Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study.

The Email Experience Council (eec), the email marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), announced the release of its third annual “Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study.” The new study examined the opt-in practices of 120 of the top online retailers tracked via the Retail Email Blog and found that there is a clear trend toward richer subscription processes.

“This 39-page study dissects the subscription process and examines its various elements, giving email marketers an in-depth look at all of the issues to consider,” said Jeanniey Mullen, eec founder and chief marketing officer of Zinio and VIVMag. “Its findings should be extremely valuable to retailers, service companies, and other B-to-C companies who are looking for new ideas and benchmarks against which to measure their own opt-in practices.”

“The old adage applies here — you never have a second chance to make a good first impression,” said Dave Lewis, chief marketing officer of Message Systems, sponsor of the study. “Your opportunity is to convert a prospect’s initial interest into a long-term, brand loyal relationship. Your challenge is not to lose that interest (and the opportunity) with an intimidating or intrusive subscription process. That’s why we’re proud to sponsor this eec study on subscription best practices so marketers can make their first impression really count.”

Commenting on the eec study, DMA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, Ph.D., said, “A new marketing paradigm has emerged — one in which the consumer is in control. In this environment — regardless of the marketing channel employed — the savvy marketer gives consumers the opportunity to express their preferences and then respects them, ensuring the relevancy of their messaging. The organizations that recognize and respond to consumers’ choices will find themselves the marketplace winners.”

“Retailers are gravitating away from one-click sign-ups and toward landing page forms that give would-be subscribers more information and options,” said Chad White, the eec’s director of retail insights, editor-at-large, and founder of the Retail Email Blog, and the study’s author. “Marketers that follow this approach and apply the preferences indicated should see lower opt-out rates over time. The age of one-size-fits-all email marketing is coming to an end.”

The new study also found that retailers are putting more focus on list hygiene. Thirty-eight percent of retailers ask subscribers to confirm their email address by re-entering it, up from 27% last year. Also, 5% of retailers now use a confirmed (double) opt-in process, up from 3% last year, which improves list quality.

Here are some other findings from the Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study:

· After falling from 27% in 2006 to 8% last year, the percentage of retailers using sign-up incentives rebounded to 13% this year, despite growing concerns about the quality of subscribers that are attracted by sweepstakes and other incentives.

· With recent evidence suggesting that putting privacy policies front and center during the subscription process actually reduce sign-ups, only 36% of retailers mentioned their privacy policy this year, down from 45% last year.

· Despite quicker subscription fulfillments overall, 29% of retailers took 15 days or longer to honor opt-ins or failed to honor them all together. That figure was the same as last year.