Users are ready and willing to
participate in email marketing, but they have high expectations of the quality
and quantity of content they receive. Marketers must ask users' permission
before sending out emails and set clear rules of engagement if they want to
maximize ROI.
Email marketing well deserves the early
enthusiasm it has generated, users are signing up for it in their droves.
Marketers themselves have a unique opportunity to reach a broad base of users,
and some early efforts have proved successful. However, there is early evidence
that cancellation rates will be high for poorly executed campaigns.
Although consumers are
increasingly eager to sign up for email marketing, they are just as eager to
cancel. Users unsubscribe with a vengeance from online promotion and
news-related email services.
Where cancellations are high,
users are unequivocal on the reasons: poor content and irrelevant information.
The top reason for users to
unsubscribe from email marketing programs is irrelevant content. Fifty-five
percent of users state that irrelevant content is the primary reason to cancel
email marketing; poor content follows with 32%. Online marketers need to set
clear user expectations on content quality and avoid sending content that will
be relevant only to a part of their audience.
Email marketing is not online
advertising. Email frequency and advertising intensity are the next most
important reasons for users to cancel email subscriptions. Marketers must stick
to the dispatching frequency they declared at the beginning of the relationship
and avoid over-sending in the hope of increasing absolute response. At the same
time, users expect some level of advertising but react with cancellations if
they think it is getting in the way of content.
Size matters. Online
marketers must refrain from sending very long emails, trying to address all the
possible interests and needs of the target audience. Twenty-six percent of users
have sent the "unsubscribe" reply as a result of having to filter the email body
to find relevant content.
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