• by Shankar Gupta , June 9, 2005

The opportunity to receive coupons and discounts is a major reason that some consumers sign up for e-mail from marketers, according to new research released Wednesday by EmailLabs and Lucid Marketing.

For the report, "Effective Tactics for E-Mail Marketing to Moms," researchers conducted a 23-question online survey of 695 mothers and expectant mothers in the last two weeks of May.

The vast majority of respondents--97 percent--said they receive at least some e-mail from commercial marketers, with 88 percent saying they subscribe to between one and 10 e-mail newsletters (63 percent subscribe to between one and five e-mail newsletters, and 25 percent subscribe to between six and 10 newsletters). At the same time, a substantial proportion of respondents indicated they were saturated with marketing newsletters--30 percent reported always unchecking the opt-in box when making an online purchase, to avoid receiving a new promotion or newsletter.

When respondents were asked why they agreed to receive e-mail from retailers, 87 percent said they did so to receive coupons or discounts, while 69 percent said they wanted to learn about sales. Other common reasons included learning about new products (42 percent), receiving relevant information (41 percent), and receiving information about events (26 percent).

A major reason that respondents opened marketers' e-mails was the prospect of saving money. Seventy-three percent said the subject line indicating a discounted price drove them to open marketers' e-mails, while 60 percent said subject lines related to free shipping made them open messages.

Click-through rates appeared to be driven by displaying prices and photos of objects. Sixty-three percent of respondents said a message containing a price was likely to spur them to click through, while 62 percent said photos in e-mails were likely to make them click through.