Use of newsletter subscription incentives decreases

A key finding from the “Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study”, produced by the Email Experience Council (EEC), is that there has been a substantial drop in the number of marketers offering either pre- or post-subscription incentives.

In 2007, 27 percent of online retailers offered consumers various free gifts as a reward for subscribing to a newsletter. The recent EEC study found that this has now dropped to just 9 percent.

While freebies, such as ebooks, have been found to attract more subscribers, experience has led marketers to the realization that many subscribers were merely seeking something for nothing and had no interest in their newsletter or products.

"These subscribers are likely to unsubscribe after receiving a few emails from you--or worse, will hit the 'spam' button when your emails show up in their inbox," writes the report author, Chad White.

Offers that entail the consumer to interact with a brand or product, such as free delivery or multi-purchase deals, will yield a far more responsive email list, advises the study.

Tags: Email Experience Council, email marketing, incentives, newsletters, subscription