Email Recipients Spend More Money, More Often

By Craig Swerdloff
VP and GM of Customer Acquisition Solutions

About six months ago I wrote that customers acquired through email have a higher value for most marketers than customers acquired through other methods, particularly search.

Well, there are some new stats floating around that back this theory up.

First, in March Forrester found that consumers who buy products advertised in emails spend 138% more online than peers who don't buy through email. That is an eye-popping number, but not all together surprising. As I've written before, email offers a higher level of engagement than many other mediums. Clearly that engagement is translating into higher sales.

Then, in April GfK Research found that 73% of email users report having made an online purchase as the result of a relevant email offer. Again, I think this clearly points to the high level of engagement that consumers have with email. But, note the key word in that stat: "relevant." As my colleague Stephanie Miller has written in the past, batch and blast is most assuredly dead. Targeting offers to hit consumer's hot spots is the new order of the day.

What does all this mean for you? Well, clearly it means that email is a powerful tool - both for driving sales and for acquiring customers. As I wrote before, search is great and I'd never suggest that any marketer should abandon it. But email clearly offers benefits that other media don't. Marketers who aren't using email for acquisition are missing a huge opportunity to get active, engaged, money-spending consumers.