The most effective times to send e-mail marketing messages are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, just before lunch, but it can also pay to e-mail offers for items shoppers abandoned in shopping carts, Pinny Gniwisch, vice president of Ice.com, said at the eTail 2005 conference this week.
Consumers tend to be most receptive to e-mail on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, after they’ve had a chance to clean out their weekend e-mail, Gniwisch said. And because many consumers shop at work during their lunch break, it’s best to reach them late in the morning, he added.
Ice.com has had success with monitoring items that registered shoppers abandon in their shopping carts, then e-mailing them discounted offers for the same products. “That’s worked exceptionally well for us,” he said.
E-mail open rates tend to run higher when messages are kept brief and simple, he and others said, with exceptions for special offers. Phil McAvoy, vice president of SmartBargains.com, said messages can run longer if they carry an unusually interesting and timely offer. “If it’s a strong story, you can dedicate more space,” he said, adding that longer messages might describe special one- or two-day sales events.
Gniwisch added that placing a time deadline on an e-mail offer can boost response rates. “One-day sales have been very successful,” he said, noting that one-day Valentine’s Day pitches have produced unusually strong results.
Gniwisch also suggested that retailers use techniques such as online sweepstakes and offline promotional events to build e-mail databases. “The greater the database, the greater he sales,” he said.
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