Sixty two of 63 commercial e-mail efforts scored failing grades in a recent report by Forrester Research.
In a review of approximately 10 e-mail programs in each of six industries—business products and services, consumer goods, financial services, media, retail and travel—only the New York Times’ “today’s headlines” e-mail scored a passing grade, according to a Forrester report by Shar VanBoskirk.
For example, 27 of the 63 programs failed to capture e-mail addresses on their home pages where people are most like to subscribe, according to Forrester. Moreover, companies that do provide e-mail subscription links on their home pages tend to bury them.
However, retailers and travel marketers, such as Coldwater Creek and Expedia, tend to capture e-mail addresses prominently on their home pages, Forrester reported.
Another area where e-mail programs commonly fail is in their subject lines, the Cambridge, MA-based researcher reported. Most subject lines don’t invite opens. For example, 33 of the subject lines Forrester reviewed described the e-mail content but gave no indication of the value recipients would get as a result of opening the messages, according to Forrester.
Another major point of failure was in e-mail layout, Forrester continued. Twenty nine of the e-mail programs Forrester studied had calls to action below the fold, and 25 were impossible to understand without the graphics.
As e-mail box providers increasingly block the graphics in incoming e-mail, most experts recommend designing e-mail with at least the main offer in text in the upper left corner of the e-mail so it can be read no matter how the message renders.
However, business-to-consumer marketers often simply repurpose their print graphics for e-mail. Also, retail and consumer goods marketers tend to over-rely on pictures of their goods to sell, according to Forrester.
“While we agree that images can enhance e-mails, neglecting to provide valuable content—like a call to action—outside of images can make messages impossible to understand when graphics don’t show,” the report said.
