Personalization in email marketing in the cosmetics industry among B2C consumers
Lemaire, Margaux (2022)
Pro gradu -tutkielma
2022
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022100461112
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022100461112
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis is to study the effect of personalization on consumer engagement when used in email marketing. The analysis was conducted in the context of the cosmetics industry. To establish a guideline, the main research question formulated is the following: how do B2C companies use personalization in email marketing to enhance consumer engagement in the cosmetics industry?
The literature review, aiming to highlight existing theories on the subject, is built on three pillars: the definition of email marketing as a marketing tool used by B2C companies, the notion of personalization and its use in email marketing and the concept of consumer engagement which is at the heart of the companies' objectives. In addition, a fourth and final part is dedicated to the challenges faced by companies wishing to integrate personalization into their email marketing strategy.
As for the empirical part, it is composed of three studies that are conducted on the email marketing basis of a world leader in beauty. All three were subjected to an A/B test to measure the effect of personalization on recipients and their engagement through open rate, click rate and conversion rate. Informative personalization and non-informative personalization are studied in separate studies to analyze the effect of each on the recipient.
The results of the studies show that the use of informative personalization in the subject line and body of the email has a positive effect on the open rate and click rate as recipients are more likely to open the message and click on the content. However, the conversion rate is not impacted by the use of informative personalization unlike non-informative personalization which leads to a higher conversion rate when used in an email. The open rate is also higher when non-informative personalization is used but this is not the case for the click rate.
Our analysis therefore reveals the different effects of personalization depending on the type used and gives insights to companies who wish to implement it in their email marketing strategy according to their objectives.
The literature review, aiming to highlight existing theories on the subject, is built on three pillars: the definition of email marketing as a marketing tool used by B2C companies, the notion of personalization and its use in email marketing and the concept of consumer engagement which is at the heart of the companies' objectives. In addition, a fourth and final part is dedicated to the challenges faced by companies wishing to integrate personalization into their email marketing strategy.
As for the empirical part, it is composed of three studies that are conducted on the email marketing basis of a world leader in beauty. All three were subjected to an A/B test to measure the effect of personalization on recipients and their engagement through open rate, click rate and conversion rate. Informative personalization and non-informative personalization are studied in separate studies to analyze the effect of each on the recipient.
The results of the studies show that the use of informative personalization in the subject line and body of the email has a positive effect on the open rate and click rate as recipients are more likely to open the message and click on the content. However, the conversion rate is not impacted by the use of informative personalization unlike non-informative personalization which leads to a higher conversion rate when used in an email. The open rate is also higher when non-informative personalization is used but this is not the case for the click rate.
Our analysis therefore reveals the different effects of personalization depending on the type used and gives insights to companies who wish to implement it in their email marketing strategy according to their objectives.