In many ways I was both surprised and well, not-so-surprised when I read the findings of a recent survey done by Ascend2 and its research partners on marketingcharts.com. The good folks at MC decided to go with a headline of Marketers Continue to Rate Email the Most Effective Digital Marketing Tactic in announcing the findings. Completely understood why for it, the headline that is, speaks to the ongoing belief and faith in email as one of, if not the most viable marketing channel for a variety of reasons.
The operative word in the sentence above is ongoing for earlier this year in July a similar survey was done by a completely different company (Gigaom) which caused MC to use this as its headline: Email Rated Most Effective Digital Marketing Tactic. And in that same July article yet another survey, this one from Econsultancy was referenced. And in that particular survey, global marketers said they consider email to be the top rated channel by ROI, coming in ahead of SEO and content marketing.
Source: seemoreinteractive.com
Now, truth be told, the Econsultancy findings may be a result of marketers not measuring their SEO or content marketing efforts properly whereas email is more straightforward and direct.
However, it cannot be denied as to the effectiveness of email marketing no matter how you look at it.
Effectiveness Vs. Difficulty
Now unlike the Gigaom survey, where effectiveness only was measured, this most recent survey added a wrinkle asking respondents to rate channels not only based on how effective it is, but also how difficult it is in terms of execution.
Here's where my surprised yet not-so-surprised comes into play.
Truth be told I am much more on the not-so-surprised side of the aisle as quite frankly these results were to be expected.
Obviously, based on this survey and the aforementioned previous ones, it was no surprise to see email score so high. I'd love to speak with the 11% who voted it as being most difficult, however. Would be very curious as to what exactly they're doing or in fact, not doing, that makes email marketing so difficult.
Then there is mobile marketing or as I referred to it... way back in October, 2012, The Elephant In The Room For Marketers.
Oh wait, even before that, in September of the same year, I penned Mobile Marketing Too Large For Brands To Ignore.
The following year, 2013 — September to be exact I scribed Mobile Marketing Remains A Largely Untapped Opportunity For Marketers.
Do you see a trend here?
My point is when I read the results of the survey via the above chart and saw that 34% of marketers indicated that mobile marketing was "most difficult" whereas only 9% said it was "most effective" I was not surprised in the least to see such a wide disparity.
The undeniable dichotomy between the perceived or real effectiveness of mobile marketing vs. it's efficiency is fascinating. It really is.
Think about it.
Obviously everyone, or so it seems, has at least one mobile device, right? And is equally as obviously that we consumers (both the B2c and B2B kind) are using said mobile device a whole lot and the amount we use them is only going to increase.
The point is of course the whole world knows everyone and everything has either already "gone mobile" or is headed that way at warp speed. So why, still, do we see numbers like those above?
Why are marketers still so seemingly perplexed about how to best capitalize on it?
Is it literally they do not know how to do it, literally? And when I say "do it" I mean ALL of it. Do they not know how to reach their customers and prospects in a mobile setting? Do they not know what to say? How to say it? How to measure it? How to... do ANY of it?
Interested to hear your thoughts on all this.
Chart Source: Marketing Charts
