If you want your retail e-mail offer to be most effective, deliver it to the Moms in your database on Friday morning. A recent white paper by AOL Advertising states that 84% of Moms shop online while at work, and 60% of women respond to e-mail offers while at work. E-mail is the most influential driver toward purchase, with 3 out of 4 women surveyed saying they subscribe to at least one e-mail alert.
| Purchase Drivers | |
| Driver | % of Respondents |
| E-mail offers | 60% |
| Television commercials | 35% |
| Online ads | 30% |
| Direct mail offers | 30% |
| Newspaper circulars | 28% |
| Source: AOL Research, July 2010 | |
Most of the online shopping occurs Friday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., but all week long, moms are shopping during their lunch break.
- 54% shop during lunch
- 41% while multitasking
- 46% during breaks and downtime
- 25% right after seeing a “deal”
After reading this study, I began to examine my e-mail alerts; curious about when they hit my inbox and if I am more likely to respond on certain days or at certain times. There are a handful that I subscribe to for sales alerts and coupons; Target, Kohl’s, JC Penney’s, Budget Travel Deals and Papa Murphy’s Pizza offers to name a few. Here is what I discovered about mom-self:
Target: These are consistently delivered on Sunday and Wednesday, with all arriving between 3 and 4 a.m. each time. In looking back, the only offer I clicked on had a subject line with a 15% discount offer. I am a bargain shopper, what can I say!
Kohl’s : They send e-mails nearly every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday, and always in the early morning hours (between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.). I have only opened about 10% of them, most often on Sunday.
JC Penny’s: The sales e-mails are most likely to arrive on Sunday morning and rewards e-mails on Thursday, both in the early morning between midnight and 1 a.m. I open about 2 of every 10 e-mails sent, and most of those are the Thursday Rewards notifications (they typically contain coupons).
Budget Travel Deals: Wednesday morning is the deployment for most Deal Alerts from Budget Travel. I love to travel, and like to dream big about my next vacation. Wednesday, during the mid-week hum-drums, is just as good of a time as any. In the past 4 months, I have read about 30% of their Alerts. Although I have not made any purchases based on the offers, it has given me a lot of ideas for future vacations and the itch to pack my bags and catch a flight to anywhere.
Papa Murphy’s: They know me well. I receive most of their e-mails on Friday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and I open more than half. Sitting at my desk wondering what to make for dinner; then “ding”, a coupon for take home pizza arrives. It works for me.
You can read more about the AOL study at http://advertising.aol.com/sites/default/files/WomenRetailStudy.pdf.
