Modelling e-mail marketing effectiveness – An approach based on the theory of hierarchy-of-effects

Abstract

Despite the importance and pervasiveness of e-mail marketing, improving the effectiveness of e-mail marketing programs continues to be a priority for most businesses due to their revenue-generating potential. However, the study of e-mail marketing has been mostly neglected by academic research. More notably, the lack of holistic approaches and conceptual frameworks to tackle this challenge stand in the way of helping companies to better plan and deploy their e-mail marketing strategies and campaigns. This study addresses this issue by proposing a comprehensive model for the study of e-mail marketing effectiveness based on the hierarchy-of-effects theory. The effectiveness model is built by linking the stages of the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model to the sequence of steps that consumers undergo when they interact with promotional e-mails. This approach allows identifying different partial effectiveness metrics associated with the cognitive, emotional and conative stages, which are later operationalized through key performance indicators with widespread adoption in the industry (open rate, clickthrough rate, retention rate and conversion rate). Thus, attention is linked to open effectiveness, interest is linked both to click effectiveness and subscriber retention effectiveness, and action is linked to conversion effectiveness. The stage of desire is dropped from the model because it usually takes place outside the e-mail marketing process. The study includes a practical illustration of the adequateness of the framework based on data and results from prior studies.

Opening E-Mail Marketing Messages on Smartphones: The Views of Millennial Consumers

“…The literature suggests that millennials accept and consider mobile ads in their buying decisions more than the older generations (Ünal, Erciş, et al, 2011). E-mail marketing is considered as one of the best forms of online advertising, not only because of its ability to reach the companies' target market (Rosário, 2021) but also because of its low cost, fast implementation, and most importantly for its effectiveness (Bharta, 2020;Hartemo, 2021;Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021;Rosário, 2021), especially among millennial consumers.…”

“…According to José-Cabezudo and Camarero-Izquierdo ( 2012), e-mail messages are often unopened due to receiving e-mails at an inappropriate time, lack of time, or irrelevance to the recipient. Moreover, the consumer must acknowledge the relevance of the message in the subject line itself and the sender's credibility even before opening the e-mail (Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021). Several authors emphasized the importance of the subject line to motivate the recipient to open the e-mail (e.g., Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021;Sahni, Wheeler & Chintagunta, 2018) and of its inherent value to the customers (Grubor et al, 2018), by offering them monetary incentives like discounts and vouchers (Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021).…”

“…Moreover, the consumer must acknowledge the relevance of the message in the subject line itself and the sender's credibility even before opening the e-mail (Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021). Several authors emphasized the importance of the subject line to motivate the recipient to open the e-mail (e.g., Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021;Sahni, Wheeler & Chintagunta, 2018) and of its inherent value to the customers (Grubor et al, 2018), by offering them monetary incentives like discounts and vouchers (Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021). Relevance, personalization, brand equity, and established relationships with consumers also influence e-mail opening rate (Sahni, Wheeler & Chintagunta, 2018), with evidence that informative and entertaining content with a high level of privacy result in attracting more customers (Jamalzadeh, Behravan, & Masoudi, 2012).…”

“…These numbers alone highlight the importance of e-mail marketing in facilitating consumer-brand interactions. Consequently, e-mail marketing is one of the most popular marketing tactics to approach customers and prospects (Bharta, 2020;Hartemo, 2021;Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021), and apparently, one of the most profitable digital marketing tactics with the highest return on investment compared to others (Chaffey & Smith, 2017;Lorente-Páramo et al, 2021;Rosário, 2021). Surprisingly, research on e-mail marketing is very scarce, especially after the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) initiated in 2016.…”

May I have your attention, please? An investigation on opening effectiveness in e-mail marketing

“…Opening effectiveness can be measured through open rates (OR), a ratio that determines the percentage of sent e-mails that have been opened (Bonfrer and Drèze 2009 ; San-José-Cabezudo and Camarero-Izquierdo 2012 ; Andersson et al 2014 ; Balakrishnan and Parekh 2015 ; Lorente-Páramo et al 2020b , 2021 ). E-mail service providers may deliver information about open-rates to advertisers; for example, by counting the number of requests to the server that stores some visual or other, sometimes hidden, elements of the e-mail (Lim et al 2016 ).…”