Join us for a deep dive into the 4 keys to email success – before, during and after the holiday season. Learn how to outshine your competition with recommendations, real world examples and practical tips to driving engagement and conversion during the most important time of year.

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MEET YOUR SPEAKERS
Jessica Grewal
Customer Success, BlueHornet
Emily Strasburg
Email Marketing Manager, BlueHornet

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Email has the highest ROI
of the 7 marketing channels
studied.
2015 DMA Response Report
In 2014, companies were
attributing 23% of their
total sales to the email
marketing channel,
compared to 18% in 2013.
Econsultancy

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In which of these ways
do marketing/advertising
emails influence your
purchase decisions?
2015 Consumer Views
of Email Marketing, BlueHornet

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4 KEYS TO HOLIDAY
EMAIL SUCCESS
 Lay a Firm Foundation
 Ensure You Get to the Inbox
 Shine in the Inbox
 Plan for the Aftermath

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4 KEYS TO HOLIDAY
EMAIL SUCCESS
 Lay a Firm Foundation
 Ensure You Get to the Inbox
 Shine in the Inbox
 Plan for the Aftermath

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49% of consumers polled
said that for the upcoming
holiday season they will
shop online earlier than they
did last year.
Pitney Bowes
PREPARE YOUR CALENDAR NOW
 Identify key holidays
 Work backwards to determine
timelines
 Allow for testing prior
 Determine content
 Creative/Design
 Offers
 Secure needed resources

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2014’S TOP DATES FOR
HOLIDAY CONVERSIONS
Thanksgiving
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Green Week
National Free Shipping Day
Hanukkah
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
SteelHouse Holiday Guide 2014

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CREATE NEW HOLIDAYS
 Get creative
 Choose content & offers wisely
 Leverage fundamental
engagement tactics
 Be strategic with timing

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PRIME DAY
 Sales up 93%
 Peak order rates surpassed last
years’ Black Friday
 More users signed up for the
service on Prime Day than any
other single day
CNN money

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ADDITIONAL PLANNING
 Pre-holiday initiatives
 Acquisition
 Win-back
 Custom preference
 Loyalty
 Disaster planning

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DISASTER EMAIL PREP
 Website traffic overload
 Common customer service
complaints
 Unforeseen login restrictions
 Out of stock
 Oops emails
 Offer mix-ups
 Segmentation errors

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4 KEYS TO HOLIDAY
EMAIL SUCCESS
 Lay a Firm Foundation
 Ensure You Get to the Inbox
 Shine in the Inbox
 Plan for the Aftermath

16. WIN-BACK
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WIN-BACK CAMPAIGN
 Launch 2-3 weeks prior to your
most important holiday(s)
 Personalize messages
 Educate
 Incentivize with offers

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CUSTOM PREFERENCE
PROMOTION
 Product categories
 Preferred offers
 Special mailing lists

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CONSIDER CHANGES TO
EXISTING CAMPAIGNS
 Win-back
 Reactivation
 Cart abandonment
 Retargeting/browse abandonment

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Start monitoring in August
• Domain reputation
• IP reputation
• Opt outs
• Complaints
• Bounces
Use inbox monitoring tools to
monitor and manage your
reputation from a single
dashboard.
REPUTATION-DAMAGING ISSUES
 Increased sending volume
 Increased complaints
 Decreased engagement
 Segmentation errors
 Mailbox provider issues

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RAMPING VOLUME
 No more than 2x normal volume
 Depending on volume, begin
ramping several weeks in advance
of holiday season
 Work backwards from end volume
goal and time until your send date
 Increase volume gradually and
consistently to balance increase in
complaints
 Throttle volume
 Work with your ESP’s deliverability
team to monitor and respond to
issues with bulking/blocking

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4 KEYS TO HOLIDAY
EMAIL SUCCESS
 Lay a Firm Foundation
 Ensure You Get to the
Inbox
 Shine in the Inbox
 Plan for the Aftermath

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SUBJECT LINE: TEST LENGTH
 Highest read rate: ~61-70 characters
 Little to no correlation between
length and read rate
 Consider devices and your audience
 Desktop view: ~ 60 characters
 Mobile view: ~ 25 – 30 characters
 Leverage snippet text
The Art and Science of Effective Subject Lines,
ReturnPath

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75% of our respondents
expect personalization
based on online purchases
or self-reported interests
in their profile.
Consumer Views of Email
Marketing 2015, BlueHornet
SUBJECT LINE: TEST
PERSONALIZATION
Past purchased products
Today Only: 20% Off On All Crew
Neck Sweaters
Browse behavior
Take The Tahitian Vacation You Have
Been Dreaming Of…
Gender
Buy Gifts For Him: All Men’s Suits
Now 10% Off
Location
Fight The Mid-West Humidity With
Back to School Deals Near You!

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SUBJECT LINE: TEST OFFERS
 Allen Edmonds Flash Sale
 Up to $200 Below MSRP
 Up to 50% Off MSRP
 Up to $200 Off MSRP
 Higher performing email across all
major KPIs
 Open Rate
 Click-Through Rate
 Revenue
 Conversion Rate
 AOV
 RPD

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CATER TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
 Last-minute shopping

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CATER TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
 Heightened stress

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ADD VALUE
 Become a holiday advisor
 Partner with retailer for sweepstakes

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4 KEYS TO HOLIDAY
EMAIL SUCCESS
 Lay a Firm Foundation
 Ensure You Get to the
Inbox
 Shine in the Inbox
 Plan for the Aftermath

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CREATE A HOLIDAY DEBRIEF
 Document what worked, what didn’t
 Analyze and document promotion
performance
 Reporting on all standard KPIs,
most importantly:
 AOV
 RPE
 Inventory what products were
purchased most or returned most
from an email

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NON-OFFER-BASED EMAILS
 Focus on relationship
 Do not include offer/incentive
 Be playful and fun!

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OFFER-BASED
 Offer something unique
 Offer incentive to redeem gift
cards online - get that
attribution!
 Incorporate what you know
about subscribers

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EDUCATE AND UPSELL
 What else do they need?
 Accessories
 Next logical purchase
 Related products/product lines
 What do they need to know?
 How To's
 Tips
 Service & Warranty Info
 Brand value prop
 Learn more from click behavior

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QUICK RECAP
1. LAY A FIRM FOUNDATION
 Calendars – Get creative with holidays!
 Focus on acquisition
 Disaster planning
2. ENSURE YOU INBOX
 Pre-holiday lifecycle programs
 Consider existing campaigns
 Manage reputation
 Ramp volume

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3. SHINE IN THE INBOX
 Master subject lines
 Cater to consumer behavior
 Be interactive
4. PLAN FOR THE AFTERMATH
 Holiday debrief
 Subscriber relationship building
 Offers and non-offer based strategy

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