Project Background

The online customer newsletter sign-up process and customer newsletters of The Top 50 Ecommerce Companies (taken from Experian Hitwise) were analysed over a four week period.

The process and emails received were analysed according to the below criteria:

• Is there a newsletter sign up option and does it appear on the homepage?
• Does the newsletter have single or double opt-in?
• Is a welcome message sent on sign-up and is there an offer in the welcome message?
• Is there is an option to include recipient preferences, i.e. a preference centre?
• Are the emails personalised by name and is the content is targeted?
• Overall number of emails received within a five week period?
• Are the emails and website links mobile optimised, or use responsive design?
• Is there any incentive to visit high street store or buy online?
• Can customer unsubscribe easily?

Findings

Industry overview

58% Retail

26% Travel, Transportation & Leisure

12% Media & Entertainment

4% Consumer Goods

Registering for a customer newsletter

96% have the option to subscribe to a customer newsletter on their website AND 86% promote this sign-up on their homepage

Opting in for communications

88% only have a single opt-in process to subscribe to their customer newsletter.

Double opt-in, whereby a customer subscribes to customer emails and receives a follow up email to re-confirm their subscription, is considered to be best practice in B2C communications.

Keeping it personal

64% have a preference centre for you to complete when you register

40% personalise their newsletters using customers’ names

Only 18% target their users with content specific to their age and gender demographic

Only 44% Personalise their emails based on the customer information they collect

Keeping it personal

The preference centre is a great tool for not only capturing valuable customer data to use across the entire CRM strategy, but is also an opportunity to enhance the customer experience further with personalisation – meaning emails addressed to the recipient and most importantly using targeted content by their interests.

If you are collecting this data and using it to shape your email strategy, you have the capacity to engage your customers far more effectively and drive your ROMI, than those brands who are not.

You also need to consider the types of data you are collecting and how you use it - gathering data that cannot be used effectively or collecting data and not using it at all, is an inefficient use of time and will ultimately impact your customers’ engagement with your brand going forward.

Welcoming new customers

86% sent a welcome email to new newsletter subscribers

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74% did not include an offer in their welcome message to encourage the customer to make a purchase either online or in store

Frequency of emails

44% sent one to two emails per week 44%

20% only sent a welcome email over a 4 week period

User experience for different devices

66% of the customer newsletters had a mobile optimised website link

48% of the customer newsletters were optimised for mobile

34% of the customer newsletters were responsive design

Incentivising customers to buy

66% include an incentive to shop online in their customer newsletter

Unsubscribing

78% had easy to unsubscribe links in their emails

2012 VS 2013

[Download PDF to see Table]

Conclusion

The UK’s Top 50 Ecommerce Companies are embracing digital technology but failing to make use of the deluge of data they collect.

• Marketers have made significant in roads in sending trigger based emails with targeted content, relevant to the customers’ preferences
• Our findings show an increase in newsletter adoption, and highlight that ecommerce companies are taking their customers’ preferences more seriously
• Investment is being made in digital strategy and data capture methods, but this insight is not being harnessed to better serve customers and streamline business operations
• Personalised content sent by name has doubled in the past year to 40 per cent, yet 43 per cent of those collecting data, are not using it correctly in their email marketing – highlighting a lack of technical capability and understanding
• Improving your technical skills and understanding takes time to develop and implement, but marketers need to carefully evaluate the areas that require extra investment
• Channel growth may bring open up new ways to interact with consumers, but those interactions are only valuable if the right technology is in place to handle the deluge of data efficiently
• Cloud-based technology solutions, such as Integrated Marketing Management tools provide businesses with a credible solution for those looking to take control of the data they are generating
• Technology alone is not enough though, you need skilled experts who have a clear understanding of data to fully succeed
• The digitalisation of how we operate and communicate is driving a need for change. Organisations need to plan now to grow and benefit from the investments they have already made
• Investment will help drive a greater level of personalisation and targeted content, and will lead to higher levels of engagement
• Email marketing only works if you are analysing the data you are collecting properly and deploying it in the right way across your entire CRM campaign
• Investment in the running of the department, combined with a better understanding of customers will better equip ecommerce companies to deal with the changing demands of their customers, enhance their campaign management structure, and further increase the effectiveness of their digital communications.