about email marketing, small business owners cited the following as top benefits:
1) Inexpensive/effective way to reach out to new prospects and customers
2) Generates a fast response so I can tell if a campaign is working
3) Effective way to build customer loyalty
Newsletters, sales and promotional offers and announcements are the most common ways small businesses said they are using email marketing.
Campaigner also released a second report about email marketing in small businesses, called “ Small Businesses Put Email Marketing to Work” that looks at small business adoption, plans, use and requirements for email marketing solutions.
Both reports are free and available for download at www.campaigner.com/lp/hurwitz.aspx
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