Read the Cyber Monday Tell-All
December 8, 2008: Does an email a day keep the buyer away?
From: Neiman MarcusSubject Line: Free $100 NM GIFT CARD with ONLINE purchase + Free gift wrap & Free online shipping
Date: December 8, 2008
I'd been putting off my inbox cleaning for too long, so I spent some time this weekend filing over a thousand emails away into my archive library. After first sorting all my emails by the "from" field, I noticed something very interesting. Without realizing it, I've been receiving an email a day from Neiman Marcus since at least October and maybe even longer! I was shocked. At first I thought that maybe I'd missed checking a preference box or something when I signed up for emails originally, but when I tested my theory with a different email address, I was never given a frequency option. So, this leads me to believe that Neiman's default is to send an email a day to subscribers. Interesting. Then, lo and behold, when I clicked unsubscribe, I was given the option of getting a weekly email vs. a daily email. I did choose the weekly option rather than unsubscribe from all, but I have to wonder how many other people unsubscribe all together out of sheer frustration at receiving so many messages. I'd love to know if this everyday delivery strategy is working for Neiman's. I would think that the unsubscribe rate would be HUGE, but then again, I'm not exactly Neiman's target customer. Let's open up the discussion: What are your thoughts on email frequency?
Comments
I'm totally with you ... I've seen more and more retailers ramp their frequency lately, and only offer the weekly option when you threaten to unsubscribe.
I work for one of those retailers who has increased frequency. In the short term, it is paying off in a major way. But I have very serious concerns about what this approach is doing to the quality of our list. If I'm fatigued by the number of messages we're sending, our subscribers can't help but feel the same. :)
Once a week should be more than enough opportunity to communicate your best deal to your subscribers ... any additional messages should be either a triggered message or supremely targeted and 100% relevant.
The silver lining? Increased mailings really force procrastinators like us to a) clean out our inboxes and b) take a cold, hard look at which companies or organizations we truly want to hear from.
Posted by: B. | December 8, 2008 4:56 PM