E-Mail Marketing - Acceptable To Consumers

ACCEPTABLE TO CONSUMERS

E-mail marketing appears to be more acceptable to consumers than banner advertising. A consumer survey conducted by Valentine Radford from September 2000 through March 2001 found that 75 percent of online consumers thought banner ads were annoying, and only 30 percent believed they provided essential information. More than half of the surveyed consumers felt that e-mail advertising was enjoyable, and more than 80 percent said they enjoyed receiving e-mail newsletters.

E-mail also appeared to be the preferred medium for consumers to receive discount offers and coupons. Some 55 percent of online shoppers preferred to receive coupons through e-mail, compared to 29 percent who preferred newspaper coupons, and 16 percent who preferred to receive them through regular mail. With respect to content, 72 percent of online shoppers said that they enjoy rich media, while 60 percent preferred HTML over text. A very large number of consumers (80 percent) would rather receive a link to rich media content in an e-mail message.

Although e-mail marketing was preferred by many, business-to-consumer (B2C) e-mail marketers must be careful because e-mail is a much more personal medium than banner ads. Marketers can avoid alienating existing and potential customers by making certain the e-mails they send are relevant. Consumers will perceive relevant offers as less intrusive than e-mails that are not relevant to their needs. E-mails that take too long to read may cause consumers to ignore future messages from the same source. Additionally, although consumers appreciate personalization in commercial e-mail messages, marketers must be careful not to appear to have too much knowledge about their lives.