• by Jess Nelson , April 29, 2016

Luxury brands are behind on standardized best practices in email marketing and fail to offer customers a personalized experience, suggests a recent study by ContactLab and Exane BNP. 

Customer engagement specialist Contact Lab partnered with Exane BNP Paribas to evaluate how effective luxury brands were at email marketing. The report delved into the email strategy and proficiency of thirty luxury brands from both the American and Italian markets.

Cartier and Burberry were distinguished as leaders in both email strategy and proficiency, but the report suggests that the luxury industry overall lacks integration between emails and ecommerce services.

Only Cartier included a ‘Book an Appointment’ option in its email marketing, while only Burberry included ‘Collect in Store’ link.

Considering email’s known role in incentivizing consumers to shop in stores, a lack of cohesive strategy between in-store and email marketing could spell trouble for luxury brands.

Furthermore, a majority of luxury brands studied in the report lack advanced segmentation and strategic planning. 

Some brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and Armani address customers by name or gender, but only a small minority asked customers for more detailed information for advanced targeting.

Examples could include asking for a ZIP code for geotargeting capabilities or content preferences for more relevant advertising messages.

Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all email revenue, according to the Direct Marketing Association. Campaign Monitor has also noted a direct correlation between revenue and segmented campaigns.

“Today’s consumers are bombarded with information, and marketers are constantly looking for ways to cut through the noise and reach audiences,” states Campaign Monitor in a blog post online. “Relevancy is the marketer’s secret weapon, and the fastest path to revenue. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened and marketers have found a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns.”