People Want Behaviorally-Targeted E-mails

Overwhelmingly, consumers say they want e-mails that are relevant to them. Marketers have struggled to know how to fulfill this need. Of course, info on sales and promotions for products the customer is interested in has been one of the most popular and easily-implemented solutions.

Based on research e-Dialog recently completed, consumers also ranked behaviorally-targeted or "task-based" e-mails as something they want to receive. These range from abandoned shopping cart messages to alerts from financial services companies about account balances or even reminders.

 
 
 

As we enter the holiday season, retailers should start thinking about ways they can incorporate this preference into their e-mail marketing. For example, updating transactional e-mails to include up sell or cross sell products. Or perhaps add a shipping notification e-mail to the roster? Maybe host a gift list online and allow consumers to request reminders once a week. As you can see, there are lots of opportunities to take advantage of the desire for e-mails based on consumer actions and behaviors.