Recent surveys: practical lessons behind the numbers

Companies love publishing survey results. Because journalists love publishing survey results. But behind the PR are often key practical insights worth knowing...

Merkle just released their latest "View from the Inbox" report on consumer attitudes to email. (The press release links to the 11-page report, which is well worth reading.)

Among the insights...

1. Transaction confirmations are considered by far the most relevant kind of commercial email by recipients, providing further incentive to make better marketing use of these messages.

2. We know email can drive responses / sales, but 50% of respondents claim that good email influences the decision to do business with the sender, "either online or offline."

A reminder that there is much more to email than getting an immediate click. Don't underestimate the value of indirect or less measurable benefits.

3. The converse is, of course, that sending bad email means more than just not getting a click...

32% of recipients, "...stopped doing business with at least one company as a result of their poor email marketing practices."

In other words, bad email marketing is not just about a lost opportunity: it can actually lose you customers.

4. The survey confirms what we know about relevancy being important to subscribers, but also shows that frequency (sending too often) is a main cause of unsubscribes. The implication is that some unsubscribe requests are not because they don't like what you send, but because you send too much.

It's another reason it makes sense to have options to "stay subscribed but get less email" on the page people reach after clicking an unsubscribe link in your emails.

Meanwhile, a couple of other surveys reveal the gaps between what works best and what is done...

Shop.org's new State of Retailing Online report found that 73% of those customizing emails based on behavior or purchase data rate the tactic as "very effective." But less than half of those surveyed actually do it.

It's a similar story when it comes to targeting based on a subscriber's stated preferences.

Clearly there are technical and resource issues that stop people getting into targeting, though you can start simple.

But there are other areas where complying with best practices is the work of a few minutes.

eROI, for example, just released results of their survey on subscribe/unsubscribe practices.

Among the revelations, news that subscription thank you pages are used...but not properly. For example, just under half of those surveyed do not say thank you on the "thank you" page. And very few reiterate subscription benefits and start setting expectations etc.

These days, successful email marketing is about managing the email relationship properly from start to finish. And a key element in that process is setting the right expectations.

(The Merkle consumer email study found, for example, that a major reason for unsubscribing was getting emails that were not what was expected when signing up.)

Sign-up copy, welcome messages and thank you pages are prime places to start setting these expectations and delivering the value that keeps people engaged.

Even $20 a month email marketing services have the functionality that lets you serve up a thank you page or a welcome email to new subscribers. And it doesn't take long to put the right words in them.

Tags: email marketing, email marketing metrics, consumer email use, email, Merkle, eROI

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