A recent experience with Amazon.com reminded me just how effective, and (on the face of it) simple, email marketing can be.

I went on Amazon.com recently to find a book for a friend (a Lee Child novel while we’re on the subject), popped it into my shopping basket but promptly abandoned my purchase when I realised I’d left it far too late to get it delivered in time for friend’s birthday the next day.

My fault entirely, so I left the website and resorted to taking my friend out for a beer instead.

But four days later, I received an email from Amazon, setting out lots of Lee Child novels at discounted prices, as they thought I might like to have one.  So I did.  Buy a book that is (let’s face it the token beer was a bit naff).

Why bring it up? Because I was pleasantly surprised by Amazon’s approach. They spotted I’d abandoned my shopping basket and reacted in a timely way with a very relevant, personalised message to try to change my mind about buying from them. And it worked.

Now I know that email marketing isn’t simple, not in the slightest.  As our client email service provider dotMailer will attest to, there’s an almost never-ending list of things to get right, like timing, renderability, content, legalities, design, subject line and coding.

But as a consumer – the one who receives the message in her inbox – I want email marketing to be simple. And I want to feel like the email I’m receiving is just for me.

And that’s where Amazon.com worked. They spotted my behaviour, reacted quickly when they thought they’d lost a sale and sent me a very clear, personalised email marketing message that compelled me to purchase from them.

For 70 handy best practice tips on getting email marketing right, dotMailer’s free annual benchmark study of email marketing performance is worth a read.