An evaluation of e-mail marketing and factors affecting response

Abstract

E-mail marketing is increasingly recognised as an effective Internet marketing tool. This paper reviews the e-mail marketing literature which highlights the importance of obtaining recipients' permission. E-mail marketing is compared with other forms of direct and Internet marketing, identifying its key advantages. The factors that have been found to increase response rate in direct marketing and direct mail are identified. Following exploratory qualitative research among industry experts 30 e-mail marketing campaigns were analysed to identify factors associated with higher response rates; the following factors were found to be associated with increased response rate: subject line, e-mail length, incentive, number of images. For nine of these campaigns it was possible to link demographic and lifestyle data to response. Analysis of these campaigns suggests that recipients who have bought online have higher response rates. These findings are used to create an e-mail marketing process model based on the Vriens et al. direct mail process model