Autoresponders 'can aid email marketing'

Email marketing campaigns can be given a boost with good use of autoresponders, it has been suggested.

According to MarketingSherpa, autoresponders are best used when targeting shoppers who add items to their online basket but do not complete the transaction.

It gives the example of e.l.f. cosmetics, which ran an autoresponder program that emailed a special discount to those in its opt-in database who browsed its site but did not buy anything.

Average open rates were 48 per cent for these emails, compared with rates of between 15 and 20 per cent for standard email marketing messages.

Furthermore, the click-through rate rose from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.

"Email marketing and customer retention is the number one piece of our business that we can understand and rely on in terms of continuity and forecasting," commented Joey Shamah, chief executive of e.l.f.

Last year, a study by Tealeaf found that 49 per cent of UK online shoppers would abandon a transaction if they encountered a problem with the website in question.

Written by Greig Daines