Retailers Not Fully Leveraging Power of Email

Most marketers don't use common email features such as personalization, dynamic content and advanced layout/design, according to Phase II of Silverpop's "2005 Retail Email Marketing Study," which compared message content and creative design of 175 major retailers' email campaigns, writes ClickZ. Personalization, among the easiest tactics, was used in fewer than 5 percent of emails; and 27 percent of messages did not have a specific call to action.

Also, only 25 percent of messages included a discount offer; and fewer than 20 percent of messages sought to persuade recipients to buy an item for an event or holiday.

Moreover, regarding design, many email marketers still think in offline terms, according to the study. A majority of messages had a postcard-style layout, with a single large image, despite the growing adoption of image blocking in email software.

Frequency of message delivery varied widely - from one to 21 messages sent in one month.