Econsultancy has released its 8th annual Email Marketing Industry Census, based on what it says is the largest UK survey of email marketers. It finds that revenue from email has increased by 28% in one year.

68% of companies rated email marketing as “good” or “excellent,” making it the best-ranked channel compared to SEO, content marketing, paid search, online direct marketing, social media, affiliate marketing, mobile marketing and online display advertising.

“This marks a 3% increase since last year, while the previously highest ranked digital marketing channel, search engine optimisation, dropped 8%, possibly due to the effect of ‘not provided’ keyword data,” says Econsultancy’s Graham Charlton.

This is how respondents rated each channel:

According to the report, companies are attributing 23% of their total sales to email marketing, up 18% from last year. 24%, it says, attribute 30% or more of their sales to email marketing (up from 18% two years ago).

You can download a sample of the report for free from here, but the whol 92-page document is going to cost you nearly $700.

Image via Econsultancy