Toward Higher Response Rates

Quantity centric attempts to improve email marketing effectiveness is far too scattered a strategy to ever have metric level dependability. However, it is true that people shop (more) when happy and this is an element marketers could consider when developing email marketing programs. And, it turns out, over a relatively large, related, sample size group behavior is astonishingly predictable.

For example, Ross-Simons Jewelers might realize that sending out emails promoting high ticket items to men in Chicago who are overjoyed by the Cubs entry into baseball championships has better response rates. Or that sending out emails when the weather is unexpectedly pleasant might lead to higher click-throughs; and conversely, local tragedies might make people respond sub-optimally.

Another idea would be to use market events as triggers. No one wants to buy when the markets are hitting new lows but this morning I heard the best market news all month and suddenly felt better. If I got an email announcing a sale I might just have bought the watch I’ve been saving for.

Most eCommerce sites are sophisticated enough to automatically send out an email reminders when customers abandon shopping carts. My suggestion is that they should hold onto the email till one of the events described above takes place.