In order to get a one-up on your competitors before the end of 2010, start planning your holiday email marketing campaigns now. In this presentation, we provide best practices, strategies, and email marketing tips in order to help you alleviate holiday stress, create buzz, and drive the best results and highest ROI.
1. Blue Sky Factory
Driving Email Marketing Performance
Eggnog, Elves, and Email:
How to Plan a Successful Holiday Email Campaign
Lindsay Clark & Joanna Lawson-Matthew
Thursday, September 16, 2010
1:00 – 1:45 PM (EDT)
Baltimore, Maryland
2. Getting Acquainted
Feel free to submit questions via the GoToWebinar dashboard
or #bsfwebinar on Twitter.
Lindsay Clark Joanna Lawson-Matthew
Senior Client Services Manager Senior Client Services Manager
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3. About Blue Sky Factory
Blue Sky Factory is both a full & self service ESP.
Design, execute, and track your email marketing communications
with Blue Sky Factory’s platform, Publicaster.
Visit us at www.blueskyfactory.com.
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4. Why start planning for the holidays now?
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5. Why Start Now?
Consumers are already starting their holiday shopping and research.
Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007872
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6. Competition is Heating Up!
Email marketing volumes are expected to increase 15% to
20% for the upcoming 2010 holiday season, compared to
the same time period in 2009.1
1 Experian Marketing Services’ annual 2010 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report. 2 Flickr Photo Credit: mx5tx
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7. Our Agenda
1. Getting Started
2. What Worked in 2009
3. The Best Practices You Should Stick With
4. The Most Important Tip for 2010 Holiday Emailing
5. Q&A
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9. Ask Yourself
• What are your goals for this year’s holiday campaigns?
• What will be the main call-to-action of your campaigns
• Will you have a dedicated holiday email series or will you jazz
up your current campaigns (think: auto-response campaigns
and transactional emails) with holiday flair?
• How will you measure success this year?
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10. Review last year’s campaigns to evaluate what worked.
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11. Review Last Year’s Campaigns
Which campaigns generated the best response? Remember to
look at all metrics:
• Open
• Click-through
• Conversion
• Forward
• Unsubscribe
• Complaint
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12. Review Last Year’s Campaigns
Did your complaint or opt-out rate start to spike mid-series?
Identify the issues and plan for 2010 accordingly.
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13. Review Last Year’s Campaigns
What days of the week did you send on? Were weekdays or
weekends more successful?
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14. Come up with a schedule, a plan-of-action.
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15. Develop a Schedule
Plan frequency and number of
campaigns:
• How often are your subscribers used
to receiving emails currently?
• Do you want to increase that level or
maintain the same schedule?
• Will you come right out and announce
your holiday series and deals or will
you slowly tailor the emails more and
more to the holidays?
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16. Develop a Schedule
Review your schedule with other departments to confirm there
are no conflicts. You want to sprinkle timely and relevant emails in
between now and the holidays, not bombard your subscribers.
Flickr Photo Credit: emma.kate
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17. Don’t Flood The Inbox
59% of US and UK Internet Users said the reason for not
regularly opening/reading email marketing messages is
that they come too frequently.1
1 e-Dialog "Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance" (2010) 2 Flickr Photo Credit: Greg Hayter
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18. For a full pre-holiday audit guide, check out our two-
part blog post, “It’s Time for your Pre-Holiday Email
Check-up”:
Part One: http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/general/it%E2%80%99s-time-for-
your-pre-holiday-email-check-up-part-1/
Part Two: http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/creativeanddesign/it%E2%80%99s-
time-for-your-pre-holiday-email-check-up-part-2/
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20. What Worked in 2009
Announcing early bird specials to encourage subscribers to shop
early
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21. What Worked in 2009
Creating urgency closer to the holiday
• Only 10 more days until Christmas!
• Guaranteed shipping by X date
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22. What Worked in 2009
Giving your recipients “insider status”, special deals just for them
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23. What Worked in 2009
Introducing a daily or weekly sale item just for subscribers
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24. What Worked in 2009
Triggered emails for abandoned shopping carts
84% of recipients open an abandoned
cart emails within 24 hours, and 99%
of recipients open within a week.
Experian (2010)
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25. What Worked in 2009
Recommendations based on what
was frequently viewed in recent
sessions
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26. What Worked in 2009
Showing recipients the closest
store to them to encourage
both online and offline
purchases
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27. What Worked in 2009
Promote “last minute” gift items
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28. What Worked in 2009
Showcase gift ideas by budget, gender, age and interests
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29. No Matter What the Core Offer…Include Free Shipping!
Last holiday season, free shipping offers with no minimum
spend requirement had 70% higher transaction rates, triple the
revenue per email, and more than double the average order
value compared to free shipping offers with minimum
requirements. 1
1 Experian Marketing Services’ annual 2010 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report (2010) 2 Flickr Photo Credit: Robert S. Donovan
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30. What Worked in 2009
Participate in National Free
Shipping Day
• Friday, December 17
• Delivery by Christmas Eve
guaranteed
• Last year, more than 750
merchants participated,
and over 35,000 sales
took place!
• This year’s goal is 1,000
merchants with over
50,000 sales http://www.freeshippingday.com/
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31. What Worked in 2009
During the holiday season, be sure to spread the cheer.
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32. Spread the Cheer
Relevant holiday tips,
how-to guides
• Recipes
• How to stay healthy
this holiday
• Guide to a stress-free
holiday
• Travel tips
• Party planning
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33. Spread the Cheer
• Give a “family & friend” discount, reward for referring a
friend
• Prompt subscribers to submit their own holiday tips, recipes,
money-saving ideas, best traditions
• Send a video that will give your subscribers a good laugh
http://blog.g1440.com/2009/12/happy-holidays-from-all-of-us-at-g-1440/
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34. Spread the Cheer
Emails with a refer-a-friend link have been proven to drive 14%
higher open rates, 20% higher clicks and 40% higher
transaction rates than those without.1
1 Experian Marketing Services’ annual 2010 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report (2010)
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35. Spread the Cheer
Encourage sharing by providing
Forward to a Friend links and
Share With Your Network
buttons
http://www.blip.tv/file/3021827/
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36. Spread the Cheer
Be interactive by showcasing a game, quiz, or survey
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43. Post-Holiday Emails
Complement their holiday purchases with accessories
Image source: Smith-Harmon, “Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season” 2009
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44. Post-Holiday Emails
Encourage gift card redemption or purchases
The promotion of gift cards in holiday email marketing messages more than tripled
transaction rates for multichannel retailers last year.
Experian Marketing Services’ annual 2010 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report
Image source: Smith-Harmon, “Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season” 2009
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46. Best Practices To Stick With
The holiday season is not the time to try out new and
fancy tricks. Instead stick with what works for you and
follow these 15 general tips.
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47. Best Practices to Stick With
1. Make sure only true opt-in subscribers are included in your
email campaigns
2. Segment list based on click behavior
3. Remember the expectations regarding frequency you set up
front with your subscribers
4. Consider setting up a separate opt-in just for the holidays
and set up a holiday-only unsubscribe option
5. Check with your ESP to make sure your IP reputation is in
good standing
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48. Best Practices to Stick With
6. Find a balance between offer and value-added content
7. A/B split test: subject lines, call-to-action placement, offer
used
8. Use this holiday to plan for next holiday
9. Subscribe to your competitors' emails to generate ideas for
next year
10. Ensure your call-to-action is prominent (5 second test)
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49. Best Practices to Stick With
11. Include a View in Browser link
12. Remember to include Share With Your Network links, and
encourage social sharing
13. Ensure all images have alt tags
14. Take the time now to ensure your email renders well across
all email clients
15. Build a strong subject line that reflects content of email and
creates urgency
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50. IV. Most Important Tip for 2010 Holiday
Season
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51. Mobile Version
Your carefully crafted email
is often being viewed by a
potential buyer or key
decision maker on a mobile
device
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52. Mobile Version
Optimize each email for all mobile devices by featuring a link to a
mobile version
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53. Mobile Version
24% of online consumers (with or without Web-enabled
phones) say they expect to be comparing prices, and 22%
expect to be purchasing items from their mobile phones in the
next 12 months.
1 Experian Marketing Services’ annual 2010 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report (2010) 2 Flickr Photo Credit: William Hook
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54. Mobile Version
Make sure all links in your email lead to landing pages which
mobile devices can support (e.g.- no flash)
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55. Time For Your Questions!
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56. Thanks for Attending
Whether you’re an email marketing
beginner, a casual mailer or a battle-
hardened ninja, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE
TO EMAIL provides proven strategies
and tactics you can apply to your
campaigns
Download your free copy here:
http://www.blueskyfactory.com/holiday2010/
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57. Please Contact Us
Please submit your questions now via the GoToWebinar dashboard
Lindsay Clark Joanna Lawson-Matthew
Senior Client Services Manager Senior Client Services Manager
lclark@blueskyfactory.com joanna@blueskyfactory.com
www.blueskyfactory.com
Contact Blue Sky Factory: blog.blueskyfactory.com
Twitter: @blueskyfactory
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