As we’ve discussed on this site before, welcome campaigns are a critical tool in jump starting profitable customer relationships. This week, Experian CheetahMail has a new case study that illustrates how incentivized welcome emails can earn higher order values, click rates and revenue per email.

In the case study, we see that Sundance Catalog was able to increase average order sizes by 2x just by adding a basic incentive to multiple types of welcome emails. Even better, Sundance was able to prove the value of incentives by testing two types of welcome emails — those sent to new subscribers who opted-in by completing an email sign-up form on the website, and those who opted-in as part of their eCommerce checkout process. In both instances, the welcome emails with the special offer outperformed the standard, control message with no offer.

Of course, incentives are not a perfect strategy for every brand. Sundance was wise in their methodology, performing a thorough test before they committed to making any final changes to their welcome email program. As a best practice, we typically recommend that most brands do the same before they begin offering discounts.

To read more about Sundance and welcome email incentives, read the full case study now.

Just in time for the holidays, our friends at Experian Marketing Services have produced a valuable new research report packed with useful tips and insight for maximizing holiday marketing strategies this year. So what do we expect to see this holiday season in respect to the email marketing industry’s performance? The 2009 holiday marketer: Benchmark and trend report has some interesting points well worth your consideration, especially for all of you email marketers out there looking to gain an edge on the competition this winter.

Taking a look at the data from the report, there are a number of relevant tidbits that merit a quick shout-out:

• Email’s “eco-friendly” reputation may not hold as much sway with environmentally-conscious customers as you thought, so don’t cancel the print catalogs just yet.
  “Surprising to many, Behavioral Greens, which are the group of consumers that are most green aware according to Experian Simmons, account for nearly half of all catalog purchases.”
• Shorter really is sweeter when it comes to email subject lines during the holidays.
  “All industries with the exception of consumer products and services experienced the highest open rates when using subject lines of 25 characters or less last year.”

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Although the number of Americans watching March Madness (15%) ranks behind the NFL’s Super Bowl (38%) and MLB’s World Series (22%), the sport has quite a distinct following. Firstly, college basketball fans tend to be slightly older. In fact, Americans in the 18-24 year old age bracket are 4% less likely to be very or somewhat interested in college basketball than those 45 years of age and older. Read on for more statistics and trends pertaining to those most likely to be following March Madness this month.

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What sets fashion-concious consumers apart from all the rest? As you may expect, many of them rely on the media to learn about next season’s trends and to start planning their shopping lists. Experian Simmons recently conducted a study to learn more about this unique, fashion-saavy group, taking a closer look at the key behaviors and traits of those consumers who use fashion magazines to help them determine what clothes to buy.

Here are a few key findings:

• Those residing in the West and Northeast are more likely than the average adult to consult fashion magazines to help them decide the clothes they buy.
• Most of their online activity consists of shopping, followed by gathering information for shopping, instant messaging, airline/car/hotel info or reservations, and digital imaging/photo albums.

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To this day, a great deal of teenage culture remains unchanged. For example, teenagers still face the same growing pains and social acceptance issues; and they still spend their money on clothes, video games and music. But, the evolution of the world around them has also caused a number of significant shifts in behavior that marketers should be aware of. Today’s teen population has access to so much more technology and information than it did 10 years ago, leading to the following trends and inclinations:

Teens go online to communicate – of online activities done in the last 7 days, communications, like IM and email, top the list, and are followed by playing/downloading games and music.

More teens now have cell phones – the cell phone industry has seen rapid growth, with cell phone usage among teens going from one-third ownership in 2003 to two thirds ownership in 2007. Read More »