The effectivness of e-mail marketing : an empirical research on the behavior of e-mail recipients

Abstract

The research aims at identifying the behaviour of consumers towards the various elements present in the emails that they receive. The researcher deems this to be crucial information for the marketer to understand how email marketing can be best practised to maximise benefits whilst minimising recipients' negative reactions. Persons who hold a University of Malta staff email account were surveyed and asked for their personal opinion on how they react to various aspects present in email marketing to which they are exposed. A quantitative approach was used thus allowing the researcher to make statistical inferences. The findings generated from the data collected show that respondents perceive the email as an effective tool that keeps them updated about a company's offers. Findings show that respondents are willing to hear from companies as long as they recognise who the sender is, and content is relevant to their interest and presented in a visually engaging manner. On the other hand, respondents show that they are irritated by companies who send unsolicited emails or an amount of messages that they cannot handle. The findings also show strong evidence that the younger the population the higher the positive reaction towards email marketing. Ethical considerations are also shown to be essential in effective email marketing, which is also the case when an individual's characteristics such as interests and age are taken into consideration. Therefore from this study one can conclude that effective email marketing is possible when practitioners have the necessary knowledge about their customers and potential leads. Such information allows email marketers to adapt the tool to their audience to achieve maximum results. On the other hand, all marketers should avoid bad practices when using this tool as it can alter the recipients' perception towards the email. A lack of consideration towards ethical and legal issues may not only damage a company's reputation but also diminish the email marketing's unique effectiveness as a marketing tool.