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Email reigns for Retail Web turn on
UK consumers find customer emails, TV & newspaper advertising, and targeted direct mail the most effective advertising techniques for encouraging online purchase.
With 5% of retail sales now transacted online and further strong growth predicted, retail marketers are anxious to understand which media are most effective at driving web visits and purchases. Now new research, commissioned by Response One, has examined the relative effectiveness of different advertising media for encouraging consumers to visit a company's website and seriously consider a purchase. The report found
The more 'traditional' media of TV and newspaper advertising and direct mail (coming 34% and 16% above average respectively), were second and third behind customer emails, against all expectation. Sponsored search engine links and adverts enclosed with bills and statements are also of above average effectiveness in encouraging web visits and purchases.
“These findings are very revealing and of crucial importance to the retail sector, where sales over the internet count for around 5% of total retail sales. Indeed, last year, for the first time, high street retailers overtook pure play online competitors in online sales,” comments Amanda Ling, data intelligence director, Response One.
She continues, “This study punctures the received wisdom that online advertising is the best means of driving web visits and purchases. Marketers still need to be using a mixture of direct mail and above-the-line advertising, as well as ensuring that they are communicating in a relevant and compelling fashion with their existing customers over the email and through existing lines of communication such as bills and statements.”
The biggest swing has been in online sales from food and household suppliers: up from 21% in June to 25% in October 2007. The future could see escalating reliance on internet sales - a study conducted by YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research on behalf of price comparison service uSwitch in February 2006 predicted that UK online shopping could quadruple and account for 40% of retail sales by 2020.
Interestingly, the research also found that advertising on social networking sites is not considered by the majority of consumers. UK consumers felt that such advertising, far from being effective in driving web visits and transactions, was on a par (at 26% below average) with unsolicited email (31% below average). A notable exception to this observation was in the 18-24 year old bracket, who put social network adverts and customer mobile texts both on 22% above average for encouraging web visits and purchase consideration.
Amanda Ling explains, “Even for this age group, these two techniques still did not rival the overall top scorers - customer email, TV/Newspaper adverts and targeted direct mail. This is not to say that the habits of the 18-24 age range will not perpetuate into their forties and fifties, and therefore make social network advertising a mainstream method of driving web traffic and transactions. However, the marketers of today cannot wait around for another 20-30 years as this group grows up towards their highest earning and spending decades. Nor can today's budgets be weighted towards social network advertising, unless the vast majority of a company's audience sits in this age bracket.”
Tagged as: web | marketing | email
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