M&S and H Samuel ranked top for best email practice

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 01-Apr-09, 11:15

LONDON - Marks & Spencer and H Samuel have come out on top in a study of retailers' email marketing techniques, which also revealed that many companies, including Somerfield and H&M, are still ignoring best practices, according to the research.

The dotMailer.co.uk annual benchmark study claims that some of the UK's leading retailers are continuing to overlook key email marketing techniques that could increase online traffic and sales, at a time when many are struggling with the recession.

While the study recognises retailers such as M&S and H Samuel for using "brand-enhancing design" and "compelling calls to action", it claims others including Somerfield and H&M showed little signs of improvement on 2008.

The benchmark study assessed emails sent from 41 UK retailers around December 8 2008, also known as 'Mega Monday' -- the festive season's busiest shopping day saw £320m spent online.

Each email was evaluated against 14 criteria based on dotMailer's Hitting the Mark matrix and the DMA's email best practice guidelines, with each retailer awarded a total score out of 100.

Marks & Spencer and H Samuel jointly top the study for the first time with scores of 81, moving up from fourth and 15th positions respectively in 2008, closely followed by Ethical Superstore and Argos.

This year, Somerfield and H&M jointly replace Lidl at the bottom of the email marketing index with just 48 points, followed by Schuh and Tog24.

Lidl continued to flounder in the bottom five with 58 points, moving up only four places. However there was good news for 2008's lowest scoring retailer, Office, which boosted its score by 21 points this year to rank in eighth place with a score of 75.

Last year's top-placed company Topshop ranks joint fourth this year with 78 points.

Areas where retailers failed to deliver included 71% not using a personal greeting, something that has been shown to significantly increase open rates, and only 29% asking for relevant interests during sign-up in order to target emails more effectively.

Half the retailers also failed to include a forward to a friend link and only two retailers out of the 41 included social network links to help spread their messages virally.

Overall, the average score of 67 was down four points on 2008's average of 71, and only 14 retailers managed to score 70 points or more this year.

Tink Taylor, dotMailer's business development director, said: "Whilst the 2009 report shows improvements in certain areas, it's evident that many of the retailers that we assessed have not taken steps to improve their email marketing campaigns.

"In the current economic climate and with marketing budgets being tightened, companies can reap dividends by focusing on their email marketing strategies and execution. Email offers a highly cost-effective, trackable and accountable way of communicating with prospects and customers."

Top Performers

1. M&S 81

1. H.Samuel 81

2. Ethical Superstore 80

3. Argos 78

3. John Lewis 78

3. Topshop 78

Worst Offenders

1. Somerfield 48

1. H&M 48

2. Schuh 50

3. Tog24 53