Since the advent of the internet, much speculation has ensued
regarding its tangible benefits to business. This article looks at the
effectiveness of email advertising to promote information to consumers.
Within this email promotion context, and using data from a survey of
838 female Finnish consumers of a major international cosmetics brand,
we investigate consumer perceptions of email advertising. Specifically,
within an exploratory research context we address two research
questions: (1) What email advertising factors may influence visits to
the company website? and (2) What email advertising factors may
influence visits to a physical (i.e., bricks-and-mortar) company sales
outlet? Results suggest that email advertisers should strive to
generate emails that are perceived as useful. Useful emails appear to
influence consumers to visit the store primarily to either buy the
product or view the product firsthand, rather than visit the company
website. However, as consumers could not buy the advertised products
from the website, these findings should be regarded as preliminary.
Factors influencing perceptions of email advertising usefulness are
explored along with limitations and future research directions.