Top retail brands' email marketing campaigns found wanting

When Practicology signed up to email from the U.K.'s 100 best-known retailers they found that many weren't up to scratch.

by Helen Leggatt

Tesco, Halfords, Mothercare, Ikea, Lakeland, Sports Direct and Marks & Spencer - top UK brands - were all included in Practicology's research into retailers' email marketing campaigns. Having signed up for email marketing for all 100 top UK brands (of which 91 required no account registration) Practicology sat back to see how each brand operated their campaigns.

First off, 15% of the retailers never contacted Practicology after sign-up, including Halfords, Mothercare, Majestic Wine and Marks & Spencer. Of those that did make contact, just 67% sent a welcome email of which 63% sent it the same day as sign-up.

Just 48% of retailers who responded did so with responsive emails. Even retailers who had responsive websites sent non-responsive emails, including Boho, Sports Direct, Lakeland and Argos.

"Retailers who have invested in a dedicated mobile site or a responsive site, but have not moved their email marketing to responsive design should think about this as a next step," said Practicology's Head of Data & Analytics Will Dymott. "If consumers are browsing your website and even transacting on smartphones, then they will be opening your emails on those devices too."

During the six months of Practicology's research several major holidays occurred - Mother's Day, Father's Day and Easter - yet only 47% acknowledged just one of them.

"It seems perverse that so many brands would ask for a customer's email address and then do nothing with it," says Dymott. "But even for those brands that did begin to contact us, there are many improvements that could be made. A well-constructed welcome programme, followed up with a grow-and-nurture programme which begins to tailor email content, should deliver you first-time buyers and convert them into more valuable repeat customers in time."