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Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Date post: 09-May-2015
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The holidays are the most important time of year for the majority of online retailers, and your email marketing program can mean the difference between a good or great ecommerce season.Fine-tuning your email marketing program long before the holidays kick in is critical because it's tough to make mid-course corrections. The 2010 holiday season presents email marketers with a golden opportunity but also a challenge--the old model of simply "sending more" has become less reliable. The mall won't be the only crowded space; inboxes will be deluged with offers and promotions. Learn how to craft programs with messages your customers anticipate and eagerly open to drive increased conversions without negatively affecting margins.Silverpop strategist Stephen Guerra and evangelist Loren McDonald walk through 10 key pre-holiday email practices that online retailers need to address to maximize holiday revenues. Incorporating industry data, best practices and retailer case studies and examples, the Webinar covers topics including:- Building specialized holiday welcome email programs - Setting up browse and cart abandonment programs - Developing a holiday segmentation and frequency strategy - Minimizing list churn through an unsubscribe/preference center - Optimizing your social-sharing initiatives - Leveraging transactional emails for cross-sell/upsell opportunities - Developing a "post-purchase" email stream
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Naughty or Nice? 10 Keys to Holiday Email Marketing Success
Transcript
Page 1: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Naughty or Nice? 10 Keys to Holiday Email Marketing Success

Page 2: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Speakers and Agenda

• Stephen Guerra– Manager-Strategy

Consulting

– Silverpop

• Loren McDonald

– VP, Industry Relations

– Silverpop

• Checklist• Q & A• Wrap-Up and

Survey

Page 3: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Offer an unsubscribe preference center

Optimize transactional emails

Create a post-purchase email strategy

Manage expectations with a holiday-themed welcome program

Page 4: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and

appearance

Page 5: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

• Crowded inbox = less tolerance for design challenges

• Design for recipient behavior path:Open, Scan, Engage, Convert

• Plan design tests now• Review design and functionality on

mobile, web, & desktop clients

Page 6: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

What Have You Done?

• Start with last year’s results– What did you do and what worked?– What did others do that seemed to work

better?

• Evaluate offer, subject lines, calls to action

• A baseline for where to start this year's holiday email planning

Page 7: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Page 8: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Increase in Frequency

• Silverpop found retailers studied sent 22% more emails during Cyber Week in 2009 than they did in 2008

• Record sends were posted during last year’s holiday season

Page 9: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Impact on Opens and Clicks

Opens:• 2008: 15%• 2009: 14%

Clicks:• 2008: 29%• 2009: 25%

Page 10: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Top two unsubscribe drivers: Lack of message relevancy and

high message frequency

- Forrester, The ROI Of Email Relevance, 2009

Page 11: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

More Can Lead to Less

Page 12: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

You Know You’ll Send More.Set the Stage Now.

• Deliverability relies on sender reputation – check it now

• Develop a frequency segmentation plan

• Monitor tolerance– Establish baselines

now– Determine

thresholds

Page 13: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Page 14: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email List Considerations

@

Page 15: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Optimize for List Growth

• Value offer for opt-in

• Obtain address & permission immediately

• Review preference forms – test designs

• Include opt-in offer in messages

Page 16: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Page 17: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Email Infrastructure Check

• Dynamic content• Integrations

– Web analytics– Content

• List Hygiene– Bounces– Non-responders– Data quality

Page 18: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Save Time with Dynamic Content• Improves time efficiency for sending

over individual segment sends• Requires initial time investment• Prepare now

– Content– Template design– Business rules

Page 19: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Relevance through Behavioral Tracking

• 51% of surveyed US email marketers use email click-through behavioral segmentation

• 31% of consumers consider consumer reviews the most important part of site content

- Forrester, The ROI Of Email Relevance, 2009

Page 20: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Be Relevant. Segment.

• Holiday behavior shifts– Review past holiday

periods– Holiday shopper

segmentsEntertainer, Parent, Budgeted

• Simple segments– Open vs. Non-Open– New vs. Old Subscriber

Page 21: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

• Segmentation tactic to highly target interest in holiday offers

• By offering option may limit potential audience

Create Special Holiday Lists?

Page 22: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Page 23: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Reach Out Socially

• Fire up Your Social Networking Channels

• Take the time to do it right

Page 24: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Consumers Are In Control

Page 25: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Silverpop’s Social Sharing Study• Facebook dominates among social

networks• The life of a shared message is

about one week• Including sharing links isn’t

enough: 35% of messages generated no sharing

Page 26: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Why People Share• Contributing to the conversation• Self-Interest• Altruism• Validation• Affinity

Page 27: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Page 28: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Multiple Opportunities in the Funnel

Page 29: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Recommendations/Abandon Site Email

Early results:

• 40% open rate

• 57% click to purchase conversion

• Earns $2.18 per email deployed

• Earned $127.70 per email clicked

Page 30: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Average cart abandonment rate

71%

Source: SeeWhy

Page 31: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Following up with abandoners by email yields

25% or more conversion rates.

Page 32: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Did You Forget

Something?

Page 33: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

A Special Offer To Return

To Tafford

Page 34: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

2009 Abandoned Cart Indexed Results…

Page 35: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

25% conversion on cart abandoners.

Cart program accounts for almost 1/3 of TOTAL yearly email sales

First and most effective in the series sent within hours after abandonment.

Abandon Cart Emails

Page 36: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Grad Images: Three stage campaign

Immediate

23 hrs after

120 hrs after

Page 37: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

“Service” tone

An overt sales message may be counter productive. Service based communications work much better

+ Expectations+ A service email stating their

transaction did not complete+ Use your transaction

confirmation as a model

+ May not be ready to buy yet+ An overt sales message may be

counter-productive

Page 38: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Abandonment Email Takeaways

First email within a few hours

Multiple follow-ups

Start with service tone

Test timing and discounts Automate

Page 39: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Offer an unsubscribe preference center

Page 40: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Why Recipients Unsubscribe

• Too Frequent

• Irrelevant Content/Offers

• Also, lack of email address change functionality

Jupiter Research (now Forrester)

Page 41: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Administrative Footer - Obvious

Make sure links are not just

images

Page 42: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Link at Top of Email - Depends

- Use if high complaint rate

- Potentially only with specific ISPs

Page 43: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

So What are the Alternatives?

Alternatives

Frequency

Format

ChangeEmail

Profile/Preferences

Channel

OtherEmails

Typical retention is 20-30%

Page 44: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Alternatives at Opt-out?

Silverpop Study of Internet Retailer 500 - 2009

Page 45: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Email Frequency

Page 46: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Change Email Address

Page 47: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Multiple Lists

Page 48: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Interest Preferences

Page 49: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist
Page 50: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Office Depot

Page 51: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Offer an unsubscribe preference center

Optimize transactional emails

Page 52: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Think beyond just this…

Page 53: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Marketing Content in Transactional Messages - Benefits

Decreased Burden on Support

Lower Call Center Volumes

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Increased Brand Recognition

Increased Revenue

0% 10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

% of email Marketers

Graph Source: Jupiter Research “The Transactional Messaging Imperative,” 2008n=200 email marketers, US

Page 54: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Demand from Order Confirmation Series emails grew 41.5% from 2008 to 2009.

Open rates range 45%-50%

Order Confirmation Series

Page 55: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Promotional Content Doesn’t Have to be Customized

Order details

Great HTML Layout

Same promotional content reiterated

Including photos = higher

avg click-

through rate

(7.1% vs 4.7%)

Silverpop’s 2006 study

“email creative that

works”

Main message clearly

communicated in subject line and top of message

Page 56: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Bad Ratio!Pressing Your Luck

LOTS of promotional

content

The majority of content in transactional messages should

be non-promotional

Page 57: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Cross Sell / Upsell

Best Practice:Recommend accessory itemsor complementary items for each product in cart

Page 58: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Recommendations

Page 59: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Offer an unsubscribe preference center

Optimize transactional emails

Create a post-purchase email strategy

Page 60: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Pre- to Post-Purchase EmailsPre-Transaction

• Browse abandonment

• Cart abandonment

Purchase Process

• Order Confirmation

• Order status• Shipping notice• Shipment confirmation

• Trip preparation

Post-Purchase

• Satisfaction Survey

• Review request• Review notification

• Recommendation

• Replenishment• Repurchase• Upgrades

Relationship

• Bounceback• Account reminder

• Loyalty programs

• Account status• Purchase anniversary

Right time, right message!

Page 61: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Client Trigger-Email Program

Page 62: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Low Volume, High ROI

59.8 %Batch Campaigns

40.2%TriggeredCampaigns

95.9 %Batch Campaigns

4.1%TriggeredCampaigns

Sales GeneratedVolume of Emails sent

Page 63: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Fred, A Special

Thank-You Offer From

Tafford

Tafford Customer Survey - Tell Us

What You Think

Fred, A Special

Thank You Offer from

Tafford

Page 64: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Fred, A Special

Thank-You Offer From

Tafford

Tafford Customer Survey - Tell Us

What You Think

Page 65: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Fred, A Special

Thank-You Offer From

Tafford

Tafford Customer Survey - Tell Us

What You Think

Fred, Rate the Tafford products

you purchased

Page 66: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Post Purchase Lifecycle Indexed Results

6X+

Better

Surv

ey

perfo

rms

over

20%

bette

r…

Page 67: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Post-Purchase Review

Page 68: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Product Review Email14% of those who click place another order

Second highest conversion rate next to Abandon Cart emails.

Page 69: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Products Review Notification

12% of those clicking on this email go directly to make another purchase.

Page 70: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Thanks!

• 60% Open Rate• Nearly 3X avg

• 18.5% CTR• 3X avg

• 7.5% higher AOV than overall average

• 60% higher conversion rate than overall average

Page 71: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Reminders…almost out of stock

Open, CT and Conversion Rates that are MORE THAN DOUBLE broadcast email rates

Average Order Value is 53% HIGHER

Page 72: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Purchase Anniversary

15% higher conversion rate than average from broadcast messages

Page 73: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Offer an unsubscribe preference center

Optimize transactional emails

Create a post-purchase email strategy

Manage expectations with a holiday-themed welcome program

Page 74: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Welcome emails may be the most

important email your company

sends.

Page 75: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Internet Retailer 500

22% send NOemails

Silverpop Study - 2009

Page 76: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Welcome Emails: Goals and Purpose

Goals• Speed up conversion • Minimize list churn• Strengthen brand

perception• Reduce inactivity

Purpose• Educate subscriber• Reward/Incent• Instill/reinforce trust• Enable immediate

“email experience”• Provide administrative

information/tools• Set expectations

Page 77: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Timing / Cadence• Immediate• Suppress regular emails• Transactional OK• Move to a series

Immediate

3-7 days

7-14 days

Immediate

Stand alone

Email # 1

Email # 2

Email # 3

3-part series

Page 78: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Welcome to the Tafford Community

Tafford #1

Page 79: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Three Reasons You Will Love Tafford + A Special

Offer

Tafford #2

Page 80: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Personalize Your Tafford Experience

Tafford #3

Page 81: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

2009 Welcome Series Indexed Results…

Welcome #1 Performs 6X Better!

Page 82: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Lastminute.com

Page 83: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Welcome

• Increased frequency• Frequency options• Change preferences• Reassure simplicity of

holiday shopping experience

• Email-only specials• Information about:

– Shipping promotions and schedules

– How to return items– Gift-card promotions– Call-center hours

Page 84: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Holiday Email Checklist Optimize for best rendering, navigation and appearance

Make informed frequency/cadence decisions

Make subscribing attractive and easy

Check and prepare customer data , integrations, list hygiene

Fine-tune your social-sharing initiatives

Create cart-abandonment and browse campaigns

Offer an unsubscribe preference center

Optimize transactional emails

Create a post-purchase email strategy

Manage expectations with a holiday-themed welcome program

Page 85: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Resources / Q & A

Page 86: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

About Silverpop

• A leading email marketing / marketing automation provider

• Email marketing

• Transactional email

• Share-to-social

• Send Time Optimization

• Landing pages

• Surveys

• SMS• API Integrations w/ Web

analytics, personalization, reviews, recommendation technologies

Page 87: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Resources

• Resource Center– White papers– Webinars– Blogs– Case studies– Newsletters– http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/index.ht

ml

• Many presentations on SlideShare– www.slideshare.net/Silverpop

Page 88: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Q & A and Contact Information

• Stephen Guerra, Silverpop

– Manager-Strategy Consulting

[email protected]

– Twitter:

• @stephenguerra

• Loren McDonald, Silverpop– VP, Industry Relations– [email protected]– Twitter:

• @LorenMcDonald

@Silverpopwww.silverpop.com

Page 89: Holiday Email Marketing Checklist

Thank you!

On Twitter: @Silverpopwww.slideshare.net/silverpop

www.silverpop.com


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