More than a third (34%) of eTailers do not ‘welcome’ or ‘thank’ customers when they actively subscribe to email communications, meaning many are not engaging customers when they are most captive, incentivising them to shop, according to new research.
The study, from email and marketing technology provider Responsys looked at email programmes from the top 50 online retailers in the UK.
A shocking 67% of welcome emails do not include a call to action such as ‘start shopping now’ or offer relevant promotions.
One in three welcome emails (33%) arrives as plain text without any branding, imagery or inspiring content.
More than half (52%) do not use the customer’s name or personalise content, and 42% do not send communications from the brand name but rather arrive from ‘info’, ‘do not reply’, ‘help’ or ‘customer services’.
Remarkably, none of the top 50 UK online retailers included mobile integration and just three retailers embedded social media components into their email programmes. Despite the hype in the marketing industry for dynamic content and social and mobile engagement, few are putting it into practice with their email welcome programmes.
Simon Robinson, Marketing & Alliances Director, Responsys EMEA, comments, “The results show that many eTailers fall short on welcome email programmes, with many failing to engage with customers using dynamic content, cross-channel integration or personalisation. Email is still the most popular communication channel for retailers, so I am surprised to see so many not even thanking customers for signing up to email communications.
“It is clear that many retail marketers lack the tools needed to boost customer engagement and brand loyalty, pointing to a gap between retailers talking about the importance of personalisation and cross-channel integration and acting on it. The reality is the majority have a long way to go if they want to truly capture customer attention over email, and boost sales conversions.”
Responsys analysed welcome email programmes for the top 50 online retailers as identified by IMRG* between July and August 2010.
www.responsys.com