Every few weeks, we saddle up with our team of email marketing experts to check the pulse of the industry. This week, we are joined by John Malangone, who oversees a number of high profile email marketing accounts in the retail, travel, and catalogue industries.

With the biggest revenue season of the year upon us, how can marketers set themselves apart from competitors and finish the year as strong as possible?

John: It is more important than ever to listen to your customers’ needs and deliver accordingly. Take the next couple weeks as an opportunity to survey customers, track click behavior, and analyze your site analytics. If you can pay attention, and get a good sense of what your customers are doing on your site and with your brand, you can optimize your messaging in creative ways. Pay attention to search terms, driving online traffic to both your and your competitors’ sites, to create new and relevant subject line tests. Take a look at internet traffic data detailing where your customers are coming from before and where they are going after visiting your site to see if you should be promoting yourself elsewhere.

Customers are looking for an easy and economical experience, so make sure you’re sending the right message at the right time, based on all industry, trend, and test data you can find. If you are a retailer, remember that these are hard times for your shoppers, and if you’re not outlining your shipping and return policies, deadlines, and other store policies, you may lose shoppers in the end.  Use email to create awareness around these important details!

Email is often seen as one of the “easiest” revenue-driving channels. This perception often leads to businesses throwing best practices by the wayside in an effort to eke out every last possible dollar at the 11th hour.  How can organizations be sure to balance best practices and timely execution this season?

John: There is a special stress everyone feels as a marketer during the fall and winter season when all eyes are on the bottom line and what you’re doing to move it. If getting an email out in a pinch is your concern, work with your account team to build templates that can be re-used over and over with new copy so that they can be sent in just minutes. Farm out creative work to different groups of your team, your email vendor, or re-send existing mailings to non-openers with newer, edgier subject lines. Whatever you do, be sure you are as diligent as ever about testing. If your emails are not rendering correctly, you may throw an interested customer out of your online net.

I’ve read many articles talking about the overall volume of email individuals are receiving in their inbox year over year and I am afraid of overwhelming people.  What can we do to be sure we’re not overwhelming our customers?

John: My experience has been that when you mail more, you make more, assuming you are smart about it. Studies have proven that inbox presence drives store dollars, even when customers haven’t opened.   Consumers are usually emailed more during this time of year than any other, but they are also much more tolerant as they look for the best deals for their dollar. So if you mail more, be sure you offer frequency options to minimize opt-out rates, and of course be sure to honor them.

If you can keep your content fresh and creative, and speak to your segments in personal ways, you can keep their interest through the holiday season and help rather than overwhelm them. Be sure you are telling new subscribers about your competitive advantages or exclusive products in your welcome messages, educate loyalty members and cardholders about their special privileges, and inform your inactive segment about important policy or product updates that may regain their interest during the holiday shopping season. Take special care with mailing your non-openers since many customers are once-a-year or holiday-only shoppers. Shake things up for them by sending on different mailing days or times, using off-the-wall subject lines, or by mailing at a new varied frequency.

Every few weeks, we saddle up with our team of email marketing experts to check the pulse of the industry. This week, we are joined by Yvette Mitchell, who oversees a number of high profile email marketing accounts in the retail, financial/credit, and consumer packaged goods industries.

The financial fallout caused by the sub-prime mortgage market is on everybody’s mind these days. With high gas and energy prices adding more hardship to consumers this holiday season, what tactics have you seen retailers implementing to meet their holiday numbers?

Yvette: Well, many retailers were smart in the months leading up to their holiday planning — they saw a clear path to cutting costs by reducing wasteful print dollars. With printing costs on the rise, a number of retailers got ahead of the game by sending fewer print catalogs in the spring and summer months. Other retailers reduced their catalog mailing list size by incorporating ‘catalog preference’ options in their online preference centers so that only interested customers would receive them. 

In addition to cost-cutting measures, what have you seen marketers do to increase the relevance and revenue of their messages?

Yvette:  In preparation for the holiday season, retailers are sending email messages with short, embedded surveys about their holiday purchase needs and/or links to preference centers requesting that subscribers update their content interests. This allows marketers to send more dynamic, personalized content that aligns more precisely with user interests.

As a suggestion, I’d point out that the holidays are an ideal time to use integrated web analytics campaigns to send “category browse” emails (ReMarketing). If an opt-in subscriber is on your site looking at a particular product category, they will be more inclined to purchase based on their implied interest in that category. ReMarketing is a great tool for encouraging purchases when used in moderation.

Are you seeing anything unexpected this holiday season that is showing promise?

Yvette: Some companies are actually using the holiday season as an acquisition period, leveraging social networking sites by setting up Facebook pages that include holiday contests/sweepstakes/trends, etc. to acquire new subscribers. It’s a pretty clever concept that stands to yield some solid results.