Despite the growing use of e-mail as a marketing tool by online retailers, many web merchants still need to improve how effectively they are branding their intended merchandising message, according to the results of a new survey from Silverpop.
The e-marketing services company recently analyzed the e-mail correspondence of about 175 web merchants. "There were a few, and thankfully a very few, companies that implemented practices generally considered to be less than optimal," says Elaine O'Gorman, vice president of strategy for Silverpop. "For example, most marketers are well aware of the importance of strong branding. But not all of the e-mails reviewed in the study employed fairly basic branding practices."
Silverpop's e-mail study found that while most campaigns utilized best practices to attract attention, a surprising percentage of web merchants could do much more to improve their messaging and creative efforts.
For example, clear and consistent branding is important, O'Gorman says, and starts with the "from" field, where a brand name can go a long way to ensuring a message is opened. Yet 8% of the e-mails reviewed in Silverpop's study showed an e-mail address in the "from" field instead of text showing the company's name. 9% of the e-mails studied also didn't position the company logo in a prominent, above-the-fold position. A few even buried the logo at the bottom, the Silverpop study says.
"Sometimes you see e-mail designs and you just have to think the retailer is using the same art department that creates its print ads to design e-mails," O'Gorman says. "Logos at the bottom right hand corner of a print ad can work. That position in an e-mail, requiring the recipient to scroll down, is not conducive to solid branding."
Consistent layout designs can also reinforce branding. The Silverpop study found most retailers (43%) used a post card style format, while 17% added columns or rows below a single pane of images and 14% used a long column of product photos and text. Surprisingly, of the companies that sent more than one e-mail during the course of a month, 56% changed formats, Silverpop says.
"While there's a tremendous amount of science and technology powering the delivery of sophisticated, targeted e-mails, the creative elements of persuasive campaigns are ultimately what separate average return of investments from highly successful e-mail campaigns," O'Gorman says.
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