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  <body-formatted>A welcome message sent soon after opting in can help to remind people why they signed up, and keep your company's name in their minds. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Conversely, by failing to send these messages and leaving a delay of a month or more before contact, recipients are likely to forget they signed up and may ignore the email or unsubscribe. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The study looked at some well known brands and companies in the US, many of which should know better. These included BMW, Hertz, Nike and others. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Personalisation&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The study also found that, despite gathering more than just names and email addresses when signing customers up, marketers were failing to use this information to personalise emails to customers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Personalisation has a &lt;a href="/blog/1867-email-open-rates-drop-3"&gt;positive effect on open and click rates&lt;/a&gt;, a previous study found that average open and click rates for personalised emails were 18% and 5.02% respectively, compared with 15.86% and 2.09% for emails without personalisation. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, while 70% of companies gathered more than just addresses, three quarters failed to use this information in their email marketing. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is no surprise; Silverpop studied 100 US and 50 UK retailers last year, finding that a &lt;a href="/blog/1559-retailers-failing-to-respond-to-customer-opt-ins"&gt;third of&#160;retailers&#160;don't bother sending&#160;confirmation/courtesy emails&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These are email marketing basic, so it seems that a lot of companies need to raise their game. On the other hand, as &lt;a href="http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2008/06/win-by-being-less-cp-than-rest.html"&gt;Mark Brownlow points out&lt;/a&gt;, this increases the opportunities for firms that are following best practice. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related research:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-briefing-march-2008"&gt;Email Marketing Briefing - March 2008&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-industry-census-2008"&gt;Email Marketing Industry Census 2008&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-briefing-march-2008"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Related stories:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/2391-beyond-opens-and-clicks-why-it-s-time-for-new-email-metrics"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/2294-three-practical-tips-for-improving-your-email-marketing"&gt;Three practical tips for improving your email marketing&lt;/a&gt;</body-formatted>
  <body-unformatted>&lt;FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"&gt;A welcome message sent soon after opting in can help to remind people why they signed up, and keep your company's name in their minds. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;Conversely, by failing to send these messages and leaving a delay of a month or more before contact, recipients are likely to forget they signed up and may ignore the email or unsubscribe. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;The study looked at some well known brands and companies in the US, many of which should know better. These included BMW, Hertz, Nike and others. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;Emphasis&gt;Personalisation&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;The study also found that, despite gathering more than just names and email addresses when signing customers up, marketers were failing to use this information to personalise emails to customers. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;Personalisation has a &lt;Link URL="/blog/1867-email-open-rates-drop-3" Window="Self"&gt;positive effect on open and click rates&lt;/Link&gt;, a previous study found that average open and click rates for personalised emails were 18% and 5.02% respectively, compared with 15.86% and 2.09% for emails without personalisation. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;However, while 70% of companies gathered more than just addresses, three quarters failed to use this information in their email marketing. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;This is no surprise; Silverpop studied 100 US and 50 UK retailers last year, finding that a &lt;Link URL="/blog/1559-retailers-failing-to-respond-to-customer-opt-ins" Window="Self"&gt;third of&#160;retailers&#160;don't bother sending&#160;confirmation/courtesy emails&lt;/Link&gt;.&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;These are email marketing basic, so it seems that a lot of companies need to raise their game. On the other hand, as &lt;Link URL="http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2008/06/win-by-being-less-cp-than-rest.html" Window="Self"&gt;Mark Brownlow points out&lt;/Link&gt;, this increases the opportunities for firms that are following best practice. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;Emphasis&gt;Related research:&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;&lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-briefing-march-2008" Window="Self"&gt;Email Marketing Briefing - March 2008&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-industry-census-2008" Window="Self"&gt;Email Marketing Industry Census 2008&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;Emphasis&gt;&lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-briefing-march-2008" Window="Self"&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;Related stories:&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;&lt;Link URL="/blog/2391-beyond-opens-and-clicks-why-it-s-time-for-new-email-metrics" Window="Self"&gt;&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;Link URL="/blog/2294-three-practical-tips-for-improving-your-email-marketing" Window="Self"&gt;Three practical tips for improving your email marketing&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;/FormattedContent&gt;</body-unformatted>
  <created-at type="datetime">2008-06-05T11:53:00+01:00</created-at>
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  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Another survey reveals that many companies are failing to follow email best practice, with 60% of firms missing a trick by not sending welcome messages to subscribers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;According to a &lt;a href="http://www.returnpath.net/blog/2008/06/research-study-creating-great.php#more"&gt;new study&lt;/a&gt; by ReturnPath, 30% of these companies compounded the problem by failing to make contact with customers for more than a month after they signed up.&lt;/p&gt;
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    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Another survey reveals that many companies are failing to follow email best practice, with 60% of firms missing a trick by not sending welcome messages to subscribers. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;According to a &lt;Link URL="http://www.returnpath.net/blog/2008/06/research-study-creating-great.php#more" Window="Self"&gt;new study&lt;/Link&gt; by ReturnPath, 30% of these companies compounded the problem by failing to make contact with customers for more than a month after they signed up.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
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  <learn-more-formatted>&lt;p&gt;For further information about email marketing, download Econsultancy's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-census"&gt;Email Census&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (based on a survey of digital marketers) and the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-buyers-guide"&gt;Email Marketing Platforms Buyer's Guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (particularly relevant for the UK market). See also the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-statistics"&gt;Email Statistics Compendium&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</learn-more-formatted>
  <learn-more-unformatted>&lt;p&gt;For further information about email marketing, download Econsultancy's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-census"&gt;Email Census&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (based on a survey of digital marketers) and the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-buyers-guide"&gt;Email Marketing Platforms Buyer's Guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (particularly relevant for the UK market). See also the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-statistics"&gt;Email Statistics Compendium&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</learn-more-unformatted>
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  <name>Firms failing to send welcome emails</name>
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  <published-at type="datetime">2008-06-05T15:14:00+01:00</published-at>
  <slug>firms-failing-to-send-welcome-emails</slug>
  <tweetbacks-updated-at type="datetime">2009-04-28T23:10:32+01:00</tweetbacks-updated-at>
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  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-10-13T09:39:36+01:00</updated-at>
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