January 17, 2006

On any given day, Internet users typically request a lot of product and service information by email. However, most of them don't receive what they ask for.

According to a new survey done by Quris, a large gap exists between the information people ask for by email and what is being sent to them by most companies or product vendors.

The study was conducted on more than 2,500 consumers in a Harris Interactive panel.

Although 77 percent of Internet consumers report they wish to get offers from marketers, surprisingly, only 8 percent report ever getting them.

"There is a large gap between consumers' expectations and what companies push out," Katie Cole of Quris told DM News, in something of an understatement.

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The good news is that the gap may be narrowing, at least in certain categories.

When asked what permission e-mail does best, 66% of the respondents said purchase, shipping and transaction confirmation, and that figure is up from 58% in 2004.

An additional 48% said permission e-mail is best for providing electronic statements or other account information, and another 43% said is best for promoting special discounts and other limited-time offers.

Taken together, 51% of the respondents had no problem receiving e-mail marketing messages within those service categories.

As a result, the Quris report recommends combining service and marketing messages: "The key is to provide the valued service first and then target receptive consumers with relevant content or offers within those messages."

While many marketers are switching from direct mail to e-mail for more of their customer communications, it seems they are not transitioning quick enough for many consumers — who want e-mail to replace more of the direct mail pieces they currently receive from businesses.

In fact, 77% of the respondents said e-mail was the better medium for transaction confirmations, 60% said it was better for customer service inquiries and a bare majority said newsletters and electronic coupons should be sent by e-mail.

On the other hand, most consumers still want their magazines and newspapers delivered directly by good old snail mail.

The one thing businesses must do better is explain how e-mail addresses are collected.

Spam has many consumers suspicious, and — rightly or wrongly — 53% of the respondents think the main source of spam is companies sharing their addresses without permission, and many others attribute spam to partnership marketing. That is no way to build a trusting relationship.

The truth is today more companies are getting their in-house e-mail addresses from search marketing campaigns. The percentage of e-mail addresses obtained that way is up to 43%. Companies obtain 26% of their consumer e-mail addresses in-store.

Source: eMarketer