E-Mail and Text Us, consumers say ….. Just send something.

When US consumers say they are interested in a company, more than one-half of them are open to getting an interactive follow-up such as a personalized or generic e-mail, or text message, according to Vertis’ “2007 Customer Focus Tech Savvy” study.

Vertis found that 40% of men 65 and older said that an interactive follow-up was acceptable, compared with 23% of female consumers that age.

“Adding an Internet component to direct mail campaigns targeting the older population may greatly increase the overall effectiveness of marketers’ spending,” said Jim Litwin, vice president of market insights for Vertis, in a statement.

For many US retailers, the problem is that even when they have an e-mail sign-up program, many do not follow up with consumers. Two-thirds of personal care companies surveyed sent neither a welcoming e-mail nor a sales offer, according to the October 2006 E-Mail Data Source’s “2006 Retail White Paper” report.

Even in the hardware industry, where only 16.67% of respondents sent no e-mail, that is 16.67% too much.

Such behavior might be seen as similar to unsolicited commercial e-mails, the “better” quality of spam. In both cases, the consumer gets confused and frustrated, and the whole e-mail marketing environment is degraded.

Even those respondents who sent only a welcome message in the first month—such as about 18% of apparel retailers and 14% of department stores—might be considered tardy if they fail to send the e-mail within a few days.

“Just as the CAN-SPAM Act makes it illegal for marketers to take longer than 10 business days to unsubscribe someone from their e-mail program, perhaps it is unwise (if not illegal) to take longer than 10 days to respond to a customer who has subscribed on a company site,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.

Courtesy of http://www.emarketer.com