تبلیغات اینترنتی : نقش بازاریابی ایمیلی

This study examines a comprehensive range of executional elements in a sample of permission-based e-mail marketing campaigns. The sample comprised almost 1000 promotional e-mails sent over an 18-month period by twenty leading U.K. e-retailers. Content analyses of the e-mail campaigns reveal that different tactics of format, address, subject lines, hyperlinks and interactivity are applied to initially attract customers' attention and then encourage further interest. Interviews with nine of the twenty marketing executives who designed the campaigns pointed to managers' reasons for use of the tactical alternatives.

Permission-based e-mails sent to customers are a form of marketing that is on the increase (Cho and Khang, 2006, Gopal et al., 2006, Kim et al., 2006 and Kim and McMillan, 2008). According to Pavlov et al. (2008), e-mail marketing campaigns produce approximately twice the return on investment of the other main forms of online marketing such as web banners and online directory adverts. Studies of e-mail marketing campaigns, however, are rare (see Cho and Khang, 2006). The present study aims to fill an important gap in the literature by analyzing the executional tactics used in permission-based e-mail marketing campaigns designed by leading e-retailers in the United Kingdom. Executional tactics, such as the length, size, layout of an advert, are potentially very important, because in other contexts they have been shown to play the decisive role in attracting the recipients' attention (Rossiter, 1981). The article is organized as follows. The next section outlines theory relating to permission-based e-mail marketing. This is followed by sections in which the research methods are explained and the findings of the study are presented. The final section points out the study's contribution and limitations, and makes suggestions for future research on e-mail marketing.

This study presents a significant departure from previous studies by exploring the application of a comprehensive range of executional tactics in e-mail marketing campaigns, whereas previous studies have focused on web-page design tactics. The present study uses the literature to formulate a framework of executional tactics applicable to e-mail marketing campaigns (listed in Table 1 earlier), and then uses this framework to empirically explore the extent to which e-mail marketers have applied the tactics. A further important area in which this study makes a contribution is in exploring the strategic thinking that has influenced e-mail marketers' application of alternative tactics. Recipients' initial attention to e-mail marketing campaigns depends on a number of executional elements, summarized as follows. The subject line of an e-mail must grab the initial attention of the customer and prompt him or her to open the e-mail; otherwise, there is no opportunity for sustained attention; the message can be deleted and never seen again, unlike print media messages, which can be returned to later. There are two parts of the subject line which have the potential to grab attention: (1) sender – is the e-mail from a source in which the receiver will be interested; and (2) subject – is the receiver interested, intrigued, or motivated by the subject matter? Attention has to flow from the subject line into the message, as it will not happen the other way round. Pictures (illustrations) may be the most powerful way to attract the attention of a consumer towards a print ad (Rossiter and Bellman, 2005) but pictures alone will not work for an e-mail campaign. This proposition may seem obvious but the proposition has vital implications for the planning and development of e-mail marketing campaigns. In line with theory proposed by Rossiter and Bellman (2005), more than three-quarters of subject lines have a "lead-in" headline (as appropriate for print adverts for high-involvement products) and few have "complete" headlines (which are more appropriate for low-involvement products). Moving on to developing sustained attention or "engagement" with an e-mail message, personalization, interactive features, and hyperlinks to web pages seem to be the most effective tactics. Comparatively, the verbal text, especially the body copy, seems to be less important for e-mail marketers who choose to adopt a catalog approach, where body-copy text is often reduced to a brief description of each product. Personalization also influences the style and layout of e-mail marketing messages. Some retailers design short, snappy, anonymous promotional messages designed to elicit an immediate response, whereas others develop long, complex, sender-identified messages aimed at engaging the prospective customer in a more involving interaction. Sundar and Kim (2005) report web-based advertising to be lacking in interactivity, and suggested that such advertising still follows many aspects of the traditional print advertising model. Despite their many similarities, marketing e-mails are much more complex than newspaper or magazine adverts. E-mail marketing messages are delivered using a range of approaches – such as web page in the mail box, product catalog, and newsletter – and depending on the chosen format, the e-retailer may elect to include a broad range of interactive features and hyperlinks in order to sustain prospective customers' attention. The application of the capabilities of interactive technology to e-mail campaigns has broadened the scope of online marketing messages and offers the potential to not only develop the sustained attention of the customer to the message but also to facilitate a direct response. However, e-retailers may well be overlooking important attention-gaining and attention-sustaining executional tactics for e-mail marketing. Some "split-run" testing of tactics is taking place but this empirical trial-and-error route is costly and slow. Consequently, it is important that e-retailers take heed of the latest academic research, including this new study, to guide the design and implementation of their e-mail marketing campaigns. Table 1 (earlier) includes a comprehensive set of recommendations for how each executional factor might be deployable effectively.Whilst this study provides important new insights into the executional tactics used in e-mail marketing campaigns, it suffers from a number of limitations. In particular, it was not possible to explore the actual effectiveness of such campaigns, from either the consumers' or the retailers' perspective. Consequently, further research is now required to understand which combinations of specific executional elements offer the greatest potential for effectively attracting the consumers' attention. Moreover, it will be important to investigate how retailers actively monitor and revise their e-mail marketing campaigns, on an on-going basis, is necessary to enhance their effectiveness.