Evolving technologies changing the way email marketers spend their time

For companies that put a great deal of time into direct marketing via email, there's a lot that goes into the process besides just writing messages and clicking "send." Keeping in touch with customers is a very exact science, and there are numerous ways the endeavor can go wrong. Email marketers have to be as careful and tech-savvy as they are creative.

Econsultancy recently published a report on how email marketers spend their time, and the organization discovered a wide variety of activities that all fall under the marketing umbrella. In the "Email Marketing Speed Imperative" study, published in partnership with dotMailer, the organization revealed that writing creative content only accounts for 26 percent of these professionals' time. Campaign deployment and management accounted for 21 percent, with basic segmentation of email data at 10 percent.

Direct marketing expert Christopher Ratcliff explained in the report that a balanced approach to email marketing is hugely important for many different types of organizations.

"Marketing is becoming increasingly multichannel and relationship focused," Ratcliff stated. "Email is the glue that pulls together all of these different disciplines, tactics and partners, as well as being a direct channel to the customer."

Perhaps the most alarming stat that Econsultancy revealed was that only 8 percent of email marketers' time, according to the survey data, was spent on practices such as "database management" or "list cleansing." It's worth calling into question whether this type of time investment is sufficient.

Email verification is an important part of the marketing process. People's email addresses are mistyped all the time - and even if they're initially correct, they become outdated the moment someone gets a new account. Erroneous messages represent a waste of time and resources for any organization, so it's likely worthwhile to put a little extra time into data quality to ensure more effective email-based campaigns.