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Email Remarketing – why aren't more people using it?

Author's avatar By Dave Chaffey 12 May, 2011
Essential Essential topic
Email marketing

Making the argument for Remarketing with Email

Automated email marketing, Event-triggered email, Behavioural email, Email sequences, Abandoned shopping cart email. Call the technique what you will, I've been a fan of the relevance you can deliver through contextual emails like these for a long time - it's been possible to do this for over 10 years now!
The appeal of delivering the right message at the right time, in the context of an action taken on the site are obvious and compilations of success show this is well-founded. Likewise the recent Redeye report on Email Remarketing -- shows that for different sectors email and engagement and conversion rates are far higher than average email response. This compilation is for retailers:

Why isn't email marketing more commonplace?

But it seems to be tough to setup these type of emails up in practice. This 2011 research from Econsultancy shows that even in 2011, after this technique has been available for 10+ years, it's still surprisingly uncommon with only just over a third of companies using it:
Perhaps that explains why the new term on the block for selling this technique is "Email Re-marketing" - building on the success of Remarketing on Ad networks.
You might think that these technique would be more popular for retailers where the appeal of the abandoned shopping cart email is higher.
The study from RedEye also shows that many retailers are not implementing these types of email:
However, the trend for this technique in the Econsultancy report is more positive though. It shows the change in use of ESP services since 2007. Automated campaigns (+30%), personalisation (+26%) and measurement and analytics (+22%) are the three ESP services that have shown the biggest increase over the last four years.
What do you think the barriers to adoption of remarketing with email are - is it budget, lack of advice, skills, systems, etc? I'm interested to find out! In Part 2 I look at an example of a successful Email Remarketing campaign.
Author's avatar

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.

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