20 Jun 11: Some 46% of businesses have already implemented some form of lifecycle email programme, and of those not currently running programmes, 58% plan to in the next 24 months, according to the results of StrongMail’s 2011 Lifecycle Email Marketing Survey.

The survey, carried out earlier this month among more than 1,000 email marketing executives across the globe, shows rapid adoption of automated lifecycle marketing programmes, signalling a shift away from untargeted outbound campaigns.
The ROI on lifecycle marketing is typically much higher; according to the Gartner April 2011 report ‘Top 7 CRM Marketing Processes for 2011,’ marketers can expect a 600% lift in campaign performance over traditional outbound programmes by adopting event-triggered techniques.

According to the survey, the travel & hospitality, retail, and technology industries lead adoption with 63%, 62%, and 58% of businesses currently leveraging some form of lifecycle marketing in their email programmes, respectively. At 37%, the financial services industry shows the least amount of adoption.

Welcome programmes are the most popular lifecycle marketing programmes, with 78% of companies reporting usage, followed by post-purchase (45%) and cross/upsell (44%) programmes. Only 26% of respondents report running cart abandonment programmes, but that number jumps to 57% within the retail vertical specifically. Some 68% of retailers are also leveraging post-purchase lifecycle programmes (product reviews, satisfaction surveys, etc.), versus the 45% average across all verticals.

The vast majority of companies running lifecycle email programmes (75%) report that they outperform batch-and-blast, outbound email programmes. When asked to identify the main benefits of an event-triggered, lifecycle email marketing programme, 67% of respondents reported increased subscriber engagement as the top benefit, followed by lift in campaign performance (55%), increased customer satisfaction/retention (54%) and increased revenue (46%).

Obstacles to Implementing Lifecycle Email Marketing Programmes
For the 51% of respondents not currently running lifecycle email programmes, the top reasons why included lack of budget/resources (38%), lack of tools/technology (26%) and inability to access the customer data needed to power these programmes (16%).  The ability to easily create and manage programmes is another factor curbing adoption, as 57% of this same group said they would leverage lifecycle marketing if they had a tool with an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface. This data point underscores the importance of StrongMail's new Lifecycle Marketing solution, also announced today in a separate release.

"Marketers are quickly realising that batch-and-blast email marketing is no longer effective," said Scott Ollivier, Vice President of products at StrongMail. "To stand out in the inbox, marketers must evolve and speed their adoption of lifecycle marketing programmes. With the release of StrongMail's new drag-and-drop Lifecycle Marketing solution and corresponding strategic, creative and implementation services, StrongMail is making it easy for companies of all sizes to adopt this powerful technique."

Survey Highlights

• 46% of businesses are running automated, event-triggered lifecycle marketing programmes
• 58% of businesses not currently running lifecycle marketing programmes plan to within 24 months
• 67% of businesses cite increased subscriber engagement as top benefit; 55% increased campaign performance; 54% increased customer satisfaction and retention
• 75% of businesses report that lifecycle marketing programmes outperform outbound email programmes
• 38% of businesses report lack of budget/resources as top inhibitor to adoption; 26% lack of tools and/or technology; 16% data integration

Full survey data is available here