Survey reveals the power of targeted email marketing

Well targeted email marketing remains a significant and rewarding part of salons’ promotional efforts, despite concerns over the huge growth of spam and other unsolicited messages, according to a major survey by Shortcuts salon software. Shortcuts surveyed the client response of almost 200,000 marketing emails sent out by its UK partner salons in just one month and found that 30% of recipients were clicking on links to make an appointment from the email.  In fact, the unique salon client was clicking on the booking link 2.53 times from a single email and, increasingly, doing so on a mobile device. Nearly twice as many emails are opened on a mobile now than on a desktop. Aside from clicking directly through to make a booking, clients receiving emails from their salon were frequently clicking on other commercial links, including an average of 9.29 clicks per user on links to a store or an online shop and 3.75 clicks per user to a special promotion. “Clicks per user is a common measurement in email marketing as users begin archiving their emails in different ways,” said Rebecca Randle, Global CEO for Shortcuts. “When a user clicks on an individual link multiple times, it’s clear the content the salon is including in its emails is relevant to the consumer. It’s no surprise that British salon-goers are interested in doing business from their emails considering they lead Europe in mobile commerce.” The survey found the highest open rates took place from 4-5pm, with 17,073 (8.8%) of the 193,613 total opened at this time, with a smaller peak from 8-9am, when 14,508 (7.5%) emails were opened. Rebecca said the study showed that focusing on content that resonated with clients’ interests was a potent driver of new and repeat business. She said: ‘Giving clients information that helps them clearly drives open rates. She added: ‘It’s also great to see that their clients are engaging with additional content in the email that takes them to the salon’s website and their social media channels as we push our clients to showcase their Spotlight reviews and their online booking links in places we know convert users to clients.’