More than half of U.S. consumers who say they are interested in a company are open to receiving a personalized or generic email or text message from the business they are interested in, according to Vertis “2007 Customer Focus Tech Savvy’ study.
The study revealed that 40 percent of men 65 and older prefer an interactive message from a company they have expressed interest in, compared with 23 percent of females of the same age.
“Marketers must take note of the growing propensity of middle-aged and senior men who have begun turning to online resources to respond to direct mail,” said Jim Litwin, vice president of market insights for Vertis Communications.
“Adding an Internet component to direct mail campaigns targeting the older population may greatly increase the overall effectiveness of marketers’ spending, particularly as men reach retirement and find more time to surf the Web.”
For a good number of U.S. retailers, the issue is that when they have an email sign-up program, many do not follow up with customers.
Two-thirds of personal care businesses surveyed did not send a welcoming email or a sales offer, according to E-Mail Data Source’s “2006 Retail White Paper” report.
Even companies who just sent a welcome message in the first month could be considered late if they did not send an email within a few days.
“Just as the CAN-SPAM Act makes it illegal for marketers to take longer than 10 business days to unsubscribe someone from their e-mail program, perhaps it is unwise (if not illegal) to take longer than 10 days to respond to a customer who has subscribed on a company site,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
