Holiday Email Marketing 2013: Three Trends In Email Heading Into The Busy Season
This year, eMarketer estimates that B2C ecommerce sales will grow 18.3 percent to $1.298 trillion worldwide, with Asia-Pacific surpassing North America to become the world’s No. 1 market. The region will see sales increase by more than 30 percent to over $433 billion. And, according to a GartnerG2 forecast, Asia/Pacific fourth-quarter online sales will grow 53.4 percent to about $2.46 billion.
No matter where your online business is located, the holidays represent a significant chunk of overall sales. And email marketing is a critical component for driving online sales. With that in mind, let’s take a look at three prevailing email trends for the upcoming holiday season. Like it or not, the holiday marketing seems to start earlier and earlier every year, so the holiday season will be here sooner than you realize.
1. Cyber Monday Is Morphing
When we said the holidays are starting earlier and earlier, we weren’t kidding. Take this email from Office Max, sent on May 20:
Cyber Monday was the ecommerce response to brick-and-mortar retail’s Black Friday. What started out as Cyber Monday has now expanded to “Cyber Five” – the five days of promotions in the U.S. running from the Thursday of Thanksgiving to the following Monday. In some countries, such as New Zealand, it has evolved into “Cyber Week,” running the whole workweek of Monday through Friday.
While consumers are certainly looking for bargains during the holiday season, email marketers run the risk of Cyber over-saturation with their customers. Another risk is losing out on potential sales once the Cyber-whatever event is over.
To maintain interest during Cyber Monday promotions, email marketers may want to consider an ongoing promotion. Charitable website Sevenly proves that you don’t have to be an e-tailer to capitalize on the Cyber Monday craze. In fact, nonprofits should create emotional appeals that tie in to the spirit of the season. Sevenly features a charitable cause each week, but changed up its strategy for the week of Cyber Monday:
To encourage post-Cyber Monday purchases, retailer JC Penney brought it back a week later for an encore performance:
Costco does a good job of maintaining interest, expanding the Cyber Monday window and reinforcing the messaging on its website:
2. Email Content Is King
The mantra for many retailers during the holiday season is “Sell product…sell product…sell product.” But many consumers need help deciding what gifts to buy for those on their holiday shopping list. Here’s where relevant content (the key being “relevant”) can help consumers in their purchase decisions. LL Bean tells consumers what sets it apart from the rest: breadth of product, something for the gift giver, free shipping (a given during the holiday season), no-questions-asked return policy and even a print catalog.
3. Mobile Is Huge
A sale is a sale, whether it’s online or at the local shopping mall. You can fight over who gets credit for the sale later, but you’ve got to include mobile in the mix. This means mobile-friendly emails and websites, for starters.
Magazine Real Simple manages to combine mobile savvy with valuable content in an email promoting its free iPhone app.
There’s more to just sending out a holiday-themed emails and hoping for the best. You’ve got to make sure have the necessary resources to support a campaign of this magnitude. Start hiring seasonal customer service reps to handle the holiday overflow. Make sure your backend systems are ready – with inventory, warehouse staff, etc. Most importantly, make sure your server(s) can handle the increased traffic – or risk a site meltdown.
If you think it’s too early to start planning your holiday email campaigns, think again. In fact, you should have begun strategizing on the heels of last year’s email promotions. Go back and see what worked best, what didn’t meet your expectations, and decide how you can make the most of this year’s holiday shopping season.