A new survey from StrongView, a provider of enterprise email marketing solutions, and its parent company Selligent, a provider of omnichannel marketing solutions, has revealed that marketers intend to integrate email and social media for cross-channel impact in the coming year.
“Selligent & StrongView 2016 Marketing Tends Survey” includes findings from a poll of 295 marketers which found that email will be the top target for increased investment across all digital channels, beating social media and display, which took the second and third spots.
A majority (56 percent) plan to increase marketing budgets this year (on par with 2015) — and “connecting effectively with consumers” is top of mind for many survey respondents.
“Increasing subscriber engagement” was by far the most important marketing initiative for 2016 at 34 percent – more than double the next response of “improving segmentation and targeting,” according to StrongView. “In their quest to master consumer engagement, marketers have to contend with several challenges. Most notably, survey respondents cited “leveraging customer data from multiple channels and data sources” as their top challenge in the coming year.”
Marketers are also focused on many aspects of integrating social media with email in order to create more opportunities for engagement.
“Email marketing is an established and profitable channel that will be seeing increased investment in 2016 as marketers continue to rely on it as a vital part of their omnichannel strategies,” said Andre Lejeune, CEO of Selligent. “It’s encouraging to see marketers break down siloes to use channels like email, social media, and web together to create a better and more unified experience for consumers.”
