How to increase e-mail marketing campaigns' credibility

Abstract

Promotional e-mails are one of the most effective digital marketing tools. However, companies are still struggling with the development of e-mail marketing campaigns that are both credible and engaging. This dissertation reviewed academic and practitioners’ publications on the determinants of e-mail marketing effectiveness, namely sending details, sender and subject line and message design. Three factors were identified as being potentially relevant, but poorly understood: using brand/company name on the sender, personally addressing e-mail messages and providing the campaign’s current click-through rate (CTR) (as a measure of its social engagement). The significance of the positive effects of these variables on campaign opening rate (OR), CTR and conversion rate (CR), respectively, were experimentally confirmed through the performance of 2 A/B tests both in the health industry and a quasi-experiment on the manufacturing industry. Secondary data was collected and analysed to compare the results of both experiments with the benchmark of the respective industry. These findings can be used by brands and agencies to design more credible and engaging e-mail marketing campaigns.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Isabel de Almeida Costa (Supervisor) & Fernando Santos Jorge (Supervisor)