Barb Cote
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to “make it right.” We had created an email for our B2B client. They were trying to survey prospects on their preferences. This would have enabled them to send messaging and offers that were much more relevant to their actual needs. The project was a super-rush, and we did not have a compelling offer. Needless to say, we did not get a good response.
I asked if we could try again — this time providing a more compelling incentive to complete the survey. The second email was launched and it was measurably more successful — a whopping 3.9% response rate within the first 48 hours of deployment.
I was thankful to have seen the first failure and later success to realize how important it is to get it right. Our test proved that changing the incentive made a HUGE difference.
Here are some interesting email statistics from a report by Exact Target and CoTweet titled Digital Morning:
- 58% of online consumers begin the day with email.
- Email is the accepted channel for “important” or “official” communications, and as consumers advance through different life stages, their use of email increases as they interact in these capacities.
- 67% were willing to provide their contact information to receive discounts and promotions.
- Overall, promotions are a primary motivator when people are choosing whether or not to subscribe to your communications.
What’s the big take-away?
As stated in Email X Factors, and the Exact Target, CoTweet Reports, “According to MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Email Benchmark Survey, two-thirds of marketers say that delivering relevant content to customers is a highly-effective marketing tactic. And according to Econsultancy’s How We Shop in 2010 Study, the biggest difference between valuable and non-valuable email programs is whether or not the information provided relates to the interests of the customer. Marketers and consumers agree—relevancy is a must.”
Resources:
http://email.exacttarget.com/sff/index.html
http://email.exacttarget.com/sff/download.html
http://email.exacttarget.com/uploadedfiles/resources/SFF_DigitalMorning_Final.pdf
About the Author:
Barb Cote serves as the Creative Director at SIGMA Marketing Group. Connect with Barb on or follow her on .
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