Less Marketing Is More

A recent survey found that less is more when it comes to marketing—mainly because consumers feel bombarded by text and email marketing campaigns.

Why it’s news

The digital marketing sector is huge, with global ad spending reaching $780 billion in 2021 and the average business allocating around 8.7% of overall company revenue to marketing.

A survey of 450 consumers conducted in January 2023 by customer-led marketing platform Optimove found something marketers could use to improve their brands and save money—less is more. 

Many marketers have found that sending emails and text messages to consumers is one of the most important forms of marketing as consumers tend to open all text messages and most emails and will read through the ad.

Since the emails and texts have proven to work, many marketers send out many marketing campaigns, but the recent Optimove survey found that consumers are feeling bombarded by the campaigns and, in reality, sending fewer works more effectively than sending more.

Around 79% of consumers unsubscribed from at least one retail brand in the past 90 days saying they were bombarded by marketing messages, while 61% of consumers said that they have unsubscribed from three or more.

In addition, 73% of respondents say they wanted to receive fewer marketing messages in 2023 than in 2022 due to feeling bombarded by the messages. 

The survey also found that 72% of respondents said that the relevancy of an offer is important, with 36% saying it is “extremely” or “very important.” 

That said, if a brand can figure out how to send a few relevant messages related to its brand to consumers, the outcome will likely be better than sending many general messages.

“The survey also points out that marketing fatigue is costly. Marketers still erroneously believe that more messages will deliver more results. In fact, less is more. Fewer right messages at the right time will probably deliver equal or better results. If brands get this right, they can spend less on marketing and connect with consumers rather than burn them out. It is an opportunity to optimize marketing budgets and create customer loyalty for life,” says Optimove CEO Pini Yakuel.

What the experts say

Many experts focus their time on email marketing and agree that less marketing is more.

Along those lines, many experts say shorter emails appeal more to readers. Emails with key points telling the readers what they need to know rather than long paragraphs work better. 

“Make your emails shorter. What I noticed is that emails with longer content usually go to spam. By making your emails short, recipients are more likely to read them, consider them to be regular messages, and not report them. I suggest using only 100 to 120 words maximum,” says Growth Rocket SEO supervisor Stefanie Siclot.