Too many brands get email marketing wrong, study claims
UK retailers need to do better at their email marketing and social media marketing according to a study published today which shames Harrods as the worst offender.
The annual Hitting the Mark study by dotMailer assessed emails sent from 36 UK retailers in April 2010 before rating and slating the best and worst offenders. They were given scores out of 100 based on their performance in 16 criteria which you can see in the full report.
Score
Worst
Score
HMV72Harrods50Republic72Early Learning Centre49Figleaves70H&M49New Look70Lidl48Hamleys69STA48The Entertainer69Currys46
73 percent of the 30 retailers that featured in last year’s study achieved lower scores this time round and only 33% of all retailers studied in 2010 scored 70 or above. The average score of 67 for 2010 was the same as 2009, and down four points on 2008’s average of 71.
“For two years in a row, there has been no obvious improvement made by the retailers we have assessed, which is disappointing given some of the simple steps that can be taken to boost the effectiveness of email marketing,”said Tink Taylor, managing director at dotMailer and an elected member of the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Marketing Council.
"Email offers a highly cost-effective, trackable and accountable way of communicating with prospects and customers, but this latest study shows that too many companies are still getting it wrong.
“The study clearly demonstrates a lack of integration between email and social media, despite the latter’s growing popularity and influence. The combination of these two marketing disciplines offers new ways for retailers to really engage with their stakeholders to deliver meaningful results such as interactions online, sales and loyalty, but too many are failing to integrate these channels.”
Only 17% of email campaigns studied included any ‘share on social network’ links and with only four of the retailers included a link to their blog in the email content, a further seven had blogs on their site but no reference to them in the email. 50% did not include a ‘forward to friend’ link in their email.