Only one in twenty e-mail marketing professionals is completely satisfied with the overall ease of use of their current systems, despite 76% citing usability as the most important feature when selecting an e-mail marketing solution, according to e-mail provider SkyList.
According to the recent Email Marketing Buyer's Guide by Jupiter Research, marketers are focused more on the usability of their applications than any other performance rating factor.
Integration trend
The survey uncovered another trend: increasing demand for easy integration of e-mail into other systems and emerging online channels.
For example, 61% of marketing professionals said they currently integrate e-mail into their CRM solution, or would be interested in integrating it in the future, while 39% said that they currently incorporate blogs, and 34% use RSS in their marketing strategy.
Authentication
According to SkyList, marketers increasingly need to differentiate their messages from spam and achieve higher deliverability rates, and the answer to this problem is authentication technology.
Based on the survey results, there can be no question that e-mail is still at the forefront of marketers' attention, as 82% said that it is "a critical component of their overall marketing strategy". However, concerns about e-mail still remain, with 55% saying that spam issues have made them more hesitant to use e-mail, and 47% citing deliverability as an e-mail marketing challenge.
According to SkyList, the e-mail marketing industry has embraced authentication as one of the most crucial weapons against spam. According to a report issued by the Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC), at least one of the emerging standards is supported by each of the key US mail service providers (AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo!) whose combined e-mail accounts are reported to receive more than 50% of commercial e-mail in the US.
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