Assessing the Response to and Success of Email Marketing Promotions

With the growth of the Internet has come a new method for organizations to advertise and promote their products and services: email marketing. Although some research and common wisdom may suggest that rich, HTML messages generate more click-throughs and purchases, this paper suggests that text-based email marketing can perform as well as HTML messages. The paper reports on the results of a study that analyzed email marketing messages to nearly 800,000 registered users of a large, direct-to-consumer site featuring home and lifestyle products over the period of three months. An analysis of the data showed the text-based messages performed as well and in some instances outperformed rich, HTML messages through higher click-through rates and conversion-to-purchase rates.