50% verbreekt klantrelatie vanwege slechte e-mailpraktijken

Een studie van Quris wijst uit dat e-mail marketing een ‘double-edged sword’ is. 57% van de ondervraagden geeft aan weleens aankopen te hebben gedaan n.a.v. een e-mail. Een evengroot deel geeft echter aan minimaal met 1 bedrijf het klantcontact te hebben verbroken vanwege de irrelevante en/of irritante e-mails die men ontving.

According to a recent study authored by Quris, the email solutions agency for Fortune 1000 companies, nearly half of consumers surveyed reported that they have stopped doing business with companies altogether as a result of poor email practices. Similarly the study finds that over 57% of consumers have made purchases as a result of email. Thus, sending “just one more email” is a double-edged sword: it may yield an additional sale, or it might drive a customer away forever. These findings are the second part of a series of white papers from The View from the Inbox?, based upon survey responses from 1,684 email users in the United States.

The critical challenge marketers face is to predict which behavior each additional email will drive. To ensure that their email programs drive positive behaviors, marketers should measure email relationship engagement over time (e.g., a history of opening, clicking and purchasing), and not simply track response rates to individual campaigns. Measuring engagement and how it is changing over time – its momentum – is one of the best predictors of future behavior. Depending on how engagement momentum is changing, marketers can then segment and target customers based on key behavioral variables, such as frequency of mailings, topical relevancy, content quality and privacy, to maximize customer engagement.

“In 2003, we see online channels joining traditional offline channels as a key driver of customer relationship,” states John Funk, CEO of Quris. “In the traditional offline world, the customer is often a lot more transparent. A brick-and-mortar retailer can typically see if a customer is uninterested or unhappy and can take action. However, online, managing customer relationships often requires a deep understanding of the consumer’s behavioral patterns to pick-up on the nuances of whether a consumer is disengaged or dissatisfied. And, if you miss those nuances, this research shows that it can lead to the loss of a customer, not just an unsubscribe from the offending email.”

According to a recent report (Email Metrics Beyond Open and Clicks, September, 2003) by Jim Nail, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, it states that additionally basic email metrics don’t cut it. Open, click, and bounce rates only measure the operational aspects of an email campaign, not its impact on consumers or the business results it drives. Comparing these data points to industry norms gives companies a false sense of confidence in their email programs’ performance.

[Bron: Quris.com]