Daylight Saving Time: Why Retailers Should Reset Marketing Strategies and ‘Fall’ Into New Revenue

This Sunday, setting our clocks back an hour for Daylight Saving Time marks the move toward colder, shorter days — but it doesn't have to all be winter humdrum. November is the month of long-awaited Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days, so retailers should jump at the chance to use Nov. 2 to reset both office clocks and all-important marketing strategies.

During the busy holiday season, timing is everything — especially when it comes to the battle of the inbox message that will get consumers buying both online and in-store. I've packaged up some tips and tricks on how to get timing down right so you can "fall" into seasonal revenue:

Fall Into the New and Improved
With holiday retail pressure in full swing, it's easy to settle into the comfort of pre-designed marketing campaigns and the same old holiday promotions. Use that extra hour this November to embrace a new retail season and "fall" into something different. For example, with the beginning of November, you can bet countless competitors will be running Thanksgiving promotions. Don't write off Black Friday specials, but wouldn't your customers love to see something unique, like a pajama and bedding sale in honor of National Sleep Comfort Month? Always take it back to your core audience; make it newsworthy, but keep it relevant.

PST, EST, Mountain Time or Personalized?
In today's competitive retail environment, customer communication is key. Both in-store and online, timing is everything. Industry standards for email marketing typically say 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and 3 p.m. on Thursdays are the best times to send emails. However, with valuable customers in different time zones, are you really delivering sales notifications and special offers at the right time? Segment your list and tailor your campaigns by buyer behavior, location and other factors to achieve higher open and clickthrough rates. Successful retailers look at data on when customers typically open emails or when they last opened an email from your brand and then personalize email delivery timing.

A Time and Template for All Seasons
You don't give the same gifts every year, so don't expect your customers to buy the same sweaters every holiday season. Don't let your email marketing templates get stale either. Be sure to have new templates for different seasons, audiences and special promotions. These templates will allow you to quickly create your content without having to generate every new aspect each and every time, while still maintaining some originality. Leverage an email marketing service that offers hundreds of pre-designed templates to suit your unique business needs, then build upon what's working. You can make minor changes (e.g., subject lines) once the major work is complete.

Start Planning to Spring Ahead
Fashion retailers debut their spring lines on the fall catwalk, but are you ready to debut your spring marketing campaigns yet? You may be dreading the hour we'll lose when Daylight Saving Time comes back around on March 8, so take that extra hour this fall to start planning for next year and getting your email marketing campaigns in shape. Let your data point you in the right direction this season and set up a schedule one year in advance, incorporating subject lines and niche messages, as well as automating emails like customer birthday specials. Leverage available technology like recurring autoresponders that can send renewal notices, reminders, monthly promotional emails, upsell emails, thank you's and more based on customer actions. A little investment setting these up now will save you hours in the future.

Put Your Marketing Campaigns Through the Test of Time
To get the biggest return on investment from email marketing, you need to continually test how different aspects of your email campaigns are being received. Avoid being the retailer with an empty store and abandoned shopping carts. Gain valuable insight through basic A/B testing. Run tests for a set time period to understand how your audience will respond to certain subject lines, content, frequency and other campaign elements, then tailor messaging based on what's working. A/B testing is a reliable way to ensure that your campaigns — and ultimately your products — are reaching the right audience and will stand the test of time.

Seamas Egan is the manager of revenue operations for Campaigner, an email marketing services provider. Seamas can be reached at seamas.egan@j2.com.