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

1

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.

2

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

3

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

4

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.

5

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

6

CHAPTER 7......................................................................................…...36

Conclusions & Recommendations…………………………………………...36

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...37

Recommendations..............................................................................…...37

Annexure..................................................................................….....38

Market Analysis Questionnaire.........................................................…...38

References…………….……………………………...………………...………….40

7

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

8

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

9

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.

10

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

11

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

12

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

14

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.

15

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)

16

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

17

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.

18

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.

19

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

24

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

26

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

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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

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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?

REFERENCES

Curry, J & Curry, A. (2000). The Customer Marketing Method. How to implement and profit from customer relationship management. New York. The Free Press.

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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