With the TRAI directive in September 2011 on SMS based promotional messages to curb the spam menace, it is interesting to note that 33% of India marketers report that their marketing promotions have been impacted.

68% of India marketers are in favor of a code of conduct (36%) or a strong anti-spam law (32%) like the CAN-SPAM in the US to stop spamming in India. Only a small minority of 9% marketers believe a severe action by the regulator (e.g. stopping the promo messages completely) will help in stopping SPAM.

Octane.in, a provider of email services and creator of India’s first on-demand multi-channel marketing campaigns platform, has commissioned its second annual research report to help guide India marketers as they look to boost their return on investment in 2012 by linking their email marketing efforts to social media. The report, produced by Octane Research, is entitled “Gearing Up for Growth-India e-Marketing Outlook 2012.”

Key Findings (2010-2012):

-- Customer Acquisition continues to be the primary goal for marketing initiatives over the last 2 years.
-- Social media initiatives are gaining momentum and Email continues to be the most effective marketing channel.
-- Social Media (68.8%) and Email Marketing (53.1%) emerge as the top 2 online marketing initiatives that will see an increase in marketing investments in 2012, as compared to 2011 Majority of India marketers (36%) wanted a code of conduct by an industry body like IAMAI while 31.5% of participants who believe stronger anti-spam laws in India like CAN-SPAM would curb the SPAM campaigns.
-- As a direct result of the TRAI directive on usage of SMS for promotional messages, approximately 35.3% of our respondents plan to increase their budgets towards email marketing by more than 11% in 2012.
-- A high number of India marketers (62%) feel that the Email and SMS marketing programs are effective in meeting agreed goals.
-- Comparative analysis of data reveals that more that 80% of our respondents agree that integrated (Email and SMS) campaigns influence Conversion Rates.
-- Reaching the Inbox (and not the Junk/Spam folder), increasing ROI and building Subscribers list are seen to be the top 3 challenges for the last two successive years.
-- In 2011, we see a 6% increase of dependency on email service providers or ESPs (like Octane) to provide assured inbox delivery of email messages (25.5% respondents in 2011 vs 19.2% in 2010). We see a decline in the role of IT in ensuring inbox deliverability over the last year.