Should email be part of a loyalty programme? It's relatively easy, it's cheap, it's tempting. But do the customers want it or not? Find out here.
A recent study by digital marketing solutions company, DoubleClick Inc., suggests that, for most customers, it works. The study found that more than four out of five consumers have purchased as a result of permission-based email - and it's growing. Some 82% have made a purchase in the last year as a result of clicking on a permission-based email, compared to 61% in the 2000 study, spending an average of US$1,023 over the year (US$750 last year).
Repeat purchases
Apparently, it's not all one-off purchases either: 86% bought from the same merchant more than once. According to Court Cunningham, VP and General Manager of DARTmail Technology Solutions, DoubleClick: "The study clearly demonstrates that direct marketers and online merchants should embrace permission-based email as an integral component of their overall marketing plan to effectively drive sales. The data also reveals that email is critical to increasing repeat purchases and therefore lifetime customer value. Email is more effective at stimulating repeat purchases than the quality of goods or even customer service."
Primary reason
The study revealed that internet users received an average of 36 permission-based emails per week this year, against 18 last year. Four in ten respondents said that email communications were a primary reason for being loyal to an online merchant (three in ten last year). But, before everyone runs off to fire up their keyboards, remember that the main concern about providing personal information online for almost nine out of ten respondents is the misuse of this information for spamming and credit card abuse.
The study included 1,015 respondents who used the internet at least once a week, averaged 45 years of age, equally divided between male and female.
For more information on the study, please visit DoubleClick Study
