According to new research from The Aberdeen Group, companies are switching to email marketing to drive business growth. 78% of respondents said that email marketing would be the main strategy to generate leads in 2011.

Growth in marketing channels is the biggest challenge

Most respondents said that they had fewer resources available given the difficult business climate. However, there have never been so many marketing channels available to choose from following the explosion in social media marketing in 2010. 60% of all respondents said that the increase in marketing channels represents the biggest single challenge.

Why the move to email marketing?

Advanced email marketing can deliver impressive results using personalised communications to prospects and customers that leverage customer data and behaviour. In addition, email marketing is cost effective and 37% say ‘lower marketing costs’ is one of their top goals.

83% of companies say they will leverage email marketing as a core tool in the marketing mix compared with 54% for social media and 15% for mobile.

Source: Aberdeen Group