Consumers are increasingly researching and buying from mobile devices, and they are shopping earlier and making last minute purchases using gift cards and via multiple channels, so solidifying your email plans and programs early is especially important in 2014.
In this session, Loren McDonald, Vice President of Industry Relations, Silverpop, an IBM Company, and Meredith Gertz, Email Marketing Manager, Fabric.com, an Amazon Company, share ideas and tactics to help ensure that online retailers get the most out of their email marketing programs during the critical holiday shopping season. You’ll come away with actionable holiday promo next steps to easily integrate into your existing holiday marketing plan.
Discussion topics include:
Developing a holiday-specific welcome program
Segmentation and frequency considerations
Optimizing emails for mobile conversions
Revising templates with information about details such as shipping, return policy, and gift cards
Designing emails to better enable mobile navigation and browsing
Using content and personality to increase engagement
Creating high-converting gift card programs
Launching post-purchase programs
How to integrate your holiday subscribers into your regular non-holiday communication stream
1. Email Marketing Campaigns and
Tactics to Maximize 2014 Holiday
Revenue
Meredith Gertz, Fabric.com
@fabricdotcom
Loren McDonald, Silverpop, an IBM Company
@LorenMcDonald
2. Agenda
Shopping /
Mobile
Data
Email
Tactics
Takeaways
/ Q&A
Today’s Agenda
6. Fabric.com Email Readership
65% of
Fabric.com
email
subscribers
are reading on
smartphones
We’re seeing a big
bounce rate from
email to conversion.
A focus in creative is
to give users the very
best email/tablet
visual experience.
7. Agenda
Shopping /
Mobile
Data
8 Email
Tactics
Takeaways
/ Q&A
Agenda – Email Tactics
8. #1. Make Your Emails Mobile
Friendly
Especially for Remarketing Emails
9. Screensize-apalooza
Small Medium Large
iPhone
2.3” wide
Galaxy Note
3.2” wide
Nexus 7
7.3” wide
BlackBerry
2.6” wide
iPad Mini
5.3” wide
Excite 13
8.5” wide
Chart Source: Litmus
17. Typical Welcome Email Approach
Immediate
3-7 days
7-14 days
Immediate
Stand alone
Email # 1
Email # 2
Email # 3
3-part series
18. Add to an existing email or add as a
new email in onboarding series
• Payment alternatives (e.g. PayPal)
• Register today / social-sign-up option
• Download our mobile app
• Use our wishlist / save for later
function to complete the purchase
process later
19. #3. Targeting & Cadence
Targeting, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, et al
25. Fabric.com 2014 Holiday Approach
Fabric.com will be
increasing our
volume during the
2014 holiday over
2013 holiday
frequency
But we haven’t
seen an increase
in unsubscribe
rate ...
Holiday Emails Must Have a
Purpose
How does this help me?
Does the email take care of a gift,
fill a problem with a solution, let
me check something else off my
holiday list?
26. Use “White Space” to Maintain Engagement
The holidays are a great
opportunity to inspire our
customers.
In 2014 we’re going to be offering:
• More projects
• More ideas
• More inspiration from gifts to
home decoration.
27. Fabric.com Win Back – Deployed Prior to Holidays
Win Back Series
• 3 emails
• 60/90/120 days if no purchase
• Updating with holiday-themed images
28. Lapsed Customer: Increase Engagement– KAF
Ideas
- Drop-down menu (dolls)
- Put into automated program
based on response
29. • “Thanks” sent
on Thanksgiving
Day
• “You are part of
the Fabric.com
family”
• Generates LOTS
of positive
feedback
35. - Register now for easier and quicker checkout
process during the hectic holidays. Registering
also makes shopping on your smartphone or
tablet a breeze.
-We offer PayPal payment option – leave your
credit card in your wallet or purse!
- Download our mobile app for a superior
mobile shopping experience.
- Use our wishlist / save for later function to
complete the purchase process later.
- Register with social sign-in using your
Facebook account.
36. Content to Consider Including
Expect Increased frequency
Frequency options if you want less
Change preferences
Reassure simplicity of holiday shopping experience
Email-only specials
Information about:
Shipping schedules How to return items Gift-cards Call-center hours
37. #5. “Make It Easy” For
Consumers and Yourself
Don’t make them work or have to think
50. Smartphone Cart Abandoners – Ideas to Test
Test timing – within an
hour vs a few hours later
Mobile friendly or
responsive
Add alternative payment
process copy
51. • Shipping options
• Return policies
• Gift cards
• Payment options
Just a reminder – while you were doing your holiday Shopping Bag.
You left a few things in your Shopping Bag. We know it is a busy
time of year, so why not check out a few more gifts off you list and
complete your order now?
Add holiday theme and content.
59. Agenda
Mobile /
Shopping
Data
8 Email
Tactics
Takeaways
/ Q&A
Agenda –Takeaways / Q & A
60. Email
Tactics
Determine your
holiday
cadence
approach
Go responsive
or mobile-friendly
Deploy browse
& cart
reminders
Make it super
easy to buy
Understand the
holiday context
– shipping, gift
cards, returns
Ensure a great
purchase/post-purchase
experience
Takeaways / Action Steps
61. Contact Information
Loren McDonald
VP, Industry Relations
Silverpop, an IBM Company
@LorenMcDonald
Meredith Gertz
Email Marketing Manager
Fabric.com
@fabricdotcom
Entire marketing department needs to align around the customer – can’t operate in silos
Entire marketing department needs to align around the customer – can’t operate in silos
After the open comes the click… which is now the tap
TEST ON THE DEVICE-We have a test lab that allows us to see what our emails look like on iPhone (v3 to latest version) Android, blackberry, Gmail, Outlook, YahooBefore I send an email I open and view it on the device. I also use the Litmus/Email Insights tool to Preview
Slide 18/19: I don’t have any new graphics to replace here (considering it’s a holiday theme and I don’t have that creative yet) . If we’re talking about buttons and callouts, I’d focus on the Shop Now call to action that we use-it’s upper right-hand just below the discount amount. It’s that way on purpose-we’ve seen in heat map tests that people look for the discount amount and if we put the CTA beneath it we get a higher conversion/lower bounce rate. We use the blue “Shop Now” button universally in our site and all our emails so that our users are trained to look for that response. We were concerned about “ad blindness” in other words, our customers getting so used to seeing the CTA that they no longer respond to it, but it’s worked quite the opposite.
Behavioural marketing is the next big challenge for marketers – and the next big leap in making our marketing more Bob-like – and much more effective.
Slide 21:A great deal of our holiday traffic happens before the holidays. Sewers start early- so September and October are some of our busiest months. While this is true, we still recognize the importance of project shoppers and that November and December are times when customers are in a “buying mood”. Rather than offering deep discounts during the holidays (with the exception of Black Friday/Cyber Monday) the holidays are a great opportunity to inspire our customers. In 2014 we’re going to be offering more projects, more ideas and inspiration from gifts to home decoration.
Every email (especially during the holiday season when you have less time/inclination to browse) has to have a purpose and a story line that answers a key question for a customer: How does this help me?Does the email take care of a gift, fill a problem with a solution, let me check something else off my holiday list? If the answer is no, you’re probably not going to get a conversion unless they are buying on price. If you are selling on price- SELL IT. If you’re inspiring or offering a solution rely on imagery-but it should be INSPIRING imagery-beautiful and exciting- something that says YES- That’s PERFECT for Aunt Helen!
Winback (3 part series- 60 days no purchase/90 days no purchase/120 days) updating for holidays with holiday themed images
The set up for browse remarketing is the idea that customers/prospects are sniffing around your Web site …. Interested, but typically not ready to buy.
Over 3,000 shopping cart abandoned emails sent, per month
Segment versions between supplies versus SmartPaks cart abandonment
Sent in AM to customers who abandon cart day prior
Entire marketing department needs to align around the customer – can’t operate in silos
Entire marketing department needs to align around the customer – can’t operate in silos