A multi-industry, longitudinal analysis of the email marketing habits of the largest United States franchise chains

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the prevalence and frequency of email marketing among 200 of the largest franchise corporations in the United States, and compare the deliverability of emails in various industries — that is, how often legitimate, solicited emails were regarded by major hosted email providers as spam. We found that approximately half (45 per cent) of large franchise corporations provide opt-in email marketing newsletters, with email marketing being most popular in the hotel and health care industries and least popular in the pet and maintenance industries. Most corporations sent an average of one email every 10 weeks, predominantly on weekdays. Companies in the hotel and food industries were the most prolific email marketers, and hotels showed an unusual proclivity for emailing on Sundays. Surprisingly, an astonishing one-third of legitimate emails, on average, were flagged as spam by major email hosting providers. Food and automotive companies were most susceptible to deliverability issues, and hotel and personal care companies were relatively immune to deliverability problems. Our results provide an interesting comparison of the email marketing habits of large US franchise companies in a variety of industries, and suggest a variety of questions and action items for digital marketing professionals.