Email Drives Consumer Purchases
Half of U.S. consumers have made an in-store or telephone purchase after receiving a promotional email, according to a new study from digital marketing firm e-Dialog.
6 in 10 Global Consumers Make Offline Purchase Due to Email
Results of “Global Perspectives” indicate that 58% of consumers worldwide have made an in-store or phone-based purchase as a result of a promotional email. In the U.S., this figure is 51%. Consumers in the Asia-Pacific nations of China (75%), Singapore (70%) and South Korea (64%) are the most likely to act upon a promotional retail email.
Interestingly, consumers in the Asia-Pacific nation of Japan have the second-lowest offline conversion rate for retail emails (35%) of the 13 nations surveyed. Only consumers in the Netherlands (34%) had a lower rate.
e-Dialog advises retailers to capitalize on the generally high offline promotional email conversion rates with cross-channel initiatives such as honoring email discounts in stores and in call centers.
Email Increases Likelihood of Offline Purchase
Overall, 57% of global consumers say they are more likely to buy a product in a store after receiving a marketing email about it. Thirty-seven percent are less likely to buy and 6% are not affected. In the U.S., 51% of consumers are more likely to make an in-store purchase as a result of a marketing email, with 42% less likely to buy and 4% not affected. Likelihood to buy is significantly higher in Asia-Pacific (65%) and lower in Europe (41%). One in five European consumers (19%) say promotional emails have no impact on their in-store purchase decisions.
To better capitalize on email’s impact on customer likelihood to make in-store purchases (especially in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific), e-Dialog recommends that retailers capture customer email addresses at the point of purchase, with incentives for employees to do so. e-Dialog also advises retailers to use in-store signage and SMS messaging to send promotional messages to customers who may not be reachable via email.
A Day-by-Day Email Marketing Guide
Timing in an email marketing campaign, that is, deciding on what day and what time of day, to hit the send button is as important as actually crafting the message and selecting which segmented group of customers will receive it, according to social network Gather.
The overall consensus from numerous studies show that mail sent on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays has the best chance of being opened, according to Gather. But more thought - far more - should go into a send decision than that, Gather said. For example, Monday is a good day because after a long weekend, many email users make it a priority to organize their inboxes. “This means there is a good chance that they will run across your message and open it,” according to a recent Gather blog post.