WEC: Marketing Tactics - Are your emails alienating customers?

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Are your emails alienating customers?

It is 11:00 am. Do you know where your emails are? Or, more importantly, do you know what they are doing? Take this mini quiz:

Our emails:

Motivate our customers to visit our store and/or site.
Provide timely information that our customers look forward to reading.
Desensitize our customers to our messages.
May or may not be doing the thing listed above. I just don’t know.

If your answer isn’t “A” and “B”, then you need to revise your email marketing program.

What are they thinking?

Twelve emails from multichannel companies arrived in my inbox before 9:30 this morning. Nine are from companies that I buy from on a regular basis. Three are from companies that I rarely shop.

Every one of the emails consist of a promotional offer with discounts ranging from 15% - 50%. Some include free shipping as an added bonus. If I were identifiable as a discount shopper, I would expect all of my emails to be sale driven. But, I’m not. I am a category shopper. My purchases are from specific categories for every company that sent me an email this morning.

So, why don’t they send me emails based on my buying patterns? It requires a new model and more work. I’m not suggesting that the marketing teams are lazy. Most of them work very hard. The problem is that they are working so hard, doing what they have always done, that there isn’t time to find better ways to market to their customers.

What difference does it make?

Historically, a successful campaign delivered a 2% - 5% response rate. Today, these numbers are declining for most companies. This is because consumers are being bombarded the same message from so many sources that they are desensitized to the offers.

So, what happens when the message is changed and personalized? Check it out:

Description	Mailing	Bounces	Spam	Opt-Outs	Opens	Clicks	Resp Rate	Avg Order
New Items	House	2.1%	0.1%	2.3%	18.9%	23.3%	3.1%	$ 47.51
Sale	House	2.3%	0.2%	0.9%	16.6%	31.9%	5.3%	$ 39.92
New Items	Category	2.4%	0.0%	0.7%	28.3%	67.1%	8.7%	$ 53.27
New Items	Category	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	24.4%	52.9%	8.3%	$ 54.79

Other Sites		18.3%	N/A	N/A	37.0%	8.9%

This test involves a company with a house file of ~80,000 active customers who opted in to receive email promotions. The first mailing to the entire house file yielded a response rate of 3.1% and average order of $47.51.

The second mailing was a sale promotion offering a 20% discount on any order. The response rate went up to 5.3%. The average order went down to $39.92. When all costs were factored in, this mailing barely broke even.

The third mailing was a personalized email promoting a specific category to customers who previously purchased items in that category. The response rate jumped to 8.7%. Average order rose to $53.27!

The category mailing worked so well, it was tested with a different category. The results were similar. Both personalized emails also had decreased opt-outs and spam reports. The specialized email program has continued with consistent results.

If your email marketing program is primarily promotional, it is time to step away from the price slashing tools. Use that great database you have to find what your customers really want. Your bottom line will thank you for it!

Next Steps:

Read Email Optimization: How Simple Changes Increase Open Rates, Click Through, Response and Average Order Size

And, check out our email marketing playbooks:

You don't have to be a marketing guru to deliver great email results. Follow the Email Map to increased sales and profitability.

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Debra Ellis - Founder

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