News

Email is far from dead, and mobile apps are the new rising stars

A new study from Kitewheel, released today, shows that when it comes to the customer journey, email is still performing extraordinarily well, but mobile apps are the fastest-growing channel of all.

The study, which took in data from over one billion real-time, cross-sector brand and customer interactions, captured via Kitewheel’s Customer Journey Hub, reveals that brands are investing more heavily in omnichannel campaigns than ever before.

While not surprising, given everything we know about email marketing from our research and those of our peers, the study confirms that email is still a channel to be reckoned with. In fact, the it shows that email has captured 23 percent of total journey interactions, up 270 percent year-over-year.

Combine the increase in email marketing with the return on investment (ROI) we’ve shown in VB Insight studies, and it is clear the old dog still has some new tricks up its sleeve, even in a world dominated by smartphones.

The report also shows that while the bulk of interaction volume occurs on social media (48 percent), social media marketing’s overall share of interactions declined 23 percent year over year. It appears there is a lot of noise on social, with our research showing that 70 percent of major brands still use social channels in ‘broadcast mode.’