Marketers Regularly Switch Email Service Providers

July 23, 2010

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Seventy-seven percent of companies employing an email service provider (ESP) have switched providers in the past two years because of a lack of product features, limited services and/or escalating costs, according to a new survey report from StrongMail, a provider of email and social media solutions for online marketers.

The June survey of 1,000 global business leaders also found 29 percent of current ESP clients plan to switch providers in the next 12 months. For this group, a lack of product features remains the top reason, but data integration and deliverability are also key reasons why businesses are planning to switch.

Sixty-seven percent of leaders surveyed use ESPs’ deliverability services, making it the most popular ESP service offering by nearly a factor of three. Execution (21 percent) and production services (19 percent) round out the top three most popular services offered by ESPs.

The survey also found that 71 percent of companies have either integrated email and social media or plan to in 2010, an increase over the 69 percent who responded likewise to a December 2009 survey. 

While social media integration remains high, the top objectives of promoting corporate presence on social networks (71 percent) and making email content shareable (63 percent) indicate a growth opportunity for more sophisticated social media tactics like viral marketing campaigns (48 percent) and user-generated content (35 percent).

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