Responsys

Forrester Research claims that SaaS penetration will surpass 50 percent this year, with organizations using an average of four solutions simultaneously. Furthermore, it's expected to double in 2015. Businesses cite agility as the primary benefit of moving to SaaS, but as retailers become more widely reliant on SaaS applications, the lack of visibility and control over performance threatens the promise of agility. Can data be the difference between resilient retailing and death by a thousand paper cuts?

According to eMarketer, online retail holiday sales will increase 15 percent this holiday season, seeing a rise from $53.7 billion in 2012 to $61.8 billion in 2013. With statistics like this, it's easy to understand the immense pressure that retailers feel to drive increased revenues during this time of year. However, building and getting more marketing campaigns out the door isn't the answer. Instead, marketers need to take a customer-centric approach to their holiday strategy, leveraging the data they have about their customers to individualize the customer journey.

A compilation of this year's best and brightest ideas.

Drumstick, cranberry sauce, coupon? Consumers will be served a heaping helping of shopping opportunities with their turkey this Thanksgiving, once a day reserved for family, food and football. More brick-and-mortar retail stores than ever are expected to be open for business on Thanksgiving, and email marketing firm Responsys said 80 percent of major retailers will send messages on the holiday this year, up from just 45 percent in 2009.

According to an article in Advertising Age, consumers will be served a heaping helping of shopping opportunities with their turkey this Thanksgiving. More brick-and-mortar retail stores than ever are expected to be open for business on Thanksgiving, and email marketing firm Responsys said 80 percent of major retailers will send messages on the holiday this year, up from just 45 percent in 2009.

More marketers are beginning to focus on new strategies to drive increased revenue in a changed email environment. The keys to success will be to send less email; leverage new data sources from channels like social media; better design for mobile devices; and extend personalized messaging in email beyond the inbox.

Emailers have cranked up the volume. In 2011, promotional email volume once again reached an all-time high. After a year of tracking the activity of more than 100 of the top retailers, Responsys put together the highlights that will help define your 2012 email marketing strategy.

Responsys has released its Viral & Community Links in Emails 2011 report, which found that retailers are more focused on using email marketing programs to promote their social communities and less focused on email for social sharing.

Email marketing is alive and well — look in your inbox if you don’t believe it. Promotional emails sent by online retailers hit an all-time high in 2010, according to Responsys Inc.

"Social and email are converging channels," said Ed Henrich, Senior Vice President of Professional Services at Responsys. "Share-with-your-network and community links are a significant part of that convergence at the moment, but someday soon marketers will be able to talk to individuals on Facebook just like they do via email now -- personalized one-to-one."