Amazon, Tesco, M&S top email marketing poll

Email marketers should gain inspiration from Amazon, Tesco and M&S on how to conduct a successful campaign after they topped a poll by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). The retailers were hailed for their simplicity and ability to drive sales, while also being able to maintain customer loyalty.

The study found that consumers are willing to receive email marketing communications, with 85 per cent viewing it as an important tool. The majority (88 per cent) access their personal accounts on a daily basis, while 65 per cent use email for work purposes. As a result, the IAB highlighted that there are real opportunities for retailers to make use of, providing they do so carefully.

"This research shows that as online evolves into a more multi-tasking experience, a simple, strong promotion offering something of real value is what gets the best response," pointed out the IAB's chief executive officer Guy Phillipson. The research showed that consumers are most responsive to simple email marketing campaigns that do not take too much time out of their day to understand. In 42 per cent of cases, people identified that they would delete an email if they believed it would take a while to read.

Many of the consumers questioned (66 per cent) identified that they are most drawn to email marketing campaigns offering them money off certain goods or services. In addition, 70 per cent said they would be most likely to open an email with a subject heading suggesting there were offers in the content of the message.

Research from Pure360 recently found that sending email marketing messages during hot, sunny weather makes recipients around twice as likely to open emails promoting summer-related items such as festival tickets. Click-through rates also increased from 12 per cent in bad weather to 27 per cent in good conditions.

Living Streams "Improving clients' profitability through better use of the internet".

http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/topemailpractitionersrevealed110810.mxs