Mobile is the established frontier for e-marketing in India, found a recent report by marketing technology company Octane. Igniting Engagement: India e-Marketing Outlook 2014 analysed the reporting metrics for the 500 million+ e-mails that go through Octane’s platform per month, and discovered that there was a 100 per cent increase in the number of opens on mobile devices. The survey also found that clickthroughs, or CTRs, for e-mail campaigns viewed on mobile devices was up by 150 per cent mainly because nearly 40 per cent of the e-mails Octane now sends are read on mobile devices.  

The report, which Octane claims received responses from more than 400 marketers across India and analysed more than six billion e-mails, covers the entire range of e-marketing insights (social media, e-mail campaigns). But, it most effectively chronicles the growth of mobile as a resurgent marketing platform over the last four years, indicating why companies must craft their marketing strategies accordingly. Here is a look at the other findings that can help you understand why mobile isn’t an option, but a necessity for your marketing teams to master.  

1. The number of marketers that don’t yet believe in engagement via smartphones, apps or email on the go has decreased by about 31 per cent since last year to only 11 per cent. At the same time, 45 per cent of the marketers surveyed said that they believe in mobile devices as an important aspect of customer engagement and are adapting their strategies to leverage it better. 

2. 47 per cent of the respondents shared that they think between a quarter to half of all their email marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014. A further 25 per cent were even more confident and chose the 50—75 per cent option while 22 per cent of the marketers were cautious and said that less than 25 per cent of all email marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014.

3. Additionally, 67 per cent of the respondents who are planning to increase investment in mobile marketing for 2014 are also planning to adapt their marketing plans to accommodate the rise of smartphone, apps and email on the go.

We decided to ask Punit Modhgil, co-founder and MD, Octane on how mid-size companies should use these findings: 

How would you recommend mid-size companies use this report to craft more effective marketing strategies? What are the big ideas for 2014?

For one thing, it’s a great source of trending e-marketing data over the last four years. Mid-size companies can analyse the trends to see what fast growing companies in their industry are doing when it comes to marketing channels or investments or ROI. The big idea for 2014 is to use digital media to go beyond pushing messages and towards creating engagement (hence the name of the report Igniting Engagement). Engagement must be led through personalised, targeted and relevant campaigns led by data driven content and next generation design elements (like responsive design and dynamically changing content). More Indian consumers are accessing the web through their mobile devices and that is a big trend. 

E-marketing is a very dynamic space. How would you advise companies to stay in tune with new trends?
There are four ways to ensure companies in India are reaping the benefits of leading edge e-marketing. First, a lot of information is now available online and this provides an excellent opportunity to learn. Secondly, be focussed on ROI and in that process try new approaches to see what works best for your business (Say A/B Testing). Thirdly, e-marketing works best when you showcase the most authentic side of your business. We believe each business has a unique story to tell and this presents a huge upside for growing companies in India to connect with their consumers like never before. Last but not the least, mid-size companies can benefit enormously if they treat these e-marketing channels (social, web, email, SMS and mobile) equally as listening posts within their client communities.  

In your research, have you found that Indian companies (especially mid-size B2B companies) have begun to realise that e-marketing is a crucial tool. Is there a determination then to build a well-suited approach to e-marketing? 
Mid-size companies in India have varying levels of determination and approaches when it comes to e-marketing even when they understand its importance clearly. We find them to be on different stages of maturity. Most B2B companies have tried to use e-marketing channels (social, web, mobile, email and SMS) pre-dominantly as a push mechanism to send campaigns with a very short term focus of lead generation. But, things are changing. We started out as an Enterprise Class Platform. Over the last 15 months or so, we have seen a tremendous interest from mid-size companies in India to learn and invest in using e-marketing channels to connect with their target customer clusters. For example, some of our mid-size client companies in India realise between 10—25 per cent of their monthly recurring revenues from e-mail marketing campaigns using our platform and this is generating a renewed interesting in e-marketing done right.