Download Using Email to Persuade

S T R AT E G I C F O R C E S
Using Email to Persuade
M
ore and more organizations are using
email as a means to
persuade existing
and potential customers to buy
their products. Since email marketing is a relatively new field, rules
have not been written in stone.
However, marketers are learning
how to use email effectively with
various audiences.
To gain desired attention from customers, email messages must be
carefully timed to arrive when they
will gain the most attention. Overmessaging can be annoying, while
under-messaging may cause the
company to miss potential sales
opportunities. The subject line is
of utmost importance, as it must
catch the attention of the reader
and create a desire to learn more.
Other guidelines for developing
effective persuasive appeal include
the following:1
쎲 Personalize the message by
using the recipient’s name in the
copy. Overuse of this strategy
can be annoying, however.
쎲 Use a graphical design with
careful use of color and images
to add visual appeal.
쎲 Use targeted email as a twostep process; do not attempt to
generate a sale directly from
the message, but encourage the
reader to go to the company
website, call, or visit a store
location.
쎲 Entice recipient to learn more
about an offer; provide links to
sites of possible interest.
쎲 Allow for easy sharing of information with others by providing
for easy forwarding or sending of
a link to the site to a friend.
쎲 Keep the message as short as
possible, while adequately
explaining the offer.
쎲 Include means to be removed
from the distribution list,
ensuring that only interested
parties continue to receive
emailings.
E-commerce marketers such as
Ticketmaster, eBags, and Victoria’s
Secret use email communications to acquire new customers,
increase sales, notify customers
of promotions and services, and,
most importantly, develop and
nurture an ongoing dialogue and
relationship with their customers. Many marketers provide an
incentive such as premiums or
award points to reward their target
audience for reading the content
of the email.
The newest extension of email
marketing—cell phone marketing—
offers wide advertising possibilities in exchange for prizes, free
ringtones, and other incentives.
Marketers are challenged to overcome the resistance of 80 percent
of mobile users who are adamant
about not wanting to receive
phone ads.2
1
Sweeney, T. (2000, May). Email marketing set to take off. Credit Union Management, 8.
2
Now playing on your cell phone; Advertisers are jumping on the mobile marketing bandwagon. Will subscribers join them? (2006,
March 24). Business Week Online, p. NA. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060324_684493.
htm?chanⴝsearch
© 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
S T R AT E G I C F O R C E S
Permission-Based Email Becoming
Marketing Standard
A
nyone with an email address has been intruded
upon by the junk email
deluge known as spam.
Companies that use this low-cost
form of direct communication do
so at the risk of damaging their
reputation and incurring the wrath
of consumers and the Internet
community at large. Unsolicited
email also yields very few results,
since most Internet users don’t
even read it. While public perception may still be that email
marketing and spam are one and
the same, times and practices are
changing.
Unsolicited commercial email may
be taboo, but permission-based
(opt-in) email has become popular.
Increasingly, consumers are being
asked directly for their permission
by companies who want to market
to them. Permission marketing
places the power in the hands of
the consumer, who can opt out of
a campaign at any time with the
click of a mouse or end the emails
by clicking on the opt-out feature
located in the message.
Firing the popularity of permissionbased email marketing is the fact
that it eliminates about 60 percent
of the expenses of traditional direct
mail. An additional benefit is a
higher response rate from email as
compared with traditional contact means. Contact is also much
quicker, with 90 percent of email
responses arriving within the first
48 hours of a communication
versus the weeks that are typical
before receiving traditional direct
mail responses. Perhaps the greatest advantage, however, is the flexibility that email provides. Never
before have markets had the ability
to quickly, easily, and inexpensively
tailor messages to individual customers or groups of customers—
from special discounts for frequent
buyers to birthday greetings and
sales announcements for preferred
items.1
Organizations that are successfully
using opt-in email contacts recognize that an individual’s email box
is very private space. Contacts are
generally not asked for too much
information at the sign-up point
since they would likely be scared
off. People are also more selfish
than ever with their time, and with
good reason. Companies attract
their opt-in email subscribers in a
variety of ways:2
쎲 Running contests or sweepstakes
on the company website so that
users must submit their email
addresses to enter. The company
asks permission to place them
on the email list and the kind of
information they would like to
receive.
쎲 Developing special news alerts
around subscribers’ areas of
interest.
쎲 Offering those who sign up
unique benefits they can’t
receive elsewhere, such as
special product discounts.
쎲 Encouraging recipients to pass
along the usage to interested
friends.
From the consumers’ point of
view, their ability to control what
they want and don’t want is key
to effective permission marketing.
Customers choose which websites
they want to visit and what messages they want to receive. The
traditional approach—“interruption
marketing”—relies on grabbing
the attention of consumers while
they are doing something else,
such as watching television, reading a newspaper, or eating dinner.
Permission marketing, on the other
hand, delivers ads that can be read
when the customer chooses.
1
Furger, R. (2000, April). E-mail’s second shot. Upside, 160–168.
Patton, C., & London, D. (2000, May 8). How to create rent effective opt-in e-mail lists. B to B, 44.
2
© 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.