Retail marketers are making it easier to opt in and out of campaigns, and they are learning to ask customers for more than just e-mail addresses, according to a Silverpop study.
In 2007, nearly six in 10 companies will send their e-mail recipients to pre-populated Web forms if they want to opt-out, up from 30% who did so in 2005. Nearly two-thirds of e-mail opt-out links in 2007 led to a page for registrants to make changes to their subscriptions. In 2005, only 12% of e-mail marketers did so.
Mike Weston, managing director of Silverpop EMEA, told eMarketer that effective e-mail marketing tended to resemble polite conversation.
"There are rules of conversation," Mr. Weston said. "Companies that fail to respond when someone gives them an e-mail address are doing the equivalent of ignoring them face to face in a store."
The e-mail marketing company surveyed the top 50 online retailers in the United Kingdom and the top 100 in the United States.
"Even though including easy-to-find forms for e-mail list opt-ins tends to increase the response rate, opt-in requests gain greater effectiveness when they're part of a larger process," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
"That could mean asking the customer to sign up for an e-mail list when they make a purchase, request further information or some other kind of engagement," he said.
Mr. Weston also said that marketers could make their e-mail more personal by using several approaches instead of single mass-mailing blasts.
For clothing retailers, this could include sending different e-mail to customers interested in shoes than those sent to customers interested in cold-weather gear.
Asked about the biggest mistake e-mail marketers could make, Mr. Weston said, "I've had situations where I've ordered online without a confirming e-mail. Sometimes hitting the 'Buy' button doesn't work, so you don't know if the transaction went through."