Email Marketing Survey Portugal 2010

A brief insight into the state of permission based
email marketing in Portugal
This survey was conducted by Markedu Iberia in association with ACEPI and e-Goi in May 2010.
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Written by Michael Leander | 01-06-2010
PERMISSION EMAIL MARKETING
SURVEY PORTUGAL
Markedu
www.markedu.com - www.markedu.com - www.markedu.com - www.markedu.com

Markedu
A brief insight into the state of permission based
email marketing in Portugal
Thank You
Email marketing is said to give a marketing ROI of 43 to every 1 dollar,
but are you ready to cash in?
Interestingly email marketing has been around for a long time and the marketing efficiency of the
media is indeed well documented. Yet most marketers are not quite getting the results they want
or expect. In most cases there is a logical reason for that.
Experience proves that part of the reason is that marketers do not invest the necessary time and
resources in “getting email marketing right”. Those who fully understand how to tackle this media
are reporting remarkable results. Not only monetary, tangible results resulting in a decrease in
customer acquisition cost, but also reaching Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) in the area of
customer retention and purchasing frequency benefit from marketers who
But many email marketers also notice the positive impact that a properly executed email
marketing program can have on the customer experience – something which is becoming
increasingly important to brands across all vertical markets. Not to mention the referrals deriving
from successful email marketing activities.
Many still in doubt – who is to blame?
As this survey will reveal, one fifth of Portuguese marketers are not sure about the legislation
relating to email marketing. A high number if we compare to EU averages.
On the offset it would seem that the government - along with trade and industry associations - are
faced with quite a task to generate awareness about the local legislation. We know that it is a
long process, however nevertheless an important one.
My experience from many other countries is that many marketers assume that promotional email
can be sent to existing customers without prior consent. That is not true. Moreover, many think
that if you have been given a business card at a tradeshow, in a meeting or similar, that these
details can automatically be included in the email marketing list. Equally not true.
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For email marketing to stand a chance in the longer term, it is awfully important that marketers
fully understand the rules of the game. It is important for several reasons. Firstly - to be in
compliance with legislation. But secondly it is an important component in positioning your
company to maximize results with the email marketing media.
At the Email Marketing Masterclass in Lisbon, we will introduce a speaker who will provide more
insights to the current legislation in Portugal. And as part of the follow-up webinar, we will have an
expert brief delegates on the permission marketing legislation in the EU member states.
On that note, I am pleased to see that ACEPI (Associação do Comércio Electrónico e da
Publicidade Interactiva), for one, have supported this survey and once again will support the
Email Marketing Masterclass in Lisbon.
Also kudos to e-Goi – the leading Portuguese multichannel marketing software vendors – who
also understands the importance of increasing awareness about permission based email
marketing in Portugal.
Finally, I would like to thank Kodak Graphics Communication who are supporting the Email
Marketing Masterclass 2010 to help us bring the event to more than 20 cities in Europe, the Gulf
and the Middle East.
Best regards
Michael Leander
International permission marketing expert,
speaker and Chairman of FIMAC
PS: You are welcome to circulate this report
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Markedu
The European average experience is indicated to 4,5 years according to FEDMA’s Email
Marketing Benchmark study 2010.
The majority of Portuguese marketers indicate an experience level of less than 3 years. Nearly
one third of our respondents indicate they have 2-3 years of experience while 26% have less than
one years of experience with email marketing.
I believe that these numbers are similar to other countries that we consider late adapters in this
space. It would seem that within the EU, countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Norway and Scandinavia are amongst the most mature while Italy, Spain, France and
the Eastern European countries are somewhat trailing these countries by 2-4 years.
Obviously the internet penetration plays a huge part in the actual penetration rate.
Experience counts in email marketing
Experience is a hugely important part of email marketing. Although specialists, agencies and
guru’s can provide direction to organizations, email marketing is very much a hands-on media.
Marketers need to get their hands dirty, focus on the numbers and gradually learn to get insights
that in turn will improve their activities.
There has been a trend to outsource all or most of the email marketing activities to marketing
service providers; however currently more and more organizations are shifting from predominantly
outsourcing to predominantly handling most of the tasks involved internally. I believe that is a step
in the right direction, which will help marketers get the much wanted experience required to
become successful.
2. How many years has your organization been using email newsletters,
promotional emails or transactional emails?
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Compared to the rest of the EU – where 53,80% said they do not inform about frequency on their
registration form (opt-in form) - 50% of the marketers in Portugal said they do not. In my opinion it
is a major mistake not to inform about the frequency of the communication.
Sending newsletters or other types of email communication on a quarterly basis is rather useless,
in my opinion. Email communication is first and foremost a relation builder. It is rather difficult to
build a meaningful relationship if you only “talk” to your target audience four times each year.
In Portugal it would seem that most marketers takes preference for the monthly frequency,
whereas only very few marketers send newsletters or other type of email communication daily. My
generic advice is to work with a frequency of no less than twice each month – the reasoning
behind that is something I explain at the Email Marketing Masterclass.
Frequency a matter of relevance
Based on my experience from working with many different organizations across the world, I think
it is fair to say that your frequency can be much higher than you think – as long as what you are
communicating has relevance to the recipient. But organizations seem to think that the media
operates on the same terms as a printed newsletter or magazine. It doesn’t !
Asking recipients about their preferred frequency can often be a good strategy. And offering more
channels with a frequency differentiation may also be a good strategy for most marketers.
3. Does your newsletter registration form say how often email newsletters will
be sent to subscribers and if so, what frequency do you say?
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Unlike FEDMA’s European Email Marketing Benchmark Report, we provided two “cheeky” answer
options – namely “this applies only to B2C marketers” and “There is no permission legislation in
place in Portugal”.
A stunning combined 5,47% of respondents chose one of those two answers. We gave those two
choices because we know the common misconceptions. And a surprisingly large number of B2B
marketers really believe that the rules and legislations of email marketing does not apply to them.
One out of four Portuguese marketers are unsure about legislation
As you can see from the graph above, 57% of Portuguese marketers feel very confident about
being in compliance compared to 41,80% in the rest of the EU. However more than one out of
four Portuguese marketers are not confident at all, compared to 6,90% in the EU.
This represents a real challenge as mentioned earlier. It is important that information is made
readily available to marketers so that they fully understand what needs to be done in order to be
in compliance.
Not complying with the permission marketing legislation have in some countries incurred fines of
more than US$ 800.000. Consumer protection agencies are likely to take this issue very seriously
at some point in Portugal too.
4. How confident are you that all of your email marketing activities are in
compliance with legislation in Portugal and in any other country you are
marketing to?
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Markedu
Nearly 54% of Portuguese marketers consider email marketing to be very strategically important
to meet their marketing objectives compared to 46,70% in the rest of the EU. But more than 20%
of Portuguese marketers says that email marketing is very unimportant to meet their marketing
objectives, compared to only 1,10% in the EU.
I think that email marketing can play an important role as part of the direct and interactive
marketing mix with most organizations, however it is important not to view email marketing as a
stand-alone media.
Consumers and business buyers have different preferences at different times. Multi-channel
marketing is indeed the name of the game, and email marketing is but one instrument, which
should be fitted into the equation on the recipients’ terms.
Many companies still think that this is a sender control game. It is not. Successful marketers know
how to look inside out and do their best to accommodate recipient preferences. And that applies
to the media channels as well.
What the future brings for email marketing
But email marketing will become an increasingly important part of the marketing mix, as we know
that consumers and business buyers are fond of the media. I think that the email marketing game
will change over the next five years as the media itself will change. Google Wave is one example
of what we can expect in the future. We might see movements where mobile, chat and email will
somehow merge into one media.
No matter what the future brings, marketers do well by paying attention to the email marketing
media as it is more than likely that it is here to stay – in whatever shape or form.
5. How strategically important do you consider your email marketing to be to
meet your marketing objectives?
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The survey had more than 300 respondents from Portugal.
It was conducted over a period of 10 working days in May
2010 through an online survey.
Background information
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6. Which of the following groups are you primarily marketing to?
7. How many people does your company employ?

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8. Which of the following best describers your job function?

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Saiba mais sobre a Masterclass em: www.markedu.com/lisbon
Markedu - Innovative Marketing Education
Markedu.com é a sua "one-stop-shop" onde pode encontrar informação e inspiração sobre os
mais diversos temas de marketing. Escolha entre vários tipos de programas educativos sobre
marketing, desde seminários online a eventos exclusivos.
A Markedu – Innovative Marketing Education oferece eventos de qualidade excepcional, a
decorrer em todo o mundo com especialistas de renome internacional tal como Michael Leander.
E-Goi | Plataforma de Marketing Multicanal
O E-goi é a plataforma de marketing multicanal desenvolvida para a gestão da comunicação
digital por e-mail, SMS, fax, voz e MMS. O projecto encontra-se em desenvolvimentos constante
para dar resposta às solicitações dos seus parceiros e clientes.
A ferramenta é a única a conjugar todos estes canais, o que permite a sua integração de forma
simples e original para comunicar e fortalecer a relação do cliente com a sua marca.
AC ACEPI
Associação de Comércio Electrónico e Publicidade Interactiva
A Associação de Comércio Electrónico e Publicidade Interactiva (ACEPI) é uma organização
independente sem fins lucrativos, de pessoas individuais e colectivas, visando estudo e a
implementação em Portugal das diversas formas de Negócio Electrónico, nomeadamente, o
eAdvertising, eCommerce, eBusiness, eProcesses, eFinance e o eMobile, constituindo um fórum
independente e aberto para o debate, potenciação, promoção, generalização e dignificação
dessas matérias em Portugal.
Supporters of this survey
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Markedu
Michael Leander irá realizar a Email Marketing Masterclass em Lisboa pela segunda vez. Não
perca a oportunidade de aprender a utilizar o email marketing da forma mais eficaz com um dos
melhores especialistas da Europa.
O email marketing é hoje considerado a arma mais poderosa do marketing directo. Michael
Leander, por muitos aclamado como um dos maiores especialistas europeus em email marketing,
regressa a Lisboa para ministrar mais uma Masterclass de Email Marketing.
Michael Leander : Top Speaker & International Email Marketing Expert pela 2ª vez em Portugal
Como especialista em email marketing Michael Leander realizou palestras em mais de 25 países, e
prestou consultoria a inúmeras empresas internacionais tais como L'Oreal, Philips, IKEA, Maersk, Bang &
Olufsen.
Michael Leander irá transmitir-lhe os conhecimentos e a inspiração necessária para conduzir o seu e-mail
marketing para o próximo nível.
Saiba mais sobre Michael Leander aqui:
http://www.markedu.com/email-masterclass/lisbon/pt/oradores.html
Aprenda num dia o que a maioria das pessoas leva uma vida para descobrir.
Na Email Marketing Masterclass em Lisboa aprenda a utilizar a metodologia que tem permitido atingir
resultados de excelência em organizações de diversas áreas em vários países.
Não perca a oportunidade de assistir a um dos melhores eventos de email marketing da actualidade com
um orador de referência a nível internacional.
Veja a mensagem do Michael Leander para si:
http://www.markedu.com/email-masterclass/lisbon/pt/porque_participar.html
Assista à Email Marketing Masterclass e fique a par das melhores práticas da actualidade
5 razões para estar presente na Email Marketing Masterclass em Lisboa:
1. Melhore os resultados globais do seu email marketing
2. Aprenda uma metodologia comprovada
3. Orador de referência a nível internacional
4. Saiba como adquirir mais subscritores
5. Inspire-se com um dos melhores oradores da actualidade
Registe-se hoje na Email Marketing Masterclass, poupe dinheiro e garanta já o seu lugar!
http://www.markedu.com/email-masterclass/lisbon/pt/registe-se_ja.html
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Markedu
FEDMA, the Federation of European Directand Interactive Marketing, represents the sector in all
its forms at European level. FEDMA's objectives are to protect and promote the direct and
interactive marketing sector by creating, through representation, self-regulation and information,
acceptance of, and confidence in, direct and interactive marketing within a healthy commercial
and legislative environment in which the sector can profitably operate and develop. Representing
the interests of over 18,000 companies, FEDMA is the single voice dedicated to building the
business of cross-border direct and interactive marketing, through its vast network of businesses
within and beyond Europe. All our members enjoy a wide range of services.
FEDMA's Mission Statement
Today, direct marketing strategies (via mail, email, telephone, mobile, Internet and direct
response) are an essential tool for companies to approach, inform and retain customers, as well
as providing customer relationship services.
The development of sophisticated databases, telemarketing and e-marketing has made direct
marketing increasingly popular as a marketing strategy and has encouraged strong investment.
FEDMA’s task is dedicated to building the business of cross-border direct marketing, by
promotion, protection, information and best practices.
FEDMA's mission is to:
Protect the European direct and interactive marketing industry and the interests of our members.
FEDMA aims to encourage the European institutions to ensure a healthy commercial and
legislative environment within which the industry may prosper.
Promote the European direct and interactive marketing industry towards governments, media,
businesses, consumers; to encourage the growth and profitability of our members and support the
further development of direct marketing as a marketing strategy .
Inform members, governments, media, businesses, and consumers about the European direct
About FEDMA - Federation of European Directand Interactive Marketing
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Contact Details
Federation of European Direct Marketing
439, Avenue de Tervuren, B-1150
Brussels
Tel: +32 2 779 42 68 | Fax: +32 2 779 42 69 | E-mail: info@fedma.org | Web: www.fedma.org

Email Marketing Survey Portugal 2010

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