UK Retailers Struggling with Advanced Email Marketing Techniques
Top UK retailers are failing to get the most out of email marketing by neglecting advanced techniques like social media bookmarking links, personalization and post-sales marketing, according to a new study from dotMailer.
The company’s annual email marketing benchmark study, Hitting the Mark, has named Boots and Asos as the top performers, while large brands like Sainsburys and Play.com are among those at the bottom of the table.
Following the addition of social media and mobile categories last year, the 2011 report includes a closer look at how the retailers use data on existing customers to tailor email campaigns. According to dotMailer, these “new criteria have shaken up the league table, suggesting that few of the top performers from 2010 have continued to innovate in the last 12 months”. Previous leaders HMV and Marks & Spencer have fallen to 10th and 19th respectively, while only Game stayed in the top ten.
When it comes to areas that need more focus, the lack of personalization was notable, with only 11pc showing any effort to make the most of the data held about existing customers to deliver a customized email. Elsewhere, only 19pc of retailers used best practice HTML coding in their emails and only 43pc of these rendered properly in email clients when images were turned off. Retailers also scored low marks for subject lines, with only 34pc enticing the recipient to open the message and just 26pc of them including social media bookmarking links.
However, there are some positive trends. The study reveals that marketers are generally all using ‘friendly from’ addresses (89pc), while nearly every email included a strong call to action (91pc) and the majority also rendered well on a range of mobile devices (85pc).
“For two years in a row, there has been no obvious improvement made by the retailers assessed, which is disappointing given some of the simple steps that can be taken to boost the effectiveness of email marketing,” said Tink Taylor, managing director at dotMailer. “Email offers a highly cost-effective, trackable and accountable way of communicating with prospects and customers, but this latest study shows that too many are still getting it wrong.
“Hitting the Mark 2011 demonstrates a lack of integration between email and social media, despite the latter’s growing popularity and influence. The combination of these two disciplines offers new ways for retailers to engage with their stakeholders to deliver meaningful results such as interactions online, sales and loyalty.”