E-Mail Marketing Campaigns

My phone vibrates. I check it hoping that it’s a text from a friend or an e-mail confirmation for that parcel I ordered, but no, instead it’s just another marketing e-mail from a website I used once. I ask myself “What’s the point?”, whilst deleting the e-mail having only read the subject line. In a world of social media, search engine marketing and targeted advertisements, e-mail marketing seems a bit wasteful and old fashioned. So why are companies still so inclined to use this kind of marketing?

It Works

According to the Email Marketing Industry Census in 2014 (click HERE to read) around 66% of marketers said that they either received a “good” or “excellent” return on investment by using e-mail marketing, with 8% of businesses getting at least half of their sales through this method (Bawm and Nath, 2014), e-mail marketing therefore provides a genuine utility to businesses if done correctly. So how do marketers get me to open up their e-mails, and more importantly get me onto their websites so I can divulge my card and/or personal information?

Lazy Student or Clever Marketing?

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This was the subject line that was able to rouse my curiosity. “Offers” and “local”, as a lazy student I pride myself in taking the cheaper and easier route in the majority of my life decisions, this e-mail was providing me an opportunity to do exactly that.

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I clicked on the e-mail to find Just Eat greeting me like a friend, using my first name, a picture of people enjoying food and offering me a chance to save some money (but only for today). Did I even stand a chance?

Fariborzi and Zahedifard (2012) have created a list of attributes that are consistent in effective e-mail marketing campaigns, by comparing them to Just Eat’s e-mail I will be able tell if it was objectively a good campaign.

Short Subject Line?

Absolutely. Just Eat did this very effectively by using soundbite phrases to quickly convey their point “top offers”, “discover one now”. This meant I could be enticed quickly whilst it also being short enough to be practical to mobile phone users. That being said, if I did not recognise the company Just Eat by including my name I would have straight away known this wasn’t spam.

Content with Utility?

Yes. It’s important that there is a clear benefit from me opening this e-mail, this can be done with “free” goods, or offers available (Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty, 2012). Just Eat were offering me 20% off my favourite cuisine (they knew this because I order this food off Just Eat a lot), with a very convenient box that simply said “order”. However, there was not too much option, what if I fancied something different? Perhaps multiple options would have helped if the sole offer didn’t work.

Personalised?

Multiple times, in fact they had used my name twice in the first two sentences. Also using informal language to make it seem like they were a friend doing me a favour “whenever there’s a special offer on in BN2 we’ll be the first to let you know”, how kind. That being said they could have personalised it in a different way, maybe mentioning what is popular in my area right now.

Clear Placement?

Sure. The main body of text was directly in the middle of the e-mail with the text centralised that varied in size, colour and boldness. I was directly drawn to the offer, then only read the surrounding sentences to see why they were being so kind. Again the sentences were short and snappy, it was almost as if they knew I was lazy and didn’t want to read the whole text. The offer did seem slapped on a template though, Just Eat may have benefited from pictures of someone eating the same cuisine as they were discounting.

Verdict

Objectively an effective e-mail campaign, however I’m still unsure about whether it was the quality of the e-mail/offer that enticed me or the fact it was conveniently in my inbox and put the idea in my head. Would another company have been just as effective even if it was not as professionally done? Potentially. That being said, although e-mail marketing may not be seen as contemporary as other marketing means, it is still effective. So well done Just Eat, I’m sure I’ll visiting you again soon enough.

Here is a handy website if you yourself want to implement your own e-marketing campaign:

http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/email-marketing-guide/

References

Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848.

Fariborzi , E., & Zahedifard, M. (2012). E-mail marketing: Advantages, disadvantages and improving techniques. International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning, 232-238

L. Bawm and R. P. D. Nath, “A Conceptual Model for effective email marketing,” Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 2014 17th International Conference on, Dhaka, 2014, pp. 250-256.