The dust has settled from Black Friday, and the results are as interesting as you’d expect at this time of year. The big holiday push kicked into high gear over the course of last week, and all of the retail hoopla translated into more marketing mania than ever before.

Based on the analysis of 170 clients across all industries between 2006 – 2009, Experian CheetahMail has made the following determinations about the week of Black Friday:

• Email volumes increased by 24 percent for the week of Thanksgiving 2009  as compared to the same week in 2008.
• The trend of emailing more leading up to Black Friday continued in 2009 just as it had in 2008. However, the volume totals for several of these days — the Sunday, Monday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, along with Thanksgiving Day — were much higher in 2009 than last year.
• 50 percent of emails were sent prior to 8 am each day. Of the dates examined during this time period, Black Friday had the most even distribution of send time between midnight and noon.
• Black Friday itself saw almost identical email volumes as last year, dropping roughly 1% from 2008.

Meanwhile at Experian Hitwise, our source for consumer and competitive insight, we’ve seen how specialty websites focusing solely on Black Friday sales have played a significant role in driving traffic to retail sites. Comparing the week before Thanksgiving in 2009 vs. 2008, Hitwise saw the following:

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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. 

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I must admit, I have a soft spot in my heart for “Cyber Monday,” the Monday following Thanksgiving that is billed as the biggest online shopping day of the year. As a general rule, I think our country could use more holidays whose names sound like they came from the 1992 film “The Lawnmower Man.”

But my personal feelings aside, the Email Experience Council’s latest Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season sheds a little light on what actually happens online immediately after Black Friday. Apparently, Cyber Monday has really caught on…with email marketers.

67% of the retailers tracked by the Retail Email Blog [sent] at least one promotional email on Nov. 26. That was up from 44% of retailers the year before. The jump made Cyber Monday the most popular retail email marketing day of the year, eclipsing the day after Christmas, which was the biggest retail email day in 2006.

Of course, higher email volumes didn’t translate into higher sales this past year, as the EEC points out in its findings. Yes, Cyber Monday may be an unofficial holiday accepted in the business world, but it’s more of a marketing holiday than a shopping one. Don’t despair too much, though, because the EEC has lots of strategic ideas for retailers to improve their holiday mailing performance, including special holiday email series and e-gift cards.

And in case you were wondering, Reve News has a handy list of last year’s top holiday online shopping days so you can witness the magic of  “Whopping Web Wednesday” for yourself.