E-mail Vital to Retailers’ Social Community Building Efforts: Responsys
September 1, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
A recent report from Responsys, a provider of hosted Exchange e-mail and cross-channel marketing solutions, finds that e-mail marketing continues to be a key strategy for raising awareness of and driving traffic to retailers’ communities on Facebook, Twitter (News – Alert) and other social media sites.
Responsys’ Viral Community Links in E-mails 2011 report asserts that retailers are more focused on using their e-mail marketing programs to promote their social communities and less focused on e-mail for social sharing.
The survey conducted on online retailers found that 88 percent of them include community links in their promotional e-mails, up from 75 percent in 2010, approaching near universal adoption, according to the report.
Facebook (News – Alert) and Twitter are the two dominant social media that support retailers’ community efforts, with YouTube becoming the third strong contender. Facebook has shown its all-pervasiveness, with every retailer in the study reporting that they linked to Facebook from their e-mails. While 84 percent linked to Twitter, only 29 percent linked to YouTube (News – Alert).
The report also noted that fewer retailers are including share-with-your-network (SWYN) links in their e-mails. The percentage of retailers that include a SWYN link in every promotional e-mail dropped to 25 percent from 26 percent in 2010 after rising from 12 percent in 2009.
“Three times as many retailers include share-with-your-network (SWYN) links on their product pages as regularly as they include them in their e-mails,” said Chad White, research director at Responsys and author of the report, in a statement. “That’s a strong indication that retailers are sold on the benefits of SWYN, but that placement further down the sales funnel is more effective in general.”
The report however notes that forward-to-a-friend (FTAF) usage continues to decline even in 2010, dropping to 41 percent from 44 percent in 2010 and 48 percent in 2009. Overall, 52 percent of retailers now include some viral mechanism — either SWYN or FTAF. This however represents a fall from 56 percent in 2010.
“This report is a strong endorsement of e-mail’s ability to raise awareness of and drive traffic to brands’ social media pages on an ongoing basis,” said Ed Henrich, senior vice president of Professional Services at Responsys, in a statement. “It’s also further evidence that cross-channel integration is increasingly vital to future marketing success.”
Meanwhile Lyris, a provider of digital marketing solutions, announced the release of “The Future of Email,” a comprehensive look at eight trends that are driving e-mail marketing best practices, including mobile, social media and generational factors.
Recently Pew (News – Alert) Research American Life Project also reported e-mail is still one of most popular online activities among U.S. adults. With 92 percent of online adults using e-mail and 61 percent using it daily, marketers cannot afford to ignore this marketing tool, the report said.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Tammy Wolf
