Daily deal websites and email campaigns have certainly gotten a lot of attention this past year. With Groupon leading the charge, now other big players such as Google and Facebook are drooling over getting a bite of the pie.
The real question is, have consumers eaten their fill and could more chefs in this soup cause a loss of appetite?
According to research from Yahoo! Mail and Ispos OTX MediaCT, deal overload doesn’t seem to be much of an issue yet. The survey from February 2011 found that at least in the US, adult internet users subscribe to an average of almost three daily or weekly shopping emails or newsletters. More importantly, respondents actually read them! 61% of those who subscribe to at least two of these emails indicated they read all of the messages. They also reported accessing those messages at least once a day.
Another bit of good news is that most of those subscribed to daily deal emails pass them along to friends and family, albeit with less frequency. Only a quarter passed them on daily, but almost half (45%) forwarded them on at least once per week.
There seems to be a good deal (pun intended) of positive news for daily deal email programs. Even the enthusiasm doesn’t seem to wane too much among subscribers. Six out of ten said they are subscribed to more of these programs than last year and almost half were still excited enough to say they “can’t wait” for the latest and greatest offering message.
There also seems to be a certain level of trust here with only 27% of respondents admitting they use an email account (other than their main one) for these daily deals. In other words, the vast majority don’t mind getting these in their primary personal account inbox. That seems to suggest that subscribers view them as desirable and relevant.
Speculating on this, I think the perception of these emails for many is about the same as a wrapped present. Part of why we love these daily deal emails is because it promises the potential to reward ourselves. The ribbon on the box is that we can rationalize giving ourselves that treat because we are getting a deal on it.
Fear of Email Overload?
Of course relevancy is the key here for daily deals as it is with any email marketing campaign. If your messages are not relevant people will soon tune out and unsubscribe. I wonder why more brands don’t engage in their own daily or weekly deal emails. Is it because we have become so hung up on the frequency issue (the fear of overloading subscribers) that we just don’t even consider trying it? Or is it just a case of most brands not having the variety of products or services to offer consistent deals? Or is it because we just don’t have the imagination to try such things?
Which is it? Or is it something else or a combination of all of them? I don’t have pat answers for this – you tell me.