2012 is The Year Promotions Became Permanent in Email Marketing

If you’ve been following your inbox this holiday season you’ve likely seen an incredible number of promotions. From the looks of it things appear to be officially heading toward constant email marketing promotions as 2012 comes to a close.

What does this mean for your company?

You could take two courses of action heading into the New Year.

#1 – Continuous Promotional Strategy

The first week of December is an interesting one in the online retail world. The holiday rush of shopping has finished and now retailers are focused on the final shipping days of the year. Usually this week is pretty quiet and for some retailers that is the case, but for others the pressure is still on to give an offer that is too good to ignore.

Eddie Bauer Offers Up to 50% Off Sweaters

This email went out to Eddie Bauer subscribers this week. Normally this week is when retailers cut back on the promotions, but Eddie Bauer kept the foot on the accelerator with promotions. They know that people don’t pay as much attention to emails this week so in order to get attention the company continues to offer huge discounts.

Now, Eddie Bauer does seem to be taking a slightly different approach here. The sale is not on everything. The sale in a select category and it might be something they are long on in terms of inventory right now.

Last Week Eddie Bauer Promoted Outerwear

Here is an email from Eddie Bauer from just a few days earlier. Again, the promotion was heavy at 50% off. Technically it’s “up to 50% off”, but you get the point.

Retailers are discounting heavily these days even after the big days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

This trend will likely continue because once you have your subscribers trained to respond to heavy discounting they’ll just wait around until that email comes through. They won’t even look at any email with a regular subject line.

Free Shipping Over $50 All the Time

Earlier this year, LL Bean did something interesting and it’s worth noting here. LL Bean started offering free shipping all the time. There are no gimmicks or timelines. It’s all the time. That’s a key change in the way companies are handling promotions.

Eddie Bauer is offering free shipping over $49 throughout the holidays. It will be interesting to see if this continues into next year.

When you start offering a promotion it would seem only a matter of time before you’re offering it all the time.

Is your company heading that way or are you taking a different approach?

#2 – Constant Pricing Strategy With Focus on Products and Services

The second strategy that is coming through the inbox this holiday season is the focus on products and services. Companies in this camp are trying their best to stay away from promotions.

In the end, people buy products and services. People aren’t buying promotions for the most part. They might in the short-term, but even then they are buying something.

JCPenney is a case of a company that did a complete 180 last year. They were hammered in the press and their customers left, but the company is focusing on merchandise and slowly building a new base of customers. It will be interesting to see how well they do. It seems they are offering some good value with their products.

Under Armour Focuses on New Arrivals

This email stood out this week. Under Armour did offer some promotions over the last few weeks, but this week they’re back focusing on the merchandise. The company is doing its best to stay away from continuous promotions. However, you’ll see the free shipping offer throughout their recent emails.

Here is another example:

This email was very similar. The focus is on the product, but free shipping still continued.

There are two choices for email marketers heading into the new year.

First, you can offer continuous promotions throughout the year or you can cut back on the promotions and focus on merchandise. Both have their rewards and risk. You’ll have to analyze your customer base and decide the best strategy for your company.

Conclusion

You’ll have to decide how you promote your business in the New Year. It seems many companies have chosen the promotional strategy and it would appear that it’s working.

When you look at email marketing on the basic level, though, it’s really only a reflection of the products and services you offer. When you remember that basic fact you can focus on the reasons why your subscribers purchase from you in the first place. Give them something they want and sell it to them with your email.

What are you seeing this year with email marketing?

Are promotions getting to be over-the-top?

Tagged in: Eddie Bauer, Holiday 2012, JCP, Under Armour