Guy Hanson

Valentine’s Day campaigns show email turn-offs

After my Valentine’s Day analysis of online dating sites and what’s so great about their email, I decided to compare their performance around the holiday to a sample of retail marketers to measure the effectiveness of these sorts of big seasonal marketing drives.

Online dating sites aren’t the only ones who use Valentine’s Day to implement a big marketing push.

Retailers selling products like chocolates, flowers and gift cards also stepped up their game (and their email activity) to capitalise on the most romantic day of the year.

Love is in the air… but not always in the inbox

Valentine’s Day is a difficult one for single people, and a great many of the UK’s 15m singles turn to online dating sites to find a special someone with whom to spend the evening.

Research suggests that there are 24m first dates in the UK each year, of which 69% are arranged through online dating.

As a result, online dating is an enormously competitive market, and sites must send relevant, engaging email that perfectly matches their subscribers’ wants and needs.