BUSI 442 Week 3 Research Paper 2 Example

Email That Builds Relationships Instead of Wearing Them Out: Personalization, Frequency and Restraint

Introduction

Email is the cheapest way most businesses can reach their customers, and that cheapness is its danger. Roberts and Zahay (2018) present email as a channel for building relationships with consumers and business customers through relevant, permission-based communication, but many companies use it as a megaphone, sending the same promotion to every subscriber several times a week. This paper asks how a business can use email to strengthen relationships rather than wear out its welcome. It argues that the answer lies in three decisions, what to say, to whom and how often, and draws on four studies to show how each should be made. The examples come from Northfield Garden Supply, the garden retailer met in the first research paper.

What to Say: Personalization That Signals Attention

The first decision is content, and the research shows that even small signs of personal attention matter. Sahni et al. (2018) ran field experiments in which some recipients received emails with their names in the subject line and others did not. Adding the name raised the probability that recipients opened the email, increased the leads and sales that followed and reduced unsubscribes, even though the name gave recipients no new information about the offer. The authors interpreted the effect as personalization drawing attention, which suggests that how an email is addressed shapes whether it is noticed at all.

Deeper personalization matters too. Ansari and Mela (2003) developed a method for customizing the content and design of emails to each recipient based on past responses and found that customized emails substantially increased click-through compared with standard messages. Customers responded to emails that reflected their own interests.

For Northfield, personalization means more than a first name. A subscriber who bought vegetable seeds last spring should receive an email in February about seed-starting supplies and new tomato varieties, while a houseplant buyer should hear about repotting and low-light plants. An email that remembers what a customer grew last year reads like advice from a neighbor, not an advertisement.

To Whom: Segments and Triggers

The third decision, whom to send each message to, links email to the database foundations of the first paper. The most effective emails are often triggered by a customer's own actions rather than by the marketing calendar: a welcome series after a subscriber signs up, care instructions two days after plants are delivered, a reminder when a customer leaves seeds in a cart, and a note in late summer suggesting fall bulbs to customers who planted spring flowers. Each trigger reaches the customer when the message is most relevant, which is the purpose of personalization carried into timing. Calendar campaigns still have a place, but Northfield should send them to segments chosen by purchase history and engagement, not to the entire list by default.

How Often: The Cost of Too Much

The second decision is frequency, where the research reveals a hidden cost. Zhang et al. (2017) modeled how customers responded to an email program over time, including the chance that each additional email would lead some recipients to unsubscribe and so end the company's ability to reach them. They showed that adjusting the timing and frequency of emails for each customer, rather than sending on a uniform schedule, could raise the program's profit, because some customers welcomed frequent messages while others were driven away by them.

Godfrey et al. (2011) found a similar pattern across several channels. Studying a retailer's relational communications, they found that more communication increased customer purchases up to a point, beyond which additional contacts reduced purchases, and that the threshold differed across channels and customers. Enough, in their phrase, was enough.

Northfield currently sends four emails a week to all subscribers in spring. The research suggests that this is too many for most customers. The company should send one planned email a week to the full list, add a second only for customers who open and click frequently, and slow down for customers who have stopped opening, before they unsubscribe.

Measuring What Matters

Open and click rates are useful signals, but they are not the goal. Northfield should judge its email program by revenue per subscriber over a season, the proportion of new buyers who come back the following year, and the unsubscribe rate, which captures the cost the frequency research warns about. A small group of subscribers held out from each campaign will show how many orders the emails truly add, since some customers would have bought anyway. Measured this way, an email program that sends less often but earns more per message will be recognized as the better program.

Business Relationships by Email

The same principles apply to business customers, with different content. Northfield sells wholesale to about 300 landscaping companies, which value reliability and timing over promotions. For these customers, email should confirm orders and delivery dates, warn of shortages before the season's peak, and offer early ordering for the next season. Personalization means naming the account manager and the company's usual products, and frequency should follow the business's buying cycle rather than the retail calendar. A landscaper who receives a consumer sale email three times a week will stop reading Northfield's messages, including the one that matters.

A Biblical Perspective: A Time to Keep Silence

Ecclesiastes teaches that there is a time for every matter under heaven, including a time to keep silence and a time to speak (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3:7). The verse speaks to human life broadly, but it applies with surprising precision to email. A business that speaks constantly treats customers' attention as free, when it is a gift. Restraint, sending fewer, better messages at the right time, respects that gift. The research on frequency gives the principle a practical form: the wise email program knows when to send and when to wait.

Conclusion

Email builds relationships when it shows attention, offers relevant value and respects the customer's limits. The research supports four practices for Northfield and similar businesses. First, address every email personally, starting with the name in the subject line. Second, customize content from purchase history so each message fits the reader. Third, tailor frequency to each customer's engagement, sending more to those who welcome it and less to those who are drifting away. Fourth, write business customers' emails around their operations rather than retail promotions. A program built this way will send fewer emails and earn more from each.

References

Ansari, A., & Mela, C. F. (2003). E-customization. Journal of Marketing Research, 40(2), 131-145. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.40.2.131.19224

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Godfrey, A., Seiders, K., & Voss, G. B. (2011). Enough is enough! The fine line in executing multichannel relational communication. Journal of Marketing, 75(4), 94-109. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.75.4.94

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (2018). Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (4th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Sahni, N. S., Wheeler, S. C., & Chintagunta, P. (2018). Personalization in email marketing: The role of noninformative advertising content. Marketing Science, 37(2), 236-258. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1066

Zhang, X., Kumar, V., & Cosguner, K. (2017). Dynamically managing a profitable email marketing program. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(6), 851-866. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.16.0210