More 1,300 respondents took part in the 2013 Census, which took the form of an online survey in January and February 2013.

Approximately what proportion of your total sales can you attribute to the email marketing channel?

According to Email Marketing Report publisher Mike Brownlow:

Email’s true role in generating sales is often underestimated, because many responses don’t involve a click (or even an open). Ignoring the positive impact of branding/awareness for the moment, we know that marketing emails can trigger, for example, a relevant Google search, a type-in visit to the sender’s website or a visit to the sender’s offline store.

Annual spend on email marketing

The survey also asked respondents how much their businesses are spending on email marketing each year.

Just under two-thirds of companies (62%) are spending more than £5,000 per year on email marketing. This is exactly the same figure as in 2012, representing a significant drop from the figures of 75% and 70% in 2011 and 2010 respectively.

A further 30% of companies are spending at least £25,000 annually, although this has also been declining since 2011. The proportion of respondents spending more than £100,000 on email marketing has declined by 4% from 14% in 2012 to 10% in 2013.

And it’s proving to be a worthwhile investment, as two-thirds of marketers (66%) state that email delivers an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ ROI.

Annual spend on email marketing