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Setting the Tone with Email
With the movement toward new channels like social networks, virtual worlds, and mobile rapidly evolving, that brings up the question “How important is email to the future of marketing?”
In light of these new technologies, marketers might consider bypassing email. But anyone who circumvents email is risking a still critical piece of their multichannel marketing and sales strategy. In fact the DMA estimates that commercial email in 2007 is forecast to generate $21.9 billion in U.S. sales. And each dollar spent on email is projected to generate more than $48 in sales.
Those statistics are impressive and should not be ignored. However, according to the DMA's Email Experience Council’s “Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study,” which examined the email newsletter subscription practices of 118 of the top online retailers and was released last week, there’s plenty room for improvement for retailers to make email subscription practices more user-friendly and transparent. As the council states “The opt-in process sets the tone of how a future email relationship between a company and a customer will unfold.”
Some findings from the study include:
• More than 43 percent of major online retailers allow customers to sign up for email with one click from their homepage. That’s down from 50 percent last year.
• Only 12 percent provide sample newsletters to help reduce opt-outs
• 28 percent of retailers offer more than one content selection.
• Only 3 percent use a double opt-in subscription process.
• Nearly 6 percent offer local store updates.
• Not even 7 percent of retailers give subscribers any idea of how many emails to expect.
Don’t scare off prospective customers with lengthy, confusing, or intimidating sign-up forms. Make your content useful and informative. First impressions are important. Make yours count.
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