2016 Holiday head start webinar deck

© 2016 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

May 10, 2016

Holiday head start

Marketing tips for the 2016 holiday season

2 © 2016 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bringing brands and customers closer together, every time.

Maximize the value of every

customer interaction

Inspire long-term brand

advocacy

Reach the right audiences


Meet the presenters

Jacob Davis Marketing Analyst

Experian Marketing Services

Andrew Werner Client Partner

Experian Marketing Services


Setting the stage What happened last year?


Benchmarks Q4 2015 – All Industry

Volume Up 23.4%

Unique

open rate Down 4.2%

to 16.4%

Unique

click rate Down 12.6%

to 1.9%

Revenue

per email At 7¢

Vs. 9¢


Benchmarks Q4 2015 – Multichannel Retailers

Volume Up 26.1%

Unique

open rate Down 5.4%

to 15.6%

Unique

click rate Down 20.8%

to 1.9%

Revenue

per email At 8¢

Vs. 9¢


Benchmarks Q4 2015 – Rates were down, but actual quantity was up

17%

7%

22%

7%

Unique Opens Unique Clicks Transactions Email Revenue


Benchmarks What does this all mean for me?


2015 holiday study Where did we get these numbers?


2015 holiday study Where did this data come from?

40 Brands

27 Clients

Retail only

1 Inbox

No click or purchase

From 10/1–12/31


So many emails… …when should we send ours?


When were inboxes most crowded? How to avoid the rush

28%

26%

23%

26%

38%

27%

37%

38%

39%

45%

41%

47%

49%

50%

44%

52%

42%

40%

45%

35%

33%

28%

22%

22%

19%

29%

12%

15%

10%

16%

10%

14%

12%

13%

13%

12%

12%

9%

8%

7%

15%

12%

15%

12%

13%

12%

11%

17%

15%

16%

18%

9%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

12/27/2015

12/20/2015

12/13/2015

12/6/2015

11/29/2015

11/22/2015

11/15/2015

11/8/2015

11/1/2015

10/25/2015

10/18/2015

10/11/2015

10/4/2015

12am-4am 4am-8am 8am-12pm 12pm-4pm 4pm-8pm 8pm-12pm

Time received, in EST


When were inboxes most crowded? How to avoid the rush

2%

38%

33%

12% 13%

2%

12am-4am 4am-8am 8am-12pm 12pm-4pm 4pm-8pm 8pm-12pm

71% of emails landed in the inbox

between 4am and noon



What time were mailings received? What effect did time have on performance?

-15%

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

12am-4am 4am-8am 8am-12pm 12pm-4pm 4pm-8pm 8pm-12am

Open Rate Click Rate Revenue per Email

Baseline email performance

More competition,

Lower engagement,

Lower revenue per email



What time were SMS messages received? Unsurprisingly, they mirrored email messages


Subject lines More isn’t more.


0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

2014

How long were subject lines? Over 50% were 8 words or fewer

Number of words in subject line


How long should subject lines be? The longer the subject line, the lower the open rate

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 28

Increased subject line length was correlated with a negative impact on open rates (correlation (.33))

Number of words in subject line

Average change in open rate per brand

compared to brand baseline


Content If you’re not going to segment…


Popular themes And not-so-popular ones

37%

53%

41%

38%

57%

64%

33%

18%

15%

8%

8%

3%

2%

12/27/15

12/20/15

12/13/15

12/6/15

11/29/15

11/22/15

11/15/15

11/8/15

11/1/15

10/25/15

10/18/15

10/11/15

10/4/15Don’t forget mobile: 26% of SMS campaigns mentioned a holiday


Wait, what? Holiday messages weren’t popular? Metrics were mostly buoyed on actual holidays

30%

19%

8% 5% 1%

-7%

4% 4% -3% -2%

-5% -3% 4%

-52%

-23%

-1%

-24%

-32% -35%

-24%

83%

53%

-14% -18%

-31%

-20%

10/4 10/11 10/18 10/25 11/1 11/8 11/15 11/22 11/29 12/6 12/13 12/20 12/27

Open Rate Revenue per Email

Okay for open rates

Revenue was hyper-concentrated


What about other themes? Mailings were less likely to have any theme

1%

1%

1%

5%

17%

34%

42%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Daily deals

Mobile incentive

Countdowns

Gift card

Gifts

Friends and family

Flash sale

Only 8% of all mailings were "themed", but when they were, Flash sales were most common Distribution of main themes, excluding all non-themed mailings


Themed mailing successes Flash Sales did work

33%

-6%

51%

23%

25%

5%

-10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Revenue per Email

Average Order Value

Transaction Rate

Session Rate

Click Rate

Open Rate

Flash Sales had every type of offer, and did as well as any promotion in 2015 Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Themed mailing successes Friends & Family sales worked, too

1%

-8% -8%

9%

3%

9%

Open Rate Click Rate Session Rate Transaction Rate Average Order Value Revenue per Email

Friends & Family mailings didn't increase engagement, but they did produce strong transactions Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Themed mailing successes Unexpected old favorite: Animation

12%

-3%

23%

28%

30%

-5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Revenue per Email

Average Order Value

Transaction Rate

Session Rate

Click Rate

Mailings that included animation saw significant engagement increases (opens remained flat, as expected) Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Themed mailing successes The dark horse: countdown clocks

86%

-5%

114%

43%

31%

4%

-20% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

Revenue per Email

Average Order Value

Transaction Rate

Session Rate

Click Rate

Open Rate

Countdown clocks weren't very common, but in the rare cases they were used, engagement soared Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Mobile & Email Cross-channel companions


Mobile-themed mailings Mobile successes: app-focused mailings

The call to action in these

mailings typically isn’t to

purchase

11%

8%

5%

-7%

Open Rate Click Rate Session Rate Transaction Rate

Mobile App focused mailings created great engagement Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Mobile-themed mailings Mobile enrollment: sign up for our mobile program!

The call to action in these

mailings typically isn’t to

purchase

-31%

13%

24%

31%

-40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Transaction Rate

Session Rate

Click Rate

Open Rate

Engagement was even stronger for mailings focused on Mobile Enrollment Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Mobile-themed mailings Mobile-only incentives didn’t perform strongly in email

5%

-10% -9%

-34%

Open Rate Click Rate Session Rate Transaction Rate

However, remember that the call-to-action is usually to engage on mobile Average change per brand compared to brand baseline


Discounts The most-popular content of all


Were discounts popular? (Duh.) 91% of all mailings included discounts, mirroring last year

48%

31%

19%

3%

Email only In-store & Online Online Only In-store Only

Brands focused primarily on email only offers when presenting discounts Discount breakdown by offer reach, percent of all discount mailings


What about free shipping? Free shipping remained popular, but qualifier increased

65% 63%

45% 41%

2015 2014

Free Shipping With Qualifier

Of the 65% of

emails that included

free shipping in

Holiday 2015, 45%

included a qualifier


What about free shipping? Free shipping often combined with other offers

8%

10%

18%

24%

64%

BOGO

Free Gift

$ Offer

Discounted Pricing

% Off

Free shipping was most popularly

combined with percent-off offers

Offers

co

mbin

ed w

ith

fre

e s

hip

pin

g


Was free shipping effective? Little effect on engagement, definite effect on revenue

18%

-2%

13%

30%

-4%

20%

Transaction Rate

Average Order Value

Revenue per Email

Free shipping continues to be effective Average change per brand compared to brand baseline

With Qualifier No Qualifier


Which offers were most effective? Percent-off offers trumped dollar-off offers

5%

5%

23%

-2%

15%

-6%

-6%

-20%

10%

-14%

Click Rate

Session Rate

Transaction Rate

Average Order Value

Revenue per Email

But offering % off discounts did significantly more for engagement, transactions, & efficiency than touting $ off Average change per brand compared to brand baseline

% Off $ Off


How deep were discounts this year? Most discounts were 50% or less

1%

6%

10%

7%

1%

16%

25%

11%

3%

11%

7%

3%

1%

Don’t forget mobile: almost half of SMS deals were 30% or less


How deep were discounts this year? Dollar-off offers were low-end

17%

1%

5%

1%

5%

2%

1% 1%

3%

2%

3%


What does it all mean? Recommendations for 2016


What does it all mean? Key takeaways

• Inboxes will be crowded. Avoid the rush where possible.

• No specific theme is better than others—stay true to your

brand and remember to segment and personalize

• Mobile promotions in emails had good engagement, but

(expectedly) low revenue

• Percent-off offers drove the most engagement and revenue

• (but they were also richer, giving up more margin)

• It’s never too early to start planning! Growing a great

program takes time to cultivate and nurture


What does it all mean? A disclaimer on email studies

• Remember that your results may vary

• Every program is different!

• The path to success is TESTING

© 2016 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. 42

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