thesis on e-mail direct marketing
DESCRIPTION
Thesis on E-MAIL DIRECT MARKETINGRESEARCH CONDUCTED BY MUHAMMAD WAQAR (MBA-MARKETING)TRANSCRIPT
DECLARATION
This is to declare that the work presented through this dissertation does not
incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree
or diploma in any university and that to the best of my knowledge it does not contain
any material previously published or written by another person excepted where due
reference is made in the text.
MUHAMMAD WAQAR
November, 2012
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DEDICATION
I dedicate my project work to my parents and friends. A special feeling of gratitude
to my loving mama and papa, who always pray for me and teach me to work hard.
They always cooperate with me in my every work and always help me when I want
them.
They always appreciate my work. I also want to dedicate this to my friends who are
always with me in the time of an hour and to a one special friend who always
encourages me and always teaches me to go up in every field of life and never
compromise on studies.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All praises to the gracious, the greatest Almighty Allah Who blessed us with the
courage and made our efforts fruitful for the completion of this research to a happy
end. Without Allah’s assistance, a project like this would never come to fruition.
It gives us immense pleasure to express deepest gratitude to our dignified teacher
Syed Anwar Hasnain for his advice and encouragement. His masterly expression,
stimulating criticism and able guidance compelled me to think freely and write
independently throughout my research thesis. I am grateful to him for this
perceptiveness and guidance during my final project.
I want to thank my friends specially, who helped me a lot in completing this thesis
with her knowledge and skills. They were always there for me whenever I needed his
help and needed to understand something.
MUHAMMAD WAQAR
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RESEARCH COMPLETION CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “E-mail Direct Marketing” submitted by
Muhamamd Waqar for fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of
Master of Business Administration (MBA) to National College of Business
Administration & Economics, 40 E/1 Gulberg-III Lahore, Pakistan is a record of
candidate’s own work carried out by him under my supervision. The matter embodied
in this dissertation is original and has not been submitted for the award of any other
degree.
(SYED ANWAR HASNAIN)
Supervisor
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This project is about “E-mail Direct Marketing”. E-mail Direct Marketing is very
common and useful tool for marketing. The purpose of this project is to practically
know about all the aspects of E-mail Direct Marketing which effect on customers
behavior.
This is a thesis report on E-mail Direct Marketing. In this thesis there is an
introduction of the E-mail Direct Marketing and behavior of customer towards E-mail
Direct Marketing and how they responded to E-mail Direct Marketing.
In this study we also discussed about customer relationship and study how E-mail
Direct Marketing can build customer relationship. We have conducted a research on a
sample size of 100, with the help of a questionnaire. The purpose of the research was
to know the effect of E-mail Direct Marketing on customer and how customers are
respond to E-mail Direct Marketing. We asked respondents whether they are satisfied
with the E-mail Direct Marketing and majority of people were satisfied with the E-
mail Direct Marketing .We have targeted our sample on the basis of gender.
Finally we gave some suggestions to overcome this problem and make E-mail Direct
Marketing more effective.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION………………………………………………………………………
1
DEDICATION.. ………………………………………………………………………2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…..…………………………………………………………
3
RESEARCH COMPLETION CERTIFICATE …..
………………………………….4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY …..………….…………………………………………....5
CHAPTER 1.......................................................................................…...8
Introduction………………...……….……………………………………………..…………
8
History…………………………………………………………………………….9
CHAPTER 2……………………………………………………………………....11
Literature review..……………….………………………………………..…...11
CHAPTER 3………………………………………………………………………17
Problem statement……………………………………………………………...17
Objective of study………………………………………………………………17
CHAPTER 4………………………………………………………………...……18
Research Methodology………………….…………………………………….18
Quantitative Research Method……………….……………………………...18
Qualitative Research Method……………….……………………………….19
Analysis of Findings…………………….…………………………………….19
CHAPTER 5……………………………………………………...…...30
E-mail marketing software………………………………...………………...30
Requirements for e-mail marketing……………...…………………………31
Names of companies which used e-mail marketing………………………32
CHAPTER 6……………………………………………..………………….…...33
Top uses of e-mail direct marketing………………………………………..33
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CHAPTER 7......................................................................................…...36
Conclusions & Recommendations…………………………………………...36
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...37
Recommendations..............................................................................…...37
Annexure..................................................................................….....38
Market Analysis Questionnaire.........................................................…...38
References…………….……………………………...………………...………….40
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people
using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer
could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads,
request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or
brand awareness. Email marketing can be done to either cold lists or current customer
database. Broadly, the term is usually used to refer to Sending email messages with
the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous
customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business and Sending email
messages with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current
customers to purchase something immediately and adding advertisements to email
messages sent by other companies to their customers.
E-mail marketing have two types the first one is called Transactional emails.
Transactional emails are usually triggered based on a customer’s action with a
company. Triggered transactional messages include dropped basket messages,
purchase or order confirmation emails and email receipts.
The primary purpose of a transactional email is to convey information regarding the
action that triggered it. But, due to its high open rates (51.3% compared to 36.6% for
email newsletters), transactional emails are a golden opportunity to engage customers;
to introduce or extend the email relationship with customers or subscribers, to
anticipate and answer questions or to cross-sell or up-sell products or services.
Many email newsletter software vendors offer transactional email support, which
gives companies the ability to include promotional messages within the body of
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transactional emails. There are also software vendors that offer specialized
transactional email marketing services, which include providing targeted and
personalized transactional email messages and running specific marketing campaigns
(such as customer referral programs).
The second type is direct marketing Direct email involves sending an email solely to
communicate a promotional message (for example, an announcement of a special
offer or a catalog of products). Companies usually collect a list of customer or
prospect email addresses to send direct promotional messages to, or they can also rent
a list of email addresses from service companies.
History
Email marketing is the newest version of direct marketing. The sale slips, pamphlets,
sale coupons which are put into one's post box are the traditional direct marketing
tools. Instead of using the postal system, most of the businesses today opt for sending
mass emails to consumers with information of merchandises. Since email uses the
Internet for transmission and software applications for content building and
transmission, the history of email marketing is also based on advent of Internet and
requisite software applications.
In the late 1980s, there were Bulletin Boards. These were the precursors of Internet
forums. First, electronic advertisements appeared here and online business also took
place in these forums. The merchandises were basically small electronic goods
designed by technology savvy persons. The corporate biggies arrived here too in
1987. Email marketing by that time was only among prominent corporations selling
technologies to it each other. By 1995, spread of desktop computers and penetration
of Internet almost into every household brought a surge in email marketing.
Though mass mailing software was first designed inside lab of MIT as open source
project back in 1982, it was quite elementary in structure. With increased corporate
interests in 1990s the software was augmented to a version with better control of
contact lists, better reporting for an email campaign and support for scheduling. But, it
lacked user friendliness. All the emails required to be generated from instructions at
command prompt. The first fully graphical enterprise email messaging system arrived
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in 1991. Because of its user-friendliness, it earned loads of popularity. The same
software kept on evolving since then.
Email marketing needs software capable of mass mailing. Mass mailing or bulk
mailing needs reporting failure of sending messages. Besides, it needs to be sent
effectively as calculation of return on investment is attached to the success of mailing
campaign. But hitting the wrong customer with promotional mail only increased the
depth of spam mail in the customer's inbox. Realizing this, legitimate email
messaging companies started studying clientele by offering registration forms to
subscribe to receive email campaigns and always with an option to unsubscribe.
Besides, advent of spam filters forced some email marketing business to remodel their
software to send mail to consumers. On the technical aspect, email marketing is no
more textual messages of marketing. Instead, it consists often of multimedia messages
now.
Using bulk mailing software also reduced the cost of sending mails via postal system.
Email marketing is becoming more and more popular.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Grönroos (2000a, 33) a relationship has developed when the customer
perceives that a mutual way of thinking exists between customer and supplier or
service provider. This definition emphasizes the attitudinal nature of a relationship. A
firm should create interaction and communication processes that support this feeling,
but it is ultimately the customer who determines whether or not a relationship has
developed.
Grönroos (2000a, 35) categorizes customers as being in three different “modes”
depending on their interest in a relationship with the firm in a given marketing
situation: transactional mode, passive relational mode and active relational mode. In
transactional mode the customer’s interest is focused on making a successful purchase
and he or she can perceive continuous communication between purchases, such as an
e-mail newsletter, simply annoying and time consuming. Customers in passive
relational mode are looking for the knowledge that they could contact the supplier or
service provider, by for example finding an e-mail address printed on a soft drink can,
but they seldom respond to invitations to interact. Active relational customers are
looking for opportunities for interaction in order to get additional value and they can
get disappointed due to a lack of contacts. The categorization points out that one
should not always expect a customer to show high levels of interaction, even if he or
she does perceive the relationship marketing activities to deliver added value. As
stated by Grönroos (2000a, 36) “for customers in a passive relational mode, a
relationship-oriented marketing strategy is important, although it may not seem so.”
Relationship marketing activities can increase the value of a brand in the minds of a
customer in either passive or active relational mode, regardless of interactions. Feurst
(1999, 163) brings out the inconsistent nature of actual customer behavior through an
example of a young customer’s typical preferences. If you give a youngster the
chance to choose between a supplier that wants to create a learning relationship by
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recording the customer’s personal data and a company that simply hands out the ready
made product in exchange for payment, he or she is likely to choose the latter one.
The choice is made regardless of the fact that the first alternative would be more
beneficial to both the customer and the society in the long term.
The example demonstrates the need to explicitly communicate the relationship
benefits to a customer in order to persuade him or her to switch from transactional to
relational mode, as the behavior of an individual is often driven by short-term
benefits. In examining consumer attitude towards forming relationships with
suppliers,
Peppers & Rogers (1993, 327-328) describe the transactional marketing approach of
using mass media to communicate your message to consumers as an implicit bargain.
The mass marketers pay a portion of a magazine’s production cost and in return the
readers view their ads. Due to the implicit nature of this bargain, consumers are free
to ignore the ads and mass marketers may freely harass many consumers with their
message in order to enlist a few new customers. When using any addressable, two-
way medium, the company and the customer make an explicit bargain, in which the
parties collaborate and give something (service, information) to get something in
return. The explicit bargain is based on mutual trust between the parties, which is an
essential ingredient in any relationship and can therefore be seen as a requirement for
converting customers from transactional to relational mode.
Customer loyalty can be defined as the degree to which customers are predisposed to
stay with a company and resist competitive offers (Peppers & Rogers Group, 2002).
As a measure, customer loyalty is the proportion of times a purchaser chooses the
same product or service in a specific category compared to the total number of
purchases made by the purchaser in that category (Neal 1999, 21). While relationships
are a central part of loyalty, they alone are not enough to make a customer loyal.
The process of building customer loyalty is often described using a loyalty ladder
with five ascending steps: suspect, prospect, customer, client and advocate. The
purpose of relationship marketing activities is to move the customer through a series
of steps that culminate in the customer being an advocate for the company’s product.
(Roberts & Berger 1999, 10-11.)
Frederick F. Reichheld demonstrated the economics of loyalty in his 1996 publication
“The Loyalty Effect” through examples from various lines of business, all of which
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showed a clear correlation between customer retention and company profitability. He
argued that while most managers understand the linkage which both customer and
employee loyalty has on revenues and costs, they are blinded by short-term financial
indicators which drive them towards maximizing shareholder value instead of value to
the customer. (Reichheld, 2001,
12-16.) Drawing comparison between the concept of loyalty and commitment in the
context of the development process of a relationship, Dwyer et al (1987, 19) suggest
that commitment should be measured by three criteria: inputs, durability and
consistency. The first criterion of commitment is that the parties in a relationship
provide relatively high levels of inputs to the association. This can mean significant
exchange of economic, communication, and/or emotional resources. Second, there
should be some durability of association over time.
The parties need to have a common belief in the effectiveness of future exchange,
which will enable them to bond and encourage the continued investment in the
relation. The third aspect of commitment is the consistency with which the inputs are
made to the association. Inconsistency in input levels reflects low commitment and
leads to a reduced reliance by the other party on the outcomes of the exchange. Social
bonds tend to weaken and dissolve over time unless actively maintained. (Dwyer et
al1987, 19.)
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers introduced the concept of one to one marketing in
1993 in their book “The One To One Future”. It was based on a notion that recent
developments in technology had generated a point of discontinuity that allowed
companies to start competing for business opportunities one customer at a time.
By using interactive media to create dialogues with individual customers and mass
customization to tailor products and services to meet their expressed needs, it would
become possible to provide the customer superior value compared to the traditional
way of doing business, which is based on making products for large segments and
promoting them through mass media. (Peppers & Rogers, 1993, 7, 10, 15)
One to one marketing is a type of relationship marketing that focuses on the
individual customer. Its basic idea can be simplified to “treat different customers
differently”. Being a customer-oriented company has usually meant being oriented to
the needs of the typical customer in the market, meaning the average customer. The
13
one to one ideology requires tracking the interactions of individual customers and
acting according to this exact information instead of statistical averages.
(Peppers & Rogers, 1999, 1.)
By recording information about every interaction with the customer and customizing
the product and service accordingly, a company can establish a learning relationship
with the customer. This type of a relationship becomes increasingly valuable to the
customer as time goes by, which also means competitors’ ability to offer the same
level of convenience decreases, thus locking the customer into the existing
relationship by offering superior value. (Peppers & Rogers, 1999, 2.) Individual level
information on customers has been used in marketing long before the adoption of IT
systems, but marketing theory has focused on mean values and masses (Gummesson,
1998, 146). With the introduction of new tools that make it possible to target
marketing activities to individual customers instead of customer segments, it will no
longer be acceptable to rely solely on aggregate measures when managing customer
relationships.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a subject that has been discussed in
management literature since the 1960’s, but its implementation has become a hot
topic only recently. CRM can be described as the discipline of identifying, attracting
and retaining a company’s most valuable customers. According to Curry et al (2000),
“the true business of every company is to make customers, keep customers and
maximize customer profitability.”
CRM is based on the notion that not all customers are equally valuable to a company.
Following the Pareto principle frequently cited in business literature, the top 20% of
the customers normally deliver 80% of revenues.
More importantly, the top 20% of the customers deliver more than 100% of profits,
meaning the majority of customers are actually unprofitable. It is therefore vital for a
company to target its marketing efforts towards retaining the top 20% of existing
customers rather than spending it on communicating with non-customers who are
likely to be unprofitable. (Curry et al 2000, 17-21.)
Identifying the most profitable customers has been a difficult task, but the
development of analytical techniques such as data mining and the increasing amount
of electronic customer touch points like web sites has enabled companies to start
pursuing this goal with a whole new level of intensity (Curry et al 2000). Due to its
heavy reliance on technological advancements, many have started to consider CRM as
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a combination of software and business processes rather than purely a marketing
strategy. While it is not reasonable to ignore the technical aspect when discussing
CRM, one should remember that technology only provides tactical tools for
implementing a company’s customer relationship strategy. (Greenberg 2001, 32.)
According to Tapp (2000, 4), “the key to modern direct marketing is the capture of
individual customer details at the first sale, so that the marketer can begin a
relationship with that customer, subsequently treating them differently over time in
order to generate repeat business”. This demonstrates the natural linkage between
direct marketing and concepts such as relationship marketing and CRM, as they all
revolve around the same key principles. The terms direct marketing and database
marketing are often used interchangeably. The general distinction made between the
terms by Tapp (2000, 6) points database marketing towards strategy formulation,
whereas direct marketing is focused on direct communication to customers. As
suggested by its name, engaging in database marketing requires the company to
maintain or have access to a marketing database. The definition of a marketing
database provided by Tapp (2000, 29) states it as “a list of customers’ and prospects’
records that enables strategic analysis, and individual selections for communication
and customer service support. The data is organized around the customer”. Roberts
and Berger (1999, 165) further add that the content of the database has been collected
over a considerable period of time.
A database holding records on individual customers is the basis of direct marketing
activities: marketing analysis, planning, implementation of programs and control of
all this activity. The advantage drawn from this database centric approach, compared
to general marketing, is that it forces a natural focus on customers rather than
products, again enforcing the natural linkage to relationship marketing ideology.
(Tapp, 2000, 3-4.)
E-mail is one of the most interesting new channels enabling interactive marketing.
Kinnard (2000, xviii) defines e-mail marketing as” the act of sending marketing
communications to recipients who first request it”. This definition makes a clear
distinction between permission based, targeted e-mail marketing and unsolicited,
untargeted mass mailings often referred to as spam, which has to some extent given
email a bad reputation as a contact medium in commercial relationships.
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One of the underlying assumptions behind a permission based approach to marketing
is that a customer who has given permission to be contacted by the marketer is a
better, more loyal, and more profitable customer overall. Combined with the fact that
most email users find unsolicited e-mail marketing messages as intrusive and many of
them have started to take measures in trying to protect themselves from receiving
spam, there is little reason for any e-mail marketer to attempt building a relationship
with customers without first acquiring their permission. (MacPherson, 2001, 14-17.)
There are two main strategies for acquiring contact permission from the customer:
option and opt-out. The opt-in policy means that the customer must explicitly state he
or she gives the permission to be contacted by e-mail. This type of permission can be
asked in, for example, the registration process of signing up for a username to an
online service. The opt-out policy requires the customer to actively unsubscribe from
the e-mail contacts if he or she does not wish to receive them. A typical method of
using opt-out is to send the message to a list of e-mail addresses acquired from
external sources and provide the recipients with the option to remove themselves from
the list by clicking on a link or replying to the message. (MacPherson, 2001, 15.) The
opt-out policy is not a recommendable approach if the target of e-mail direct
marketing is to build lasting customer relationships. It takes the power away from the
customer in favor of creating opportunities for the marketer. Because customers do
not ask for opt-out based communication, the messages are unanticipated and often
irrelevant, which makes them far less effective than opt-in e-mail messaging. (Godin,
1999, 229-230)
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CHAPTER 3
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
Problem statement
The major problem in E-mail direct marketing is very few peoples are checking their
inbox on regular basis and this is a serious problem because many people which they
are not cheek their mail box they don’t know what is company or product offer so in
that case we cannot achieved customer loyalty and build customer relationship.
Objective of study
The objective of the research is to examine how response data from direct marketing
email campaigns could be utilized in measuring the development of a customer
relationship in the context of an end-user loyalty program. In order for direct
marketing campaigns to be considered as customer dialogue in a relationship
marketing sense
Build customer relationship
Increase customer loyalty
Gives latest updates about product to customer
Increase customer value
Direct interaction with customers
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CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data collection methods
Data collection method is important for any kind of study. They are of two types:
1- Quantitative research methods
2- Qualitative research methods
1-Quantitative research methods
Quantitative research is concerned with testing hypotheses derived from theory or
being able to estimate the size of a phenomenon of interest. Depending on the
research question, participants may be randomly assigned to different techniques. The
researcher may collect data on each participant and situational characteristics in order
to statistically control their results. The following is the method by which the
quantitative research is done:
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain
statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed
and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital instrument by
which statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire
populations.
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2-Qualitative research method
It plays an important role in impact evaluation by providing information useful to
understand the processes behind the observed results and assess changes in people’s
perceptions of their well-being. Qualitative methods can be used to improve the
quality of survey based quantitative evaluations by helping generate evaluation
hypothesis, strengthening the design of survey questionnaires and expanding or
clarifying quantitative evaluation findings.
Analysis of Findings
The respondents of this survey were the students of National College of business
administration and economics and local people. The total number of respondents was
100. The questionnaire contained 12 questions. Using the SPSS-18 software I have
calculated the Correlation of the question answered by 100 respondents. Following is
the representation of each question. Following are correlation of Q1 – Q4 with
hypothesis and interpretation.
Correlation of Q1-Q4 with hypothesis and interpretation is on the next page.
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Correlation of Q1 to Q4 with hypothesis and interpretation
20
Do you think that e-mail direct
marketing is effective in
building customer
relationship?
Is e-mail direct
marketing is
helpful in the
context of gain
customer loyalty?
Is e-mail direct
marketing is helpful
in decision making of purchasing
the product?
Do you think
through e-mail
marketing company
can increase
their customers?
Gender of Respondents
.276** .352** .265** .275**
.006 .000 .008 .006
100 100 100 100
Do you think that e-mail direct marketing is effective in building customer relationship?
1 .530** .341** .173
.000 .001 .085
100 100 100 100
Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful in the context of gain customer loyalty?
.530** 1 .350** .209*
.000 .000 .037
100 100 100 100
Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful in decision making of purchasing the product?
.341** .350** 1 .301**
.001 .000 .002
100 100 100 100
Do you think through e-mail marketing company can increase their customers?
.173 .209* .301** 1
.085 .037 .002 100 100 100 100
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between the EDM and customer relationship. The relation
between variables is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between the EDM and customer relationship. The relation
between variables is significant.
1) Interpretation
Here the correlation coefficient between EDM and customer relationship is 0.276 with
p value .006 which showing significant correlation between EDM and customer
relationship. It’s indicating positive and weak relationship between EDM and
customer relationship. The positive relationship indicate that respondents are agree
with EDM is effective in building customer relationship.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between the EDM and customer loyalty. The relation between
variables is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and customer loyalty. The relation between
EDM and customer loyalty is significant
2) Interpretations
In second question the correlation coefficient value EDM and customer loyalty is
0.352 with p value .000 which showing significant correlation between EDM and
customer loyalty. It’s indicating positive and weak relationship between EDM and
21
customer loyalty. Here respondents are agree with EDM is effective to gain customer
loyalty.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and decision making. The relation between
variables is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and decision making. The relation between variables is significant
3) Interpretations
Here in the third question there is positive and weak relationship between EDM and
decision making. The correlation coefficient value is .265 with p value .008 which
indicates the significant relationship between EDM and decision making. The positive
correlation coefficient value indicates that EDM is supportive in decision making.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and increase customer. The relation between
variables is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and increase customer. The relation between
EDM and increase customer is significant
4) Interpretations
In the fourth question correlation coefficient between EDM and increase customer is
0.275 with p value .006 which showing significant correlation between EDM and
increase customer. It’s indicating positive and weak relationship between EDM and
increase customer. The positive relationship indicate that respondents are agree with
EDM can increase the customers.
22
Correlation
Correlation of Q5-Q8 with hypothesis and interpretation
Gender of Respondents
By using e-mail direct marketing can it increase the sale of product?
Do you think that e-mail direct marketing can promote the business of a company?
Do you think e-mail direct marketing is effective in growing a Business?
Is e-mail direct marketing is an easy way to interact with Customers?
Gender of Respondents
Pearson Correlation
1 .335** .119 .121 .082
Sig. (2-tailed)
.001 .239 .229 .419
N 100 100 100 100 100By using e-mail direct marketing can it increase the sale of product?
Pearson Correlation
.335** 1 .180 .391** .132
Sig. (2-tailed)
.001 .072 .000 .189
N 100 100 100 100 100
Do you think that e-mail direct marketing can promote the business of a company?
Pearson Correlation
.119 .180 1 .307** .185
Sig. (2-tailed)
.239 .072 .002 .066
N 100 100 100 100 100
Do you think e-mail direct marketing is effective in growing a business?
Pearson Correlation
.121 .391** .307** 1 .146
Sig. (2-tailed)
.229 .000 .002 .149
N 100 100 100 100 100
23
Is e-mail direct marketing is an easy way to interact with customers?
Pearson Correlation
.082 .132 .185 .146 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.419 .189 .066 .149
N 100 100 100 100 100
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and sale. The relation between EDM and sale is
insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and sale. The relation between variables is significant
5) Interpretations
In fifth question there is weak and positive relationship between EDM and sale
because correlation coefficient between and sale EDM is 0.335 with p value .001
which showing significant correlation between EDM and sale. The positive
relationship indicate that respondents are agree with EDM is effective to increase the
sale of a product.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and promote business the relation between
EDM and promote business s insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and promote business. The relation between
EDM and promote business is significant
6) Interpretations
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In sixth question the correlation coefficient between EDM and promote business
is .119 with p value .239 which showing there is no significant correlation between
EDM and promote business the relationship between promote the business and EDM
is weak and positive.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between the EDM and growing a business. The relation
between EDM and growing a business is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and growing a business. The relation between
EDM and growing a business is significant
7) Interpretations
In seventh question the correlation coefficient between EDM and growing a business
is .121 with p value .229 which showing there is no significant correlation between
EDM and growing a business. The relationship between respondents and EDM is
weak and positive. Here respondents positively responds towards EDM is effective in
growing business.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and interact with customer. The relation
between EDM and interact with customer is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between. EDM and interact with customer .The relation between variables is significant
8) Interpretation
25
In eighth question the correlation coefficient between EDM and interact with
customer is 0.82 with p value .419 which showing there is no significant correlation
between EDM and interact with customer. EDM and interact with customer have
positive and weak relationship here respondents are not agree with EDM is not easy
way to interact with customers.
Correlation of Q9-Q12 with hypothesis and interpretation
Do you think e-mail direct marketing is helpful to keep customers up to date?
Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful tool for Online business?
Can it develop buyer and seller relationship?
Is it an easy way to collect feedback about product from customers?
Gender of Respondents
.067 -.014 -.084 .112
.510 .892 .404 .267
100 100 100 100
Do you think e-mail direct marketing is helpful to keep customers up to date?
1 .000 .582** .131
1.000 .000 .192
100 100 100 100
Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful tool for online business?
.000 1 -.105 .064
1.000 .299 .527
100 100 100 100
Can it develop buyer and seller relationship?
.582** -.105 1 .302**
.000 .299 .002
100 100 100 100
Is it an easy way to collect feedback about product from customers?
.131 .064 .302** 1
.192 .527 .002
100 100 100 100
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HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and keep customer up to date .The relation
between EDM and keep customer up to date is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and keep customer up to date. The relation between EDM and keep customer up to date is significant
9) Interpretations
In ninth question the correlation coefficient between EDM and keep customer up to
date is 0.67 with p value .419 which showing there is no significant correlation
between EDM and keep customer up to date. It’s indicating positive and weak
relationship between gender of respondents and EDM.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and helpful tool. The relation between EDM
and helpful tool is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and helpful tool. The relation between EDM and helpful tool is significant
10) Interpretation
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In tenth question the correlation coefficient between EDM and helpful tool is -0.14
with p value .892 there is negative and weak relationship between EDM and helpful
tool. Which showing there is no significant correlation between EDM and helpful tool
.The negative result shows that respondents are not agree with EDM is helpful tool for
business.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and buyer and seller relationship. The relation
between EDM and buyer and seller relationship is insignificant.H1
There is a correlation between EDM and buyer and seller relationship. The relation
between variables is significant
11) Interpretations
In eleventh question the correlation coefficient between EDM and buyer and seller
relationship is -0.84 with p value .404 there is negative and weak relationship between
EDM and buyer and seller relationship which showing there is no significant
correlation between EDM and buyer and seller relationship .The negative result shows
that respondents are not agree with EDM will not build strong relationship between
buyer and seller.
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no correlation between EDM and feedback from customer. The relation
between EDM and feedback from customer is insignificant.
H1
There is a correlation between EDM and feedback from customer. The relation
between EDM and feedback from customer is significant.
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12) Interpretation
In last question the correlation coefficient between EDM and feedback from customer
is 0.112 with p value .267 which showing significant correlation between EDM and
feedback from customer. It’s indicating positive and weak relationship between EDM
and feedback from customer. The positive relationship indicate that respondents are
agree with EDM is effective to get feedback from customers
CHAPTER 5
E-MAIL MARKETING SOFTWARES
LISTSERV Maestro
LISTSERV Maestro is a complete email marketing software solution. Designed for
both beginner and advanced email marketers, the software allows you to easily
engage your subscribers with targeted, intelligence-based opt-in campaigns. The
workflow-oriented interface, interactive reporting and unparalleled job management
features make LISTSERV Maestro the premier solution for all email list
communicators.
LISTSERV Maestro ALLOWS YOU
Easily target and reach your audience in the most cost-effective way
Create sophisticated on-the-fly target recipient lists based on a variety of
demographic data
Connect directly to your company database to pull out names and addresses
Create sophisticated HTML and text messages and preview them before
delivery
Track every open-up and click-through of the messages that are sent
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Produce graphical reports on how the campaign is going.
Kayvu (Beta)
Kayvu (Beta) is a new hosted email marketing service now being beta tested. Tailored
especially for small and medium-sized organizations, Kayvu is feature-rich, yet easy
to use and quick to learn. Kayvu provides the most essential permission-based email
marketing functions. If your needs grow, you can always upgrade to the more
advanced ListPlex Maestro email marketing service.
Best Bulk Email Software
Is a professional high-performance mass email software for your email marketing
campaigns.An simple to use emailer to send mass emails. .This email marketing
software's functions mainly include Email Marketing Sender,Email Address
Verify,email Tracking Service,Maillist Management and Email Sub/Unsubscribe.It
will be a perfect bulk email software,broadcasting your emails instantly
EASE Maestro
EASE Maestro is a hosted email marketing service that offers an alternative to List
Plax Maestro for customers who do not need a virtual domain name or customized
tracking URL. Data hosting is also available.
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Why EASE Maestro recommended
31
Why EASE Maestro?
Cost-Effective EASE Maestro can save you money since you do not need any new hardware, software or technical personnel. Instead, our experienced staff will ensure the delivery of your email messages.
User-Friendly The web interface and its job management features take the hassle out of email marketing, guiding you through the entire campaign development process, from message creation and target group selection to response evaluation and analysis.
Flexible EASE Maestro offers multiple levels of open-up, click-through and action tracking, ranging from blind to personal, and offers a built-in way to obtain permission for personal tracking from subscribers.
Scalable The capacity of our state-of-the-art hosting server’s offers great scalability if your daily traffic were to increase. The EASE Maestro service allows for plenty of room for growth.
Secure EASE Maestro is the only service of its kind with built-in virus protection. The system is engineered for fast, automatic virus database updates and protects your campaigns from harmful viruses.
What is required for Email Marketing?
Windows based PC
Internet Connection
Email Marketing Software
Textfile or Database with Recipients
Email Account
Email Marketing Software Used by Thousands of Organizations, Here fews are followings
Sony Ericson
Vodafone
Net Registery
Xerox
SQL tool
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CHAPTER 6
TOP USES OF E-MAIL DIRECT MARKETING
Newsletters
The top use of email marketing by leaps and bounds in 2007 was newsletters. The
frequency varied greatly from some organizations opting for a monthly newsletter and
others using weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, or even the very ambitious (for content
rich organizations) daily. It remains very clear that sending out an email newsletter to
your customers is an effective communication tool. Many businesses use their email
newsletter as an important brand building exercise. The more the business can keep its
name (or logo) in front of customers, the more that company will be the top choice
when the customer needs to make a purchase. Furthermore, by providing good quality
content in these newsletters, companies can establish themselves as a leading
authority on the topic.
2007 also made it very obvious that the success of an email newsletter is based on the
quality of the content. Businesses who tried to send out an email newsletter without
really having much to say saw increased unsubscribe requests, while those businesses
that provided high quality content experienced rapid viral growth.
Most email marketing software solutions offer a wide variety of newsletter templates.
By choosing the right email marketing software for your newsletter, your business can
find a template that fits perfectly with your brand's look, feel, and color scheme.
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Special Promotions / e Coupons
Email marketing acted as a key driver of new sales in 2007, as companies offered
special promotions or e Coupons to their mailing list subscribers. By sending out an
email marketing campaign to all past customers, businesses found that special deals
(whether it was a discount, free shipping, etc.) tended to cause an instant spike in
sales.
Since e Coupons have proven time and time again to be highly effective, most email
marketing software solutions offer customizable e Coupon templates that can easily
be adapted to suit any specific offer.
Offering exclusive coupons to mailing list subscribers has statistically been proven to
increase the size of any businesses mailing list. Many offline companies have started
putting signup forms near their cash registers to prompt people to sign up to receive
special e Coupons. Since these consumers are already interacting with your business,
and since consumer behavior studies tell us that people love ‘savings' or ‘discounts',
this really is the perfect way to help put your mailing list growth on turbo.
Event Announcements
Another area of growth for email marketing in 2007 was the use of email marketing
software to announce company events. These events range from open houses, to town
hall meetings, and anything in between. In the past year, many companies and
organizations discovered that email marketing software provides a quick, easy and
cost-effective way to spread the word about your event, then track responses and
attendees.
Another popular category of events was concerts and entertainment shows. This type
of email marketing campaign was especially popular among MySpace artists and
bands. These artists usually place an email marketing mailing list signup box on their
pages, so that they can gather the email addresses of fans who visit their MySpace
pages and keep them up to date on shows, new releases, etc. To make this process
easier, many email marketing software providers offer a free MySpace mailing list to
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all users. (And, of course, if the artist or company has a regular Web page instead of a
MySpace page, the free mailing list can be placed on the company Web page as well).
E Cards
E Cards were immensely popular in 2007 for several reasons. First, many consumers
are becoming environmentally conscious and making the switch to e Cards instead of
paper cards. These consumers realize that, in addition to the trees they're saving by
cutting out paper, they're also eliminating the fuel and gas emissions that would be
used in physically mailing these cards. Secondly, companies and consumers alike are
figuring out how much money they can save by switching from paper cards to e
Cards.
While a box of ten holiday cards can cost upwards of $20 (plus stamps and shipping
fees), most email marketing software will allow you to send up to 1,000 e Cards
absolutely free – no stamps and no shipping fees. Lastly, there's the speed factor.
While companies sending out paper cards have to hand write or individually print
each one, the smart companies sending e Cards only have to write their message once.
The best email marketing software programs will automatically insert the names of
recipients in each message, so the company doesn't even have to do anything.
The trend toward e Cards was especially prevalent in the winter holiday season, as
companies sent out warm wishes to their customers, at virtually no cost. However,
there are many other holidays throughout the year, and customers love to feel
appreciated. Companies can tap into this benefit by sending out cards for Mother's
Day, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Birthdays and many other celebrations, as the best
email marketing software programs offer special templates for each occasion. To get
the best bang for their buck, businesses can even combine e Cards with specially-
themed promotions.
Business Updates / Press Releases
Email marketing is not only a great way to send out newsletters, promotions, and e
Cards; it's also an excellent way to expand the reach of business announcements. For
example, if you're sending out a press release, you might only think about using a
press release distribution site to do so. However, you can expand the distribution of
35
your release, and increase its impact, by also using email marketing software for the
distribution. This way, you can reach people you already know (for example,
reporters you have been in contact with in the past, or current customers), and track
their interest in your press release.
Businesses have also realized that email marketing is a great medium for making
business announcements. For example, you may be moving or opening a new store,
you may be re-launching your website, or you may start carrying a new line of
products. Either way, you can use email marketing software to tell your customers
about that.
In 2007, countless companies discovered the many uses of email marketing. They
saved money, improved efficiency and effectively tracked their results simply by
getting on board with email marketing software. For some, the key advantage of email
marketing software is that the best ones are really easy to use. That is, there is no need
to fret if you don't have an IT guy, because as long as you can check and write emails,
you'll be able to look like a pro with the right email marketing software.
CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION
Conclusions & Recommendations
The results of this research study clearly indicate that there is a significant and
positive relationship between EDM and customers.EDM is the best source to interact
with customers. By using EDM customer feel that company gives him value this is
the way through which company build customer relationship and it increased
customer loyalty.EDM uses many companies which companies discovered the many
uses of email marketing. They saved money, improved efficiency and effectively
tracked their results simply by getting on board with email marketing so I conclude
here that EDM is the effective way to communicate with customers and increase the
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sale of company which already proven through research paper which I mentioned in
literature review .
Recommendations
Here I recommend some suggestions which I mentioned below.
Saturday / Sunday = Increased Response
The best days to perform a mail-out to your list are Saturday / Sunday in Pakistan, as
this is when people are more receptive to communication. This means that they are
more likely to read your content and click on links, meaning more sales.
Repeat Email Communication
An auto responder is an email that is scheduled to be sent at a certain time interval
after someone subscribes to your mailing list. Auto responders are a great way to
automatically follow up with your subscribers or provide them with more information
on your products/services. For example, if you provide a free newsletter, you could
setup 3 auto responders for new subscribers: the first is sent 1 hour after they
subscribe. It contains a thank you message and a link to get 10% off your newly
released eBook.
Consistency is the Key
If you’re running a newsletter or frequent email publication, make sure you keep the
look and feel consistent from issue to issue. By keeping the look and feel consistent,
you help to maintain and strengthen your brand and your image to your subscribers,
which again will make it easier to close sales when you need to.vCreate a template for
your newsletter and whenever you need to create a new issue, use that template as the
basis for each issu
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Build a list specifically themed around promotions, offering consumers first
access the latest deals
Integrate user-generated content to foster a sense of community through email
Launch an "email marketing mini-series" to highlight time sensitive
promotions
Use email and social media integration to launch a viral marketing campaign
designed to acquire new customers
MARKET ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE
Carried by:
Muhammad waqar
Purpose
The basic purpose of this questionnaire is to measure E-mail direct marketing
Audience
Local People, Businessmen, Tradesmen, Student
National College of Business Administration & Economics Lahore
MARKET ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE
The aim of this questionnaire is to investigate about e-mail direct marketing as
consumer preference within different age groups. Also, this questionnaire is being
38
designed as a significant part of my dissertation. . All the personal information is used
for research purposes and will be strictly confidential.
Please answer the following questions and tick the appropriate answer.
The questions measurement will be gagged as 1=strongly agree, 2=agree, 3=neutral,
4=disagree, 5=strongly disagree
No QUESTIONS 1 2 3 4 5
1 Do you think that e-mail direct marketing is effective in building customer
relationship?
2 Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful in the context of gain customer
loyalty?
3 Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful in decision making of purchasing the
product?
4 Do you think through e-mail marketing company can increase their
customers?
5 By using e-mail direct marketing can it increase the sale of product?
6 Do you think that e-mail direct marketing can promote the business of a
company?
7 Do you think e-mail direct marketing is effective in growing a business?
8 Is e-mail direct marketing is a easy way to interact with customers?
9 Do you think e-mail direct marketing is helpful to keep customers up to
39
date?
10 Is e-mail direct marketing is helpful tool for online business?
11 Can it develop buyer and seller relationship?
12 Is it an easy way to collect feedback about product from customers?
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Schultz, D. (1993). Marketing From the Outside In. Journal of Business Strategy, 14(4), 25-29.
Heil, Parker, Stephens: One Size Fits One. Building Relationships One Customer andOne Employee at a Time. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold 1997
Hughes, A. M.(1996). Boosting response with RFM. Marketing Tools, 3( 3), 4-8.
Agrawal, M.L.(2001):’ CRM- From Fad to Strategy,,Keynote address to the ‘CEOs’ Conclave on CRM’, Hyderabad.
Aijo,T.S. (1996).The Theoretical and Philosophical Underpinnings of Relationship Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, 30(2), 8-18
Bejou,D.(1997).Relationship marketing: evolution, present state and future, Psychology and Marketing, 14 (8), 727-36.
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Bendapudi, N.and Leonard,L.B.(1997).Customer’s Motivation for Maintaining Relationships with Service Providers, Journal of Retailing, 73 (1), 15-37.
Webster,F.E. (1992).The Changing Role of Marketing in the Corporation. Journal of Marketing, 56(4), 1-17.
Wilkinson, I. and Louise,Y. (1994).Business Dancing – the Nature and Role of
Interfirm Relations in Business Strategy, Asia-Australia Journal of Marketing,
67-79.
Parsons, A.J., Zeisser, M. and Waitman, R. (1996). Organising for Digital
Marketing,McKinsey Quarterly, 7(4), 185-192.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M. (1995) A new marketing paradigm, Planning
Review,23(2), 14-18.
Peppers, Rogers: Enterprise One to One: Tools for Competing in the Interactive Age.New York: Currency/Doubleday 1997
Peppers, Rogers: The One-to-One Future. Building Relationships One Customer at aTime. New York: Currency/Doubleday 1993
Pine II: Mass Customization: The new frontier in Business Competition. Boston:
Harvard Business School 1993
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