Email irrelevancy is the new spam

DM   EMAIL   EPSILON

How's this for marketing effectiveness. A $500 return for every $1 spent, now that's something your CEO can get excited about.

Permission-based email marketing is just starting to find its as an effective channel for reaching customers today, but new research suggests it is not as easy as hitting the send button in Outlook.

Key findings from Epsilon's Global Consumer Email Study, conducted by ROI

Research, shows that irrelevant and ineffective emails to customers might have more of a negative effect than originally thought. With consumers now exposed to more media than they have time to consume and a proliferation of media channels allowing people to take control of the communications stream, targeted and personalised email has never been more important.

The survey was launched to gain insight into how consumers around the world are using online communication tools and responding to permission-based email (PBE) in varying ways.

The survey, which canvassed 4,000 respondents in 13 countries, including 2,221

across key markets of Asia, shows that the consumers today are without a doubt responsive to email marketing, but not in a way some marketers might like. Epsilon's results show definitions of what constitutes "spam" have evolved.

Of all APAC respondents, a considerable percentage say that emails from companies they have an existing relationship now constitute spam.

For example, 23% of respondents said email saturation from companies they have a relationship with is considered spam.

A high 38% described spam as "am email I received but don't want, regardless of whether I subscribed."

But despite this, the survey shows investments in email marketing are growing at rapid rate, in line with the growing amount of consumers using email as their primary communications tool. Many consumers across Asia have no distinction between work life and home life with email a big influencer in this trend.

The survey also confirms that email marketing is now displacing other mediums for bills, statements, sales reps and promotional DM.

Dominic Powers, Asia Pacific senior vice president at Epsilon International, says with some clients seeing big returns on their email marketing investments, many are shifting more spend towards email campaigns.

"Emails consistently outperform ROI expectations. Some companies in Hong Kong have seen 45% of their revenues come from interactions with clients on email. We also have clients in Asia Pacific region which are getting a $500 return from every $1 spent, it's not uncommon," he says.

"A lot of this is not surprising, it really just validates what we already knew."

Another notable difference by region is the compelling feature that leads consumers to open a permission-based email, implying the need for individual targeting, timely trigger delivery and relevant content. While half of APAC respondents feel that "subject lines" are the most compelling feature, over two-thirds of North American and European respondents select the "from" line. Discount offers, free product offers, familiar brand names and personalisation of subject lines increase the likelihood of opening among all respondents.

In addition, consumers take a variety of offline actions including visiting a store (49%) and purchasing by phone (25%) or catalog (25%) which reinforces the need for marketers to implement a multi-channel strategy. Six out of 10 (59%) APAC consumers report making an offline purchase as a result of email communications, followed by North America (53%) and EMEA (37%).