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Are mass e-mail campaigns here to stay?

Written by Tom Ryan
Many advertising mediums (TV ads, billboards along highways, mail flyers, etc.) are considered annoying, but consumers have become used to them. E-mail has joined that pack. According to a survey of 1,112 consumers from predictive analytics company First Insight, customers only open one in four e-mails from retailers and find only one in 20 e-mails relevant to them. The survey found:
  • The average consumer subscribes to 2.3 retailer e-mail lists and receives a combined 13.1 e-mails a week. On the high end, 5.8 percent received 40 or more e-mails weekly;
  • When asked about frequency, two-thirds of respondents who receive six or more e-mails a week said it was "too many." Just 21 percent found five or fewer to be too many;
  • Asked why they aren't opening more, the discount and the repetition of the same offers were the primary reasons;
  • Forty-five percent had unsubscribed from a retailer's e-mail list in the past six months.
The study was designed to underscore the benefits of personalization over mass mailing approaches. Forty-three percent would be more likely to open e-mails from retailers if they contained personalized suggestions based on past purchases, rather than promoting products that were generally available or "on sale." Yet the study also acknowledged that e-mail marketing, with much of it still the mass mailing variety, had "become an affordable and effective way to reach and maintain customer loyalty and inspire purchases." For every $1 spent on e-mail marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25, according to a July 2015 report from The Direct Marketing Association. The study also noted that half of marketing executives, according to an August 2015 report from The Relevancy Group, estimate that e-mail marketing drives 15 percent or more of their total revenue. Moreover, the study noted that eight percent of respondents enjoy receiving e-mails from retailers. Identified as deal seekers, these consumers were okay with receiving at least 10 e-mails weekly, and some feel they received too few. On average, this group opens 59 percent of the retail e-mails they receive and find 28 percent of their e-mails "personally relevant."

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