The State of The Inbox and The Adoption of Panel-Based Measurement

As marketers look towards the second half of 2017 and begin to make decisions about how to best allocate resources to drive maximum business results, many are looking closely at how best to optimize returns through their most effective marketing channel: email. Email is driving huge percentages of overall revenue for businesses across verticals, and for some, it has become the workhorse they rely on to drive over a quarter of their overall revenue.

In the summer of 2016, executive marketers reported that at that time email was driving 17 percent of their overall revenue, and by the spring of 2017 that number has risen to over 20 percent. The Relevancy Group’s Q2 2017 Executive Survey reveals some variance by business vertical, but not as much as one might imagine (Figure 1). Marketers in the Automotive, Education, Financial Services, Media & Publishing, and Real Estate verticals all report revenue contribution from email above the mean 21 percent. These are staggering numbers that point to the tremendous power of the email channel and indicate that businesses across verticals have come to rely on email as a major driver of revenue and a critical source of fuel for their business.