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How Many Emails Does it Take to Make a Sale?
Ah, the joys of the holiday season: a bevy of percent-off coupons, free shipping offers, and more sent directly to my inbox at a dizzying pace. And in case I forget about the offers at hand, there are all those handy follow-up emails reminding me that I have a limited time to take advantage of the fabulous offer I just received. Then there’s the ultimate reminder that I only have one day left—or else I’ll miss out. Until the next offer comes along, that is.
I get a plethora of emails from various retailers; some because I opted in, others because having made one purchase there it’s now assumed that I want to hear from these companies with some regularity. Not surprisingly, the frequency of emails from almost all of these businesses increased dramatically about a month ago. (Two retailers already send me daily alerts; you can’t get much more frequent than that.)
As much as I appreciate the special offers and “proactive” service (if we can consider those myriad reminders as such), I’m now in email overload and waiting for some post-holiday sanity—which will include a handful of opt-outs. If you’re wondering why I’m waiting to opt out, it’s because now that I’m in the crush, I want to go through the whole cycle and track what all these retailers think is effective marketing. After all, it could spur a story idea or two...
What do you think about all this email mania? Is it just too much or is it so effective at spurring sales that it’s worth annoying a few customers for the sake of pleasing the masses?
Joy,
Agreed. It would be great to be able to opt in to different types of email campaigns. Some people want to be blitzed with sales notices and others prefer more content oriented mailings, while still others might prefer both.
Exactly right. And how disappointing from trusted web sites who should know me. I've been with a couple sites for years and order the same stuff every few months. Do I get offers specific to my interests or needs? No, I keep getting deluged with offers I have no interest in.
I've gone to the sites to see if I can opt to get emails less frequently, but there is no such offer. It's all or none.
If companies are going to take this "sale a day" approach, they should at least give me an option to opt out of the daily or multiple-times-a-week offers to a no more than once a week option (or less). In this way they will avoid having me opt out completely.
Madigan, Miro,
Thank you for the blog links.
Madigan, you're right about all those emails. Not one was targeted in any way. They were all about sales. And, silly me to think that it would end after Christmas. There were plenty emails every day from Dec 26 to 31 on New Year's sales, and the emails are still coming in today with those special deals to 'help me get my year started off right.' I think something a bit less frequent and a bit more relevant is what would start my year off right...
Hi Ginger
Marketers train customers
Customers train marketers
Spam is spam
Have an article "Price-less Questions"
your readers might be interested in as it touches upon the issues you've raised
http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2007/11/priceless_questions_1.html
Cheers
Miro
I'll be most interested in reading your follow-up story where you analyze all the promotional emails you received.
What percentage are nothing more than sales fliers - like the ones stores hand out on the street? How many try to engage the readers? How many are trying to "get a sale" and "build a relationship"? I would suspect the vast majority qualify as nothing more than SPAM - sent out by desperate retailers.
Would like to know how many, if any retailers are doing a good job of 1:1 marketing.
Madigan
PS - You should add another field. In addition to URL you should ask for blog address.
Mine is: madiganpratt.wordpress.com. Enjoy the 7 Deadly Sins of Email Marketing
Kermit,
Great point. Marketers sometimes "train" customers to wait for the best offer. Sure, the company may eventually get the sale, but at what margin???
The deluge of e-mail makes me wonder if I wait longer, will I get a better deal. It's almost like I'm more motivated to wait until the last minute because I'll get better "door buster" deals than if I had made my purchases earlier in the season... so, does that mean that marketers are incenting me to not make the purchases until the last minute? Is that effective marketing? I don't think so!