Moving into the Fourth Quarter with Confidence
It's October already, and time to really get in gear for this year's fourth quarter and year-end email campaigns!
Here are some tips to get you started:
Start holiday promotions early! Consumers tend to wait for the last minute (and still want delivery by Christmas!). There are only 20 business days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so the earlier you can get your customers' attention, the fewer potential shipping issues you'll encounter. Provide incentives and create a sense of urgency for early action. There are dozens of ways to do this, and offering a special deal makes consumers quicker to act, especially in slower economic times. Go back and see what worked (and didn't work) last year. If you have the data, base your evaluation of last year's mailings on sales generated per email. Opens and clicks are important, but it ultimately boils down to how much money you made. There's still time to track sales per email for this holiday season — and we can help! Establish campaign objectives. Before you can design an email or decide to whom you want to mail, you need to decide what you want the campaign to accomplish. Campaigns designed to generate sales are very different from campaigns used for building brand equity, new name acquisition, etc. No matter what the desired outcome, the only way to know if a campaign is successful is to establish campaign metrics. We recommend tracking both email and result metrics:
- Email metrics include emails delivered by ISP, bounces (hard and soft), opens, unique clicks, unsubscribes, forwards, etc. It is also important to track the effectiveness of an HTML email — the relative effectiveness of each link — by tracking clicks per location.
- "Result" metrics include sales per email, cost per new acquisition, average order size, campaign ROI, reactivations, etc.
Review your database (list):
- Segment your database. Even if you don't have a lot of demographic data about your customers, you can still significantly improve your response rate by creating separate segments and mailings for openers, clickers, purchasers, the top 10%, the bottom 20%, and so on.
Review your landing pages: Make sure they're relevant and that all the links work. Consumers who have opened their emails and clicked on a link to get to your landing page are your best prospects. A great landing page goes a long way to converting prospects into buyers! An irrelevant or poorly designed landing page will not only cost you current sales, it will cause these high-value prospects to think twice about opening the next email you send them. Develop your messaging strategy:
- Personalize your messages. Email provides a unique opportunity to communicate directly with your customers on a one-to-one basis.
- Make your messages clear, concise, and relevant.
- Have a visible call to action.
- Target your messaging by segment. This kind of targeting can have a significant impact on response rates.
Review your creative:
- Is the look and feel consistent with the landing page, your website, and your brand?
- Is it clear, concise and easy to read?
- Will consumers know what to do when they open your email?
- Is it CAN-SPAM-compliant?
- Track and report: Make sure all of your tracking and reporting is set up!
Following these tips will help you make the most of the holiday season's sales. Make sure that you check back with us next month for more!
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