Posted by Gareth Cutter on 10th December 2008 to
Industry As Christmas draws closer and retailers compete more aggressively for consumers' attention, some of the biggest names in on-line retail have been sending an average of 3 promotional emails a week to contacts on their mailing lists. This surge in send over the past four weeks has led to a sharp increase in the retail email index, which at 318 is the highest it's been year-to-date.
The retail email index is a useful tool for gauging the general popularity and send volume of email marketing campaigns amongst the top one hundred on-line retailers. In the week ending December 5th, the surge in their email marketing send-out had slowed to 1% growth, though after the 34% rise during the preceding month, this 'cool down' must come as something of a relief to marketers busy schedules.
Of course, there is always the risk that retailers will end up 'RAM'-ing their contacts' in-boxes (RAM being short for 'Retail SPAM') if they send too many messages - but how many is 'too many'? 3 emails a week might sound excessive for some marketers but for retail in general, a frequency such as this is to be expected this time of year. For those of you who are still unsure where your limit lies, the following suggestions should help put your mind at ease:
The only way to find out for sure what the 'RAM' threshold is to test and measure using split A/B testing - where the performance of a campaign sent to one isolated list is compared against another campaign with slight variations to a different list. In this case, varying the frequency of messages would be the metric we'd want to look at. Which campaign gets the better reponse and at what point does interest in the reader start flagging?
Retailers could also think a bit more broadly about the kinds of messages they send to their contacts. Keeping the customer engaged is of the utmost importance but there are other ways of doing this beyond sending promotional messaging. Smart retailers will be working on building trust in the relationships they have with their existing customers. This could be through the use of 'thank you' messages, related purchase updates or any other communication that is more service-orientated.
Messages like these are almost guaranteed to receive a positive reception during what is a busy time of year and will help enhance brand perception in your contact's minds. Retaining and marketing to existing customers is much more cost-effective than acquiring new ones; marketers who want to get the most out of their marketing budgets should remember this when looking at their email campaign frequency.
