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As we wave goodbye to another holiday season, email marketers can be optimistic that 2012 will be another year of email-generated revenue and digital marketing cheer. Analysts at Experian CheetahMail took a snapshot of the season to put the very busy (yet very rewarding) term into perspective, comparing it to the 2010 holidays.

Findings include:

- There was a 4.4% increase in average order values
- Email volume rose by 19% (as we predicted)
- Unique open rates remained quite positive for most verticals (which may be a result of more marketers optimizing subject lines).
- As in 2010, 26% of subject lines featured an offer this Holiday Season. 
- Dollar ($) offers were the most popular this season (seen in 29% of subject lines), sneaking past last year’s leader of percent (%) off campaigns (seen in 28% of subject lines). 
- Personalization in subject lines increased (31% overall), particularly in the last half of the season. 

Happy mailing in 2012!

Experian CheetahMail tracks the holiday mailing activity of 385 brands that also mailed in the 2010 Holiday Season. All metrics are based on results 3 days from send.

Hotmail has recently been in the news for improving their users’ Inbox experience, enhancing tools and improving their filters. More specifically, Hotmail is trying to combat “Graymail”  or all of the newsletters, offers, social network website emails, and other email communications many sign up for and are no longer relevant to you but keep getting delivered. These are emails that users legitimately receive but no longer want – roughly 75% of email identified as spam by Hotmail customers according to Windows Live Hotmail.

At Experian CheetahMail, this Graymail announcement has left many of our clients asking how this change will affect their messages and more importantly their deliverability/Inbox performance. These enhancements go along with what CheetahMail Deliverability has always advised about mailing to your actives. Basically any mail that is sitting in a users’ Hotmail inbox untouched (not opened or clicked) after a while is considered Graymail. Hotmail is trying to reduce the burden of all sorts of offers, newsletters etc for the user and their own system.

We don’t have much insight into their filter algorithms but we can assume if too many people are allowing the clients emails to sit in their inboxes and end up as graymail, Hotmail’s filter will pick this up and can possibly start sending the emails to bulk. We have often seen a decrease in user engagement as a reason for Hotmail bulking. By mailing to your active and engaged Hotmail users this Graymail issue should become a non-issue. Additionally, consider asking users to add the client to their address book to ensure inbox delivery and avoid spam/junk foldering. Instructions can be found here: http://www.cheetahmail.com/deliverability/reach-the-inbox/

The two main features of Graymail that we DO know are:

One-click Unsubscribe

Hotmail has had an unsubscribe link in the user interface already, but how they handle these requests are changing and not complying could result in your email being sent to the spam folder. If a subscriber clicks on the unsubscribe link in the Hotmail interface now, and either the list-unsubscribe header isn’t present or doesn’t work, email from that sender will be permanently delivered to the spam folder. CheetahMail complies with this unsubscribe request.

Schedule Cleanup

Hotmail users can now decide how long they want messages from a particular sender, or all senders, in their inbox before they are deleted permanently or moved to a specified folder. This could be the best time to reach out to your subscribers and give them a choice to the frequency of emails they want to receive. This cleanup could also prove to be beneficial for senders as subscribers may not mark old, unwanted email as spam which can adversely drive up spam complaints.

The likelihood of consumers viewing, printing and redeeming a digital coupon at a brick-and-mortar store rises 19.6% if the coupons become accessible at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, according to a recent study by RevTrax, a partner of Experian CheetahMail that offers couponing features in CheetahMail client email programs.

The study finds that consumers print the most digital coupons on Wednesday and Thursday

The study finds that consumers print the most digital coupons on Wednesday and Thursday, which suggests consumers access online discounts mid-to-late week to redeem them during the weekend. Conversion rates constantly exceed 60% between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (key work hours), and conversions peak between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., as well as noon and 5 p.m.

So what can email marketers do to capitalize on the e-coupon-obsessed this holiday season?  Here are a few tips from Experian CheetahMail:

• Use testing to keep response high and costs low: Often times, emails providing coupons to high-value or existing buyers do not have to be as aggressive or frequent as those sent to new customers.
• Create a sense of urgency and exclusivity: Despite the ease of use/redemption that many online coupons offer today, customers can take a long time to buy. Use words such as “exclusive” or “limited time only” in your subject lines.
• Use coupons to drive word of mouth: Ensure that you prominently display “Share with your network” or “Forward-to-a-friend” buttons in emails containing shareable coupons. The impact can be huge!

RevTrax ran statistical analysis between December 2008 and August 2011 to determine the best time to present coupon offers. The data represents millions of views and prints broken down and analyzed by volume per day and hour, conversion rate, percentage of coupons viewed and printed, per day and hour. It also tallied the odds or likelihood that a consumer will print a coupon based on any given day and hour.

Cyber Monday is here!  Are you tired of hearing about it yet?  Well here is a new fun fact that indicates just how big of a deal this last Monday of the month truly is.

Eighty-two percent more emails had Cyber Monday in the subject line this past Friday, November 18, to Saturday, November 26 as compared to the same dates last year, according to an Experian CheetahMail analysis.  

These subject lines didn’t just tout the day, they shouted out special deals and offers that were tough to refuse. Some of the subject lines that caught my eye included:

• Up to $50 off – it’s officially Cyber Monday!
• It’s Cyber Monday!  Don’t Miss Out! + Free Shipping Every Day
• 50% off Exclusive Cyber Monday Event Starts Now
• Bonus Event! 80% Off Cyber Fix Deal Starts Now

Keep the Cyber celebration going everyone – happy mailing (and shopping)!

Experian CheetahMail tracks the holiday mailing activity of 385 brands that also mailed in the 2010 Holiday Season. All metrics are based on results 3 days from send.

As “Peak Week” approaches and retailers gear up for their most critical holiday shopping period – which Experian Marketing Services has identified as the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday – smart marketers are refining their email strategies in real time. Daniel Schotland, VP of Client Services at Experian CheetahMail, and his team have been analyzing year-over-year trends as well as daily data and have important advice that’s sure to create good cheer with retail marketers. For example, flash sales, friends and family focused emails and other viral marketing programs, are garnering twice the response rates of other types of messages this season.

Daniel recently sat down with DM News to discuss holiday email marketing and share tips and trends to help marketers succeed during this pivotal time. You can view Daniel’s Q&A here: http://www.dmnews.com/qa-daniel-schotland-vp-client-services-at-experian-cheetahmail/article/216860/

Not just yet. Experian CheetahMail’s latest holiday analysis indicates that consumers are browsing, but not yet purchasing for holiday 2011. As of this past weekend (November 5-6), open rates are higher than last holiday season, but clicks and transaction rates remain low – indicating that consumers are still browsing. If you are anxious to ring those conversions in well before Peak Week, here are a few tactics to consider:

• Flash Sales – Overall, Flash Sales generate a 35 percent lift in transaction rates over regular promotional mailings. This is noteworthy given the fact that all mailings with offers in subject lines have an average lift in transaction rates of 16 percent — less than half of the increase Flash Sale emails provide.
• Free shipping promotions – a tried and true holiday tactic that works. Made sure to advertise free shipping in the subject line, as well as prominently in the body of the email.
• Social sharing – Amplify any new product or promotion via social networks by enabling sharing anywhere and everywhere you can. In your emails – of course, but what about including sharing links in your online catalogs, or banner ad landing pages?

Experian CheetahMail tracks the holiday mailing activity of 385 brands that also mailed in the 2010 Holiday Season. All metrics are based on results 3 days from send.

Get em while they last! The number of Flash Sale and Daily Deal emails have more than doubled in the first two weeks of this season compared to the same time period last year, according to Experian CheetahMail.

Why is this? Well – they work! And, people still can’t get enough. While recent industry buzz does point to the slight erosion of the Flash Sale tactic as time goes on, they’re still giving retailers a bang for their buck. So, email marketers, here is one of my early gifts for you – Flash Sale a tip list, straight from a recent analysis by CheetahMail’s in-house experts:

• If you can’t test sending a Flash Sale later in the day, test sending a reminder to those that opened and clicked but did not convert. The lack of inbox competition for the customer’s attention later in the day offers email marketers an opportunity to optimize Flash Sale campaigns to improve ROI.
• Create a sense of urgency by clearly mentioning the discount, as well as the time limit of the discount, in the subject line.
• If your goal is purely engagement, or re-engagement, shorter Flash Sales can be more effective.
• The best Flash Sales have some combination of strong offers (50% to 70% off) and a selection of desirable products.

Regardless of your industry, Flash Sales can be a great tool — for retailers to push more holiday inventory, for hotels to drive holiday vacation bookings in specific regions, for restaurants to drive traffic on typically slow times of day, and so on.