2012 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season

Email marketing, which delivers an unparalleled return on investment as compared to traditional and other digital channels, becomes even more critical to retailers during the holiday season. To date in 2012, email marketing volume has already grown 20%, signifying that the channel will retain its importance, especially with the online holiday shopping season becoming longer and increasingly influenced by mobile devices.

To help retailers and other B2C companies maximize holiday season revenue from email and digital marketing campaigns, Responsys is pleased to release the 2012 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season, which is based on the holiday email activity of the more than 100 top U.S. online retailers tracked by the Retail Email Blog and the insights of Responsys' Strategic Marketing Services team.

The 56-page sixth annual holiday guide discusses new trends, challenges and opportunities that will require marketers to adjust their holiday email marketing strategies, such as:

● Thanksgiving has become the new unofficial start of the holiday season, supplanting Black Friday. More stores opening on Thanksgiving, the rise of mobile, and bigger email marketing pushes have all turned this once quiet family holiday into a hotly contested shopping day. Last year, 75 percent of major retailers sent at least one promotional email campaign to their subscribers on Thanksgiving Day, up from 60 percent in 2010 and only 45 percent in 2009.

● Retailers have extended the online shopping holiday season by promoting express shipping much more vigorously. “Last Sleigh Day,” the last day that most retailers guaranteed delivery by Christmas, was the fourth busiest email marketing day of 2011.

● With more people reading email on a mobile device, it has become more critical than ever for retailers to send emails that are smartphone-friendly—or at least tablet friendly. The day before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Christmas Day will be particularly important days to send emails optimized for the mobile experience.

Get the Full Report

>>Download the 6th Annual Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season from Responsys for free.

Other research available from Responsys: 
2012 Email Design Look Book

Email Engagement & Deliverability Study
Viral &Community Links in Email 
Email Design & Coding Recommendations

…and you can find even more reports on Responsys’s Downloads page.

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