Consumer electronics brands achieve a 20% lift in email open rates when they use discount language. But the offers — and rates — vary between categories, according to Consumer
Electronics, a study from Gartner L2.
Language highlighting dollar discounts works well for products with high price points, but percentage discounts are better in the lower price point
categories.
TV brands using dollar discount language saw the highest open rate lift in the Index — 54%. These brands featured these lines in 40% of their email campaigns.
Percentage discounts were used in only 4%.
Camera brands pulled a 45% lift with dollar discount lines. But gaming brands using percentage-based wording achieved rates that were ten times
higher than those with dollar discounts.
Gartner, a firm that benchmarks digital performance, says: “Brands should experiment sending emails with subject lines containing dollar and
percentage discounts specific to product price points to optimize the efficacy of email promotions.”
In general, Gartner Index brands generated an average email open rate of 15%, and
that peaked at 20% in quarter three of 2017. Email campaign volume rose by 12% in Q4, but without an associated lift.
As for specific brand usage, Google’s site “utilizes
preexisting account information to provide personalized shopping and customer service experiences via chat and email,” the study continues.
As for Klipsch, “high email open rates
suggest resonance with existing fans, but the brand struggles to achieve a wide reach via unbranded search and display advertising,” Gartner notes.
Meanwhile, email appears to be
faltering as a customer service vehicle. Only 16 % of brands provide a customer service email address, down from 35% last year. In contrast, live chat is surging, with 56% of consumer brands adopting
it in 2018, up from 47% in 2017. In addition, 15% make it available via persistent navigation.
“Best-in-class brands utilize information gleaned from browsing behavior or user accounts
to make the process even more seamless,” the study notes.