EMAIL LIST STRATEGY
We interviewed marketing agencies to find out how they overcome significant barriers
to success when it comes to their clients’ email list strategies.
AGENCY GOALS FOR EMAIL LIST STRATEGY
What are the MOST IMPORTANT GOALS
of an email list strategy?
Agencies are keenly aware that list quality
is of the utmost importance, with 73% of
agencies reporting that it’s their most
73%
61%
important goal. In fact, list quality is vital
to achieving nearly all of the other goals
36%
36%
30%
30%
agencies list as important.
8%
A clean list naturally leads to increased
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EMAIL LIST QUALITY AND SIZE ARE INCREASING FOR
MORE THAN HALF OF AGENCY CLIENTS
Marketers know that email lists are the key to future sales and that developing and
maintaining high-quality lists is imperative to success. Email marketing evolved very
quickly, and as a result, spam filters often became overly aggressive in response. Over
time, agencies have adapted and responded, and as a result, are reporting that both list
quality and list size are increasing.
Which best describes how
EMAIL LIST QUALITY is changing?
Which best describes how
EMAIL LIST SIZE is changing?
Quality is
decreasing
Size is
decreasing
11%
19%
55%
34%
54%
27%
Size is
not changing
Quality is
not changing
Size is
increasing
Quality is
increasing
CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING A SUCCESSFUL
EMAIL LIST STRATEGY
What can agencies be doing better to grow their clients’ email lists? They need to evolve
their approach. While marketers have become more strategic overall in the way they work,
documenting an overall strategy is a first step they can’t afford to skip.
What are the MOST SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS to the success of an email list strategy?
Lack of an effective list strategy
59%
Inadequate list segmentation data
44%
Poor email subscriber quality
34%
Low email subscriber volume
33%
Lack of list management expertise
30%
Inadequate list hygiene practices
27%
Valid email misconstrued as spam
25%
GENERATING SUCCESS WITH EMAIL LIST STRATEGY
There are several tactics that agencies rank as highly effective when assessing their email list
strategies. Using specific landing pages to ask a user to update information, or even to give
additional details, is a top performer. This is because the user understands that providing
the information will result in more accurate messages.
What are the MOST EFFECTIVE TACTICS used to achieve email list strategy success?
20%
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WHAT EMAIL LIST TACTICS DO AGENCIES NEED HELP WITH?
Which are the MOST DIFFICULT TACTICS to execute in an
email list strategy?
Agencies need help with
integrating email and social
media campaigns to grow their
lists. That’s no surprise, since
42%
38%
31%
27%
Email and social
media integrations
Offline/in-store/
call center opt-ins
Website access
registrations
Paid search
campaigns
23%
22%
17%
Email-specific
landing pages
Subscriber-only
offers
Content download
registrations
social media platforms recently
began closing their APIs so that
companies can’t easily export
this data. Agencies also want
the ability to integrate various
types of offline opt-ins.
AGENCIES NEED HELP
Which best describes how
EMAIL LIST SIZE is changing?
Agencies want to implement and
Outsourced to
a specialist
execute client email strategies
effectively. Tapping into a specialist to
8%
put an initial strategy in place is one
approach. It allows an agency to run
with the strategy thereafter to ensure
34%
clients achieve email list success. Larger
58%
agencies might consider keeping a
specialist on staff or retainer to both
develop and execute strategies.
In-house
resources only
Combination of outsourced
and in-house resources
Agency professionals are making it clear that effective email list strategy is necessary for
generating quality leads that will convert into sales. Email marketing is just one aspect of a
marketing automation platform, but it's a powerful tool.
SharpSpring can help you achieve your email list strategies with segmentation, landing page
funnels, dynamic forms and more. It's a proven, comprehensive platform, available at a fraction
of the cost of other providers.
Get a Demo
Email List Strategy Survey N=64 agencies
Ascend2 and SharpSpring, published July 2016