E-mail

Cyber Monday has been the busiest email marketing day of the year for the past five years straight and will surely retain the top spot again this year. Nearly 93 percent of major online retailers sent at least one promotional email to their subscribers on Cyber Monday, making it the busiest email marketing day ever. Last year, 88 percent of retailers sent email on Cyber Monday.

Every year at this time, savvy retailers finalize their game plans to get the most out of this season of buying. In 2011, Shop.org's eHoliday survey revealed that nearly 85 percent of retailers sent an email to their customers promoting Black Friday deals. The so-called "spray and pray" strategy of sending generic emails to everyone on your list is certainly the traditional approach to trying to capture the most sales. Will it work? Yes. Can you do better? Absolutely!

Sometimes it's refreshing to hear a brand admit that it's put together a fairly elaborate effort not to reel in more fish (i.e., customers) right then and there, but just to make sure the lake remains stocked with prospects. Home decor retailer Kirkland's is using in-store QR codes, Facebook, Twitter and display ads on publisher sites for its "Home for the Holidays" campaign — but not necessarily to sell stuff. Jessica Charlton, social media lead for Kirkland's, said the key campaign goals were to simply increase the retailer's email list and bring back past customers. Brand-new purchasers? Pure gravy.

With all the different ways to communicate with customers and prospects these days, marketers can easily lose sight of what's really effective. Email has consistently proven to have the best return on investment of any marketing channel out there — better than paid search, better than social media, better than affiliates, the list goes on. That said, many marketers aren't tapping into the full potential email offers. From deliverability issues to email campaigns not being integrated with other marketing channels to messages not being optimized for mobile devices, there are a host of reasons why brands are leaving money on the table when it comes to their email program.

Before Hurricane Sandy hit and devastated the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, American Apparel sent out an email blast to promote a special sale available to consumers in states on Sandy's path (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland). "20% off everything for the next 36 hours" the sale touted, "in case you're bored during the storm." Almost immediately, there was a small backlash on Twitter. Mashable, which reported on the sale and the reaction to it, highlighted a few angry tweets.

An American Apparel ad for a “Hurricane Sandy Sale” has sparked backlash from the Twittersphere. The retailer sent out an email blast Monday night, offering 20 percent off to customers for the next 36 hours “in case you’re bored during the storm.” 

This particular subject line really stuck out in my inbox: "Letter and Gift From Our CEO." It grabbed my attention for a few reasons. First, a letter and a gift sound intriguing. I was curious as to what the letter would contain, and what this gift really was. In addition, having the email from the CEO was also intriguing. The "From:" line on this email said, "J.C. Penney." The subject line said it was from the CEO.

The top online retailers sent each of their subscribers a year-to-date high of 4.1 promotional emails on average during the week ending Oct. 12. That's up 4 percent week-over-week, 15 percent from where it was four weeks ago and 22 percent year-over-year. Ignoring the spike in messaging right before Halloween, last week was really the peak of the Halloween messaging season. Christmas messaging is starting to pick up and I expect Thanksgiving messaging, which has been almost nonexistent so far, to slowly pick up this week.

J.C. Penney appears to have returned to a practice it once condemned: couponing. At the bottom of the latest of Chief Executive Ron Johnson's increasingly frequent emails to customers, J.C. Penney offers a "gift": a barcoded offer for $10 off customers’ next purchase of at least $10. "We can't wait for you to see the new and improved jcp," the promotion says.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and yes he makes a list and checks it twice. But no, he is not the only one making and checking lists. Retailers all over the map will be making, checking and rechecking their email marketing lists over and over again as they prepare for what they hope is a very profitable holiday shopping season.