Part IV – Holiday Emails
Internet Retailer recently published statistics from a Responsys survey, stating that the number of emails with promotional content sent this October were up 22% over last year, with retailers sending at least one email campaign with holiday branding – which is earlier than ever before. By that token, Responsys predicts that total promotional emails this year will surpass last year’s numbers by Thanksgiving. ElasticPath reported that 80% of online shoppers and 71% of in-store shoppers say they are motivated to make a purchase based on promotional emails, meaning retailers not only need to create strategies for maintaining share of mind this season, but need to manage share of inbox as well. Technical specifications - as seen in the OrderDynamics Guide to Email Marketing – aside, here’s what you can do to make sure your brand doesn’t get lost in the crowd.
What to Send
Remember Part I – Know Your Dates? This should help you create a schedule for basic email content. As Thanksgiving Day now marks the official start of the holiday shopping season, holiday emails should at the very least be sent in advance of Thanksgiving to announce special promotions and sales for Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, along with follow-up and reminder emails sometime between the first announcement and the actual date of the sale. Practical eCommerce shared an Email Marketing schedule, asserting that holiday gift guides should be sent November 21 – one day before Thanksgiving – as it builds momentum for the coming shopping season as shoppers are already seeking deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Building on this generic schedule, you can create more brand-specific emails that will attract shoppers during the in-between period of the Thanksgiving Weekend rush, and the home stretch week before Christmas - Free Shipping Monday and Green Monday, inclusive. Marketing Land recommends analyzing the most and the least successful email campaigns from earlier in the year, and last year’s Christmas season to understand what your popular items and top sellers are so that you can use them as features in your emails. Putting these popular items on sale, and offering site-wide promotions are a great way to attract recipients to your website, and indirectly upsell them. The Body Shop uses this tactic in their holiday email campaigns, offering weekend sales spanning from Friday to Sunday, staggering the percentage off each week. The banner showcases both popular and seasonal items to entice customers to click-through to the site, while the additional staircase promotion of ‘buy one get one 50%, buy two get one FREE, buy three get two FREE’ encourages shoppers to purchase more than they meant to in the first place.
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| An example of the BodyShop.com's holiday emails |
Who to Send to
You should ensure your contacts list is up-to-date, removing addresses that have unsubscribed to your emails, or who haven’t opened them in a long time. This will help you identify the extent of which you need to acquire new email contacts. Social media contests, as mentioned in Part III, are a great way to easily collect new addresses, however it is important to note that these subscribers are at risk of unsubscribing later as they may have only been interested in the prize and not your brand. For multichannel retailers, asking buyers at brick-and-mortar stores to sign up for special promotions using their email address at check-out is essentially the same thing as soliciting an email address during online checkout, and can help populate a more reliable contacts list as these subscribers are already interested in your brand.
You should also consider segmenting your contacts list. Practical eCommerce’s Calendar asserts that you should track recipients who have opened your holiday emails but have not made a purchase. This group of people should receive extra special deals, as they have indicated an interest in your brand but require extra motivation. Emails with exclusive offers for loyalty program members (also pictured in the Body Shop email above) can be an added incentive to encourage them to shop when they may not have otherwise. You can also group recipients by the type of product they typically buy, and by age group and gender, as a study suggests men over the age of 55 are more likely to make a purchase as a result of an email marketing campaign than any other demographic – these can create opportunities for his and hers gift guides.
When to Send
It’s no surprise that retailers increase the number of emails they send during the holidays. While some may simply double up, others may be sending daily emails to their customers. It’s important to analyze trends from past holiday seasons to understand the frequency of communication your customers are most comfortable with. Many retailers offer the opportunity to subscribe to holiday emails separately from regular promotional emails, or provide links in their email campaigns that allow recipients to choose whether they would like more or less of these emails. Allowing shoppers to choose the amount and type of emails they would like to receive avoids the issue of them becoming overwhelmed, and ultimately turned off by your brand.
According to Hubspot, promotional emails see more click-throughs at 6 am than at any other time of the day, and Saturday sees the highest click-through rate in emails than any other day of the week. Monday to Wednesday holds almost half of all online purchases, however, retailers should be weary of sending promotional emails on a Tuesday as it holds the highest rate of unsubscribes.
The number one thing all ecommerce retailers should remember is that first and foremost the holidays are about joy, cheer and family. Make sure to take the time to send a purely un-promotional email, simply thanking your customers for being wonderful and wishing them Happy Holidays - like this great letter from airsoft gun retailer AirsoftMegastore.com, putting a softer side on the rugged sport.
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| Example of AirsoftMegastore.com's promotion-less emails |
Don't forget to read the other parts of the 2012 OrderDynamics Retail Holiday Guide:
- Part I - Know Your Dates
- Part II - Website Checklist
- Part III - Social Media for the Holidays
- Part IV - Holiday Emails
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