• by Jess Nelson , January 21, 2016

Marketers are increasing their email budgets, according to a joint study released Wednesday by Selligent and Strongview.

Half of marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets this year, according to the report, while 9% of marketers plan to decrease expenditures. For those looking to invest, email ranks as the most popular channel deserving of attention.

Some 60% of the 300 marketers polled responded that they were prioritizing investing in their email marketing programs this year. Email was followed by social media and display, with 56% of respondents, and mobile with 52% of respondents. 

“This data is not surprising as email is still by far, key in any marketing strategy,” says Sean Brady, president of the Americas at Emarsys.

Brady lists email’s low cost and real-time tracking capabilities as benefits of email marketing, and also cites technology’s role in personalizing email marketing.

“Within email, there is a lot of space for content in which you have more creative freedom versus other mediums like social media, SMS and sometimes Web sites,” say Brady.

Email has the highest ROI per dollar spent, and is the most effective communication channel for consumer engagement.

Marketers have taken notice, and according to Selligent and Strongview, the top three email marketing initiatives this year aim to increase subscriber engagement and improve segmentation, targeting and data analysis to better understand customer behavior and context.

Ironically, data and segmentation also rank as the top challenges for email marketing programs this year.

Integration will be a major hurdle for marketers in 2016 and 27% of marketers say leveraging customer data from multiple channels and sources is their top challenge this year.

Some 18% of marketers list improving segmentation and targeting as a top challenge, while 12% say they have inadequate data and analytics capabilities to engage in contextual marketing.