November 27, 2012

Email Marketing and Jennifer: It Was All About The Hunt!

When I present Jennifer at catalog-related conferences, I hear groans!  Catalog folks tend to not like Jennifer.

Email marketers, however, love Jennifer, and for good reason.

  1. In email marketing, Jennifer tends to have the best conversion rates of the three personas.
  2. Jennifer demands free shipping.  Email marketers love to offer free shipping!
  3. Jennifer likes getting 20% or 30% off.  Email marketers love to give discounts to email subscribers, as verified by email subject line testing.
  4. Jennifer loves to hunt.  She wants to make sure that whatever is offered in an email marketing campaign is offered at the best price.  Jennifer will go to great lengths (Google, affiliates, comparison shopping engines) to hunt for the best products at the best prices.
  5. Jennifer loves newness.
The email marketer is aligned with Jennifer.  In fact, email marketers have largely trained Jennifer how to behave.  Email marketers have, in so many cases, trained Jennifer to not trust the discounts/promotions offered to her ... Jennifer knows the email marketer will offer 10% off plus free shipping this week, then 30% off next week.

From a tactical standpoint, the email marketer can serve Jennifer well, and rebuilt trust.
  1. Product assortments should feature new products ... Jennifer gets bored easily.
  2. If you must have promotions, always give Jennifer the best promotions, so that she trusts you in the future.
  3. Eliminate hunting.  By giving Jennifer the best prices and best promotions, Jennifer doesn't have to hunt.  She hunts because she doesn't trust.  Change her behavior, via trust.

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