3 Key Differences Between US and UK Email Marketing

Many of the differences between the United States and the United Kingdom are obvious. From spellings (color vs. colour) to common terms (trunk vs. boot), it’s easy to see how some things are seen as identifiably American or British.

With differences like these, naturally one would expect marketers to use different communication tactics with consumers. But how so?

Cross-channel growth marketing platform Iterable partnered with the email marketing consultants at London-based Holistic Email Marketing to see how retail fashion brands in the U.S. and U.K. differ in their use of email marketing strategies.

The report, titled Brits vs. Yanks: How U.S. and U.K. Fashion Brands Compare on Email Marketing, analyzes the email marketing programs of 20 leading retail fashion brands (10 U.S. brands and 10 U.K. brands) to find out if there are regional differences in email content, strategy, performance, and inbox placement.

3 Major Findings

We’re going to highlight three major report findings that give a sense of how successful American and British email marketing strategies are. However, there are many more where they came from. Download the full report to learn even more detailed insights.

Engagement

Key Metric(s): Read Rate and Personalization

All three of the top read rates came from U.K. retailers: Topshop (34 percent), Burberry (31 percent), and Alexander McQueen (27 percent). However, U.S. brands showed a smaller variance in read rates, ranging from 18 percent to 24 percent vs.10 percent to 34 percent for the U.K. brands.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of U.K. brands had personalized content in their emails, opposed to just 30 percent for U.S. brands. Ultimately, the combination of better read rates and a greater emphasis on personalization leads to better engagement for U.K. brands.

Inbox Placement

Key Metric(s): Deliverability

Deliverability is often an overlooked metric when defining the success of an email marketing campaign. If messages aren't reaching the inbox, they lose any chance of engagement.

All but one of the 20 brands reported a deliverability rate above 90 percent. U.K. brands reported an average inbox placement of 96.2 percent, with all 10 brands registering 90 percent or higher.

The exact factors used by an ISP to decide whether to deliver an email are hidden behind detailed algorithms. However, heightened engagement scores might contribute to improved inbox placement rates for the U.K. brands.

Acquisition and Retention Tactics

Key Metric(s): Presence and location of email opt-in invitations

Each of the 10 U.S. brands had email opt-in invitations — whether via a static form or a temporary pop-over — on their brand’s homepage, providing easy access for visitors to give permission to send them emails. Three U.K. brands had no mention of email opt-in on their homepage; this is a missed opportunity for acquiring new customers.

While the placement of the email opt-in invitation increases the chances of acquisition, there's still much to be done by all brands to give this invitation prime real estate on the homepage.

In addition to these, the report dives deeper into personalization tactics, multilingual email, lifecycle marketing, and more. The full Iterable report can be found here.

Michael Huard is the content marketing manager at Iterable, the growth marketing platform for cross-channel customer engagement.