47 Ways to Prepare Your Email Marketing and Ecommerce Store For The 2020 Holiday Season

The holiday shopping season is fast approaching there is a lot of uncertainty about what will unfold. Questions surrounding the health of the economy and what a resurgence of COVID-19 might have on the supply chain make planning for this holiday season unique. 

One thing I do expect from this season is for ecommerce to further increase its already-increased share of retail sales. We saw email become a go-to channel for consumers during the COVID pandemic with a nearly 23% lift in conversion rates, and I expect this to carry over into the holidays. If you are an email marketer, here are 47 ways you can prepare your marketing program and ecommerce store for the holiday shopping season.   

General:

1. Start marketing early — e.g., late October
2. Pay attention to the Cyber 10
3. Pay close attention to the feel of the nation (COVID, economy) and adjust your marketing copy accordingly
4. Don’t wait until Black Friday to start marketing—again, start early

Technical Prep:

5. Collect SMS numbers along with email addresses—grow your trusted marketing channels
6. Audit website forms (e.g., sign-up, exit-intent)—how to edit them and who has access to do so
7. Test sign-up forms and ensure they work properly

Email Design:

8. Use emojis in subject lines
9. Use emojis in the preheader text
10. Make your emails mobile-friendly
11. Include a “top gifts” or similar section in your nav bar
12. Create a custom, holiday-themed header
13. Keep the CTA obvious in emails (let people digest the message quickly)
14. Make sale exclusions obvious—avoid misleading people and frustrating them at checkout
15. Acknowledge that self-gifting is real and design your messaging to account for it

Promotional Marketing Messages:

16. Promote value-adds/differentiators in your emails (e.g., extended return policies, always free shipping)
17. Use remails—but not every time (think about when it makes sense)
18. Send multiple emails on peak days (Thanksgiving Day, Back Friday, Cyber Monday)
19. Utilize SMS marketing, both as a stand-alone channel and to complement email
20. Utilize a sense of urgency (subject lines, CTA, copywriting)
21. Use product recommendations in your emails (for self-gifting, of course)

Automated Email Marketing Messages:

22. Adjust workflow timing (are you suppressing new signups from Black Friday emails?)
    Welcome series
    Cart abandonment
    Lapsed-purchaser
    Product review emails
23. Create seasonal automated messages (e.g., holiday-specific welcome series)
24. Optimize your transactional messages for sales (shipping and order confirmation)
25. Adjust abandoned cart timing rules
26. Increase the number of abandoned cart messages
27. Adjust the discounting strategy in your cart abandonment messages (is the discount worse than your holiday everyday promotion?)
28. Use browse/product abandonment messages—please, use them!
29. Integrate SMS messages into your email automation workflows, especially cart abandonment

Paid Search/Social:

30. Monitor your ROAS
31. Retarget email contacts on social and paid search
32. Test different/new social channels and search engines (e.g., Bing, Pinterest, YouTube)
33. Use influencers

Customer Service:

34. Implement live chat on your website
35. Extend your return policies
36. Solidify your BOPIS strategy/expand BOPIS offerings
37. Collect info for gift-reminder messaging

Discounts/Benefits:

38. Test different incentives (% off, & off, tiered discounts, deals of the day, X days of deals, flash sales, free shipping, free express shipping, VIP-only, SMS-only, email-only, for BOPIS-only orders, etc.)
39. Understand that free shipping has increasingly being used as THE incentive as the season winds down. Test it and save yourself some margin.
40. Make a holiday playlist on Spotify (for both your customers and employees)
41. Offer free gift wrapping

Prepare for the Unexpected:

42. Prepare an “oops” email in advance
43. Have backup promotions and coupon codes already created and loaded in your ecomm platform
44. Identify potential shipping challenges and have a contingency plan in place
45. Identify possible supply chain chokepoints and prepare for the “what if”
46. Prepare for a pandemic resurgence — and what that measns for your business

Finally:

47. Have fun and enjoy the season!

If you have any specific questions around the holiday season, please feel free to contact me!

And, of course, some of these tips from 2019 may still be useful, so check out this post, “Top Holiday Email Marketing Planning Resources”

2019 Email and E-commerce Holiday Season Recap

The 2019 holiday season has concluded, and once again ecommerce experienced record-breaking sales. This online holiday season registered just above $142 billion in online sales, a 13% increase from last year, according to Adobe Analytics.

But what made the 2019 holiday season so successful, and which trends have become the new normal? In this recap I’ll discuss:

• The Subtle Nuances of November

• The Cyber Five expanding into the Cyber Ten

• The new daily online sales benchmark to be aware of

• The growth in smartphones

• Why email marketing is so important during the holidays

• Top takeaways and how to use them

Click here to continue reading “2019 Holiday Season Takeaways and Ecommerce Marketing Action Items”

Holiday Predictions Recap: Did I Hit the Mark or Shoot My Eye Out?

The holiday season exploded, much like a shot fired from a Red Rider carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. Back in October, I laid out my predictions for the 2017 holiday season. Now it’s time to take aim at my predictions and see whether I had Black Bart in the crosshairs or ended up shooting my eye out.

Where I Hit the Mark

Prediction: More Mobile Sales
Last year, mobile accounted for 30% of all online sales. I predicted mobile sales would increase to roughly 35%.

Result: We all saw this coming. Mobile accounted for 40% of online purchases, 33% of online revenue, and 56% of traffic, according to Adobe. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times; if you’re not optimized for mobile, you’re not optimized.

Prediction: Early Sales

Online holiday sales will start in October.

Result: Seeing as every day in November drove $1 billion in online sales, we know people were shopping the deals early. From my personal inbox, the incentives offered by retailers during the final week in October were right in line with those offered in November.

Prediction: Exclusions Apply

You will see fewer “off everything” promotions and an increase in discounts on “select items.”

Result: I did notice an uptick in select categories of sale items, such as discounts on pajamas one day and sweaters the next. While I did see exclusionary sales, I think they were handled much better than last year. Last year, in many instances, I would cart items only to find out at checkout that they were not discounted. This year, I noticed the sales having their own sections on websites and emails clearly defining which categories of products were on sale.

Prediction: Black Friday and Cyber Monday

I predicted both days would drive over $1 billion in mobile commerce and that the promotions for these days would start on Sunday or Monday prior.

Result: Black Friday raked in nearly $1.9 billion in mobile revenue, nearly 37% of all of Black Friday’s online revenue. Cyber Monday became the first day ever to reach $2 billion in mobile revenue, setting a new mobile benchmark.

Black Friday wasn’t just a day – it was a weeklong event. Even though Gray November was in full effect, many retailers started their Black Friday earlier that week. I made 92% of my purchases prior to Black Friday, and the other 8% on Black Friday itself. The deals were out early.

Prediction: Thanksgiving Day

I predicted that Thanksgiving Day would cross $2 billion in online sales for the first time ever.

Result: Online sales clocked in at $2.87 billion for the day. This day keeps growing as a critical online shopping day.

Prediction: Browserless Commerce

I predicted voice assistants would be the hottest sellers of the season, with Amazon devices being the No. 1 sellers in this group.

Result: Well, Apple’s HomePod was delayed until 2018, handing market share to Google and Amazon, and Google did not disclose how many devices were sold during the holidays.

But does it even matter? Amazon appears to be the big winner here. Amazon’s David Limp, head of devices, said that millions of Alexa-enabled devices were sold over Black Friday weekend. Amazon later said the Echo Dot was the top-selling item on the website worldwide during the holiday season, while the Fire TV Stick was runner-up. Can households claim Alexa as a dependent?

Prediction: Amazon’s Take

Amazon captured 38% of the online holiday sales in 2016, and I predicted this figure would inch up to the 45% mark.

Result: Amazon is king. GBH Insights estimated Amazon accounted for between 45% and 50% of online sales during the holidays. On Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Amazon accounted for 45% of online transactions among the 50 top retailers, according to Hitwise. Amazon also announced Cyber Monday was its best day ever, surpassing even Prime Day. Considering they were responsible for 44% of all online sales in 2017, this all sounds like just another day in Amazon-land.

A Few Half-Baked Holiday Results

Prediction: Even More Mobile Clicks
In Q4 2016, mobile accounted for nearly 57% of paid search clicks, with 47% coming from smartphones. I predicted we would see continued increases.

Result: At the time of writing, the data is not yet available. However, with 56% of holiday traffic coming from mobile, I would expect this prediction to be a successful one.

Prediction: In-Store Exclusives

In an attempt to drive in-store traffic, I predicted you might see a rise in brick-and-mortar retailers offering “off everything” or deeper discount sales for in-store only.

Result: There was a noticeable increase in retailers offering an additional discount, on top of the online discount, for shopping in-store. However, a relatively small number offered store-only discounts. In fact, I was astounded to see some omnichannel retailers make specific mention of the discounts being for online purchases only. Why would they not want their customers to come into the store? If anything, make it available in both places.

Prediction: Re-engineering the Brick-and-Mortar Experience
I predicted we’d see a lot of in-store-only Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, as well as some in-store price-matching.

Result: While there was a noticeable rise in extra in-store incentives, there seemed to be relatively few in-store-only sales for these signature days. This might be why Shopertrak reported that foot traffic to physical retail stores was down 1% on Black Friday.

And to no one’s surprise, Black Friday deals were widely available for the entire week (and weekend) of Thanksgiving. Looking at my own inbox, more than 20% of all email subject lines contained the term “Black Friday” on the Monday before.

And yes, price-matching was seemingly everywhere. Stores like Dick’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Sears, Newegg, and even Amazon, in some cases, all deployed price-matching strategies during the holidays.

Prediction: Email Marketing Will Continue to Dominate

Result: This one is still pending, as complete data is still being analyzed. Adobe did report that on Cyber Monday, email drove 24.9% of sales, closely followed by the 22.9% from paid search. My inbox was extremely busy. In November, I received almost 25% more emails this year than last year. Year over year, Bronto sent more than 25% more emails on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Email continues to be a highly effective marketing tool for retailers.

Where I Shot My Eye Out

Prediction: More Billion Dollar Days.

I predicted we’d see 60 of the 61 days in November and December rake in $1 billion in online sales, up from the 57 days in 2017.

Result: 58 of 61 days topped the $1 billion mark. Every day in November reached this milestone, further reinforcing Gray November as a mainstay, not a trend. While improving upon last year, December let me down. Come on, December!

Prediction: The largest online shopping day of the year

I predicted that for the first time, Black Friday – not Cyber Monday – would be the largest online shopping day of the year.

Result: Here’s the big one. I predicted Black Friday to be the online king of the year. My reasoning was based on the industry-accepted benchmark of 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales of $3.34 and $3.45 billion, respectively. We have been seeing this gap seemingly close year over year. Inexplicably, when the 2016 baselines were referenced, these numbers were surprisingly different, at over $4.3 and $5.65 billion each day, respectively. What a difference! While the industry thought Black Friday was about to catch Cyber Monday in sales, these adjusted numbers show that this wasn’t quite the case.

All in all, this year’s Cyber Monday reportedly clocked in at $6.59 billion, and outperformed Black Friday by $1.5 billion. Although Cyber Monday has some breathing room as king of online sales, Black Friday, at over $5 billion, is no day to smirk at.

And What About My “Bold” Predictions?

Predictions:

• Starbucks will take flak over its holiday cup design. ‘Tis the season!

• I will once again purchase my tree on Black Friday.

• Fruitcake, while good in theory, will continue to be a poor party dessert.

Results: A little, yes, and yes!

The Starbucks cup design faced only minor controversy this year. Hey, someone has to complain, right?

I again purchased my tree on Black Friday, but not from the usual store. Upon arriving at my usual retailer, I was greeted with a ghost town. My local fire department’s tree lot was the winner this year. I absolutely loved my tree, and that usual retailer may have just lost my tree business forever.

And no, I did not serve fruitcake at my holiday party.

While not all of my predictions for 2017 hit the target, coming up with them is always fun. And by all accounts, this holiday season was great for consumers looking for a deal. Although retailer margins may have been squeezed, retailers certainly benefited from the high shopping turnout. This year, I look forward to seeing who Amazon acquires (I have my thoughts), how consumer behaviors will shift, and how retailers will adapt to meet their needs. These will, of course, all affect my predictions. Hopefully, next year, my predictions will be more like a Red Rider and less like pink bunny pajamas. Only time will tell.

This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant.

Confessions of a Holiday Shopper: Why I Didn’t Wait Until Black Friday

This holiday season was predicted to be the best yet for online retailers – and it was. Fifty-eight out of 61 days drove over $1 billion in online sales, including every single day in November. Gray November, the month-long period of deep discounts, is now commonplace. But do people buy more or simply buy earlier?

This year, I wanted to find out how early discounts affected my own shopping behavior and see what lessons it might offer for retailers. So, I conducted a little experiment.

A Little Background

My yearly holiday shopping comes with a double whammy. See, my wife’s birthday falls one week before Christmas. After buying gifts for my wife and the kids, my digital wallet looks more like a countdown clock in an email message, getting smaller and smaller as the seconds tick away.

I traditionally draft my gift list a few days before Black Friday and then purchase over that weekend. But this year, I pivoted. Having tracked the Gray November phenomena over the past several years, I felt confident that the discounts would be just as strong prior to Black Friday weekend as during it.

You can’t write about holiday shopping (or conduct your own holiday shopping experiment) without addressing the elephant in the room – Amazon. Although I purchase from Amazon, I am not a Prime member. Am I allowed to say that? I guess the first step is admitting it. As a non-Prime member, here's what I was looking for in my shopping experience:

• Could other retailers compete with Amazon for my attention and wallet?

• Would I regret buying “early”

• Was Amazon the right retailer, or did someone else offer value or service that was better?

• In the end, how much wallet share would Amazon nab, and why?

Let the Purchasing Begin

Although my very first purchase took place on November 13, my primary shopping started on November 16. I completed 75% of my shopping prior to Thanksgiving Day and 92% prior to Black Friday.

To Amazon or Not to Amazon?

HitWise reported that Amazon accounted for 55% of Black Friday sales and 45% of Thanksgiving Day sales. For the holidays overall, GBH Insights estimates Amazon accounted for about a 50% share of online revenue.

For me, 33% of my purchases were made on Amazon, accounting for 11% of my wallet. However, my November 13 purchase was a one-time, big-ticket item. By removing this specialty purchase, the adjusted wallet share Amazon earned from me jumps to 29%. Even though money spent is money spent, I view this adjusted 29% as a more accurate number, as it's based on my typical gifting habits.

One of the main reasons I chose Amazon was the convenience of buying many diverse products in a single order at a price that was comparable to or better than a competitor’s. When the price was comparable, I mostly leaned toward Amazon for value-add reasons, such as my confidence in their customer service.

But Amazon certainly lost out on a few of my purchases. Twenty-five percent of the time, the price was higher. Another 25% of the time, I was concerned about the quality of the Amazon offerings (particularly the private-label offerings), and 17% of the time, Amazon didn’t carry what I was looking for.

My Black Friday purchases all came from Amazon. I purposely shopped for the items prior to Black Friday, placed them in my cart, and left them abandoned. The prices at this time were comparable to other sites, and I knew that come Black Friday, I’d get a deal somewhere. Interestingly enough, Amazon was the one that came through with the largest price drops.

Customer Service and the Consumer Experience

I had two notable customer service experiences while shopping. The first was from Amazon. For one purchase, I ordered a product that was fulfilled by Amazon. The product quantity showed there were six remaining. One full day after placing my order, I received an email from Amazon stating the item could not be fulfilled due to the product not being in stock. But the website still showed the product as in stock and ready to ship. Needless to say, I found this to be a very poor customer experience.

On November 18, I placed an order from a national omnichannel retailer. They had a 50% off sale on several items I was shopping for. However, one of the items on my list was not on sale. The question became: do I purchase now or wait to see if the other item goes on sale? I assessed the situation. Because they offered free shipping and free returns, I had nothing to lose. After all, if they discounted the item later, I could simply return the order and place a new one with all of the items on sale.

So I purchased, paying full price for the one item. The very next morning, the full-price item went on sale at 50% off. Because it was less than 24 hours since the order was placed, I emailed customer service asking if they would credit the difference. They declined to do so, instead instructing me to sign up for their emails so I don’t miss a future sale. Umm, OK. Instead, I let them incur the cost for not only shipping the new order but also processing the return. This incident reduces my chances of doing business with them in the future.

These two experiences highlight a lesson for retailers: Be sure the product counts on your website are accurate and that your customer service policies allow you to meet customer expectations. In both cases, I had a negative experience. For Amazon purchases, I’m skeptical of the value of paying for Prime. For the other retailer, knowing they won’t address a simple price adjustment gives me little confidence that they would satisfactorily address a more complex customer service issue.

Final Thoughts

I’m just one shopper, but I feel confident my buying behaviors are fairly representative – customer service and value trump price. Don’t leave the success of your business dependent on discounts. If you're a retailer, spend the next six months forging stronger relationships with your customers. Review your customer service policies. When issues arise, don’t just say you’re sorry. Go out of your way to make things right! Communicate value-adds that are meaningful for your customers.

When it comes to purchasing from you or a competitor, give shoppers a reason to choose you. If you rely on price alone, you’ll eventually lose.

Eggnog and Fruitcake: Holiday Predictions That You Can Stomach

With the holiday shopping season about to begin, I thought this would be the perfect time to share my expectations for the end of the year. After all, planning is all about anticipation, and knowing what to anticipate will help you better prepare for the holidays. Here goes:

More Billion Dollar Days. 2016 saw 57 of 61 days in November and December rake in $1 billion in online sales. This year, I expect to see 60 of 61 days hit that mark. Why not all 61? Everyone needs a day to rest.

More Mobile Sales. Last year, mobile commerce grew nearly 54% during the holidays and accounted for 30% of all online sales. Mobile sales have been increasing year over year, and this trend will continue. Be sure you’re optimized for mobile because I expect it will account for roughly 35% of all online holiday sales.

And Even More Mobile Clicks. In Q4 2016, mobile accounted for nearly 57% of paid search clicks, with 47% coming from smartphones. Expect this to continue. Mobile is no longer a trend; it’s the way most consumers shop – at least some of the time. The smartphone is now the primary device that the majority of internet visitors use to access the internet. And in the not-so-distant future, it’ll be their primary device for buying online.

Promotions and In-Store Sales

Early Sales. Online holiday sales will start in October. Retailers have been discounting earlier and earlier to get a jump-start on their competition, turning Cyber Weekend into a month-long event that I like to call Gray November. But with Amazon taking in nearly 40% of all online sales last holiday season, and Prime memberships continuing to rise, retailers have even more to lose by not getting an early start.

Exclusions Apply. For the past several years, especially last year, I saw a noticeable trend in holiday sales having mass exclusions. As a heavy shopper during this period of time, I found myself frustrated. But frustrated or not, I expect this trend to continue. You will see fewer “off everything” promotions and an increase in discounts on “select items.” If you plan to restrict sales, be clear as to what is – and isn’t – included.

In-Store Exclusives. You may see a rise in brick-and-mortar retailers offering “off everything” or deeper discount sales for in-store only. This allows a retailer to drive that sought-after in-store traffic, while offering shoppers deeper discounts and no shipping fees. Seems like an obvious win-win.

Re-engineering the Brick-and-Mortar Experience. I expect in-store sales to increase from last year, but not as much as ecommerce sales. You’ll see a large push from multichannel merchants to drive in-store traffic, touting extra incentives for shopping in-store and even discounts for in-store pickup. As 65% of consumers make additional purchases when going in to pick up items, the tactic makes a lot of sense. Expect to see in-store-only Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales (likely all weekend long), as well as some in-store price-matching. While never a long-term model for success, many retailers may find it worthwhile during the holidays.

The Big Shopping Days

Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While no longer the start of the shopping season, these days are still known as deep discount days. Shoppers oblige and spend more online on these two marquee days than any others during the year. But which day is bigger?

• Both days will drive over $1 billion in mobile commerce.

• For the first time, Black Friday –not Cyber Monday – will be the largest online shopping day of the year.

• Of course, the marketing and promotions for these days will start on the Sunday or Monday prior.

Thanksgiving Day. This will continue its growth as an online shopping day and cross $2 billion in online sales for the first time ever.

Marketing Tools, Top Gifts and the Obligatory Amazon Mention

Browserless Commerce. Speaking of the Echo, voice assistants will be the hottest sellers of the season. While I predict Amazon devices to be the number-one sellers in this group, Google and Apple will see significant sales in this arena. The age of voice is upon us. “Hey Santa, bring me a new train set.”

Email Marketing. Email will continue to dominate as an online marketing tool during the holidays. Last year, Bronto sent 50% more messages than they did during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2015, sending more messages in November than ever before in company history. I know my inbox will be busy.

Amazon’s Take. Amazon captured 38% of the online holiday sales last year, and it will once again own a substantial portion of the holiday ecommerce space. With the rise in Prime memberships and adoption of the Echo, I would not be surprised to see this figure inch up to the 45% mark.

Three Even Bolder Predictions:

• Starbucks will take flack over its holiday cup design. ‘Tis the season!

• I will once again purchase my tree on Black Friday.

• Fruitcake, while good in theory, will continue to be a poor party dessert.

What could go wrong? Apart from the hostility of rogue nation states, what else could throw holiday shopping into a tailspin? How about fallout from the Equifax data breach? Potential widespread credit card fraud resulting from this breach could put a major wrench in holiday spending and shopping habits. Credit cards could be frozen due to fraud, consumers could lose trust in online security when purchasing, and it could over-inflate online sales data if fraudulent sales are racked up. There have already been reports of a 15% increase in fraud as early as August of this year. This lack of trust in security might wind up benefiting major, name-brand retailers, as many consumers tend to put more trust in them.

What do you think you’ll see this holiday season? I plan to watch my inbox, shop my exclusionary sales online, and sip my coffee from a ridiculed Starbuck’s cup, all from the comfort of my living room. Just don’t be a Scrooge and charge me for shipping!

This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant.

3 Holiday Trends: Prepare for the Marathon, Not a Sprint

The holiday shopping season is the ecommerce version of the Boston Marathon’s Heartbreak Hill. It’s a season that will challenge retailers, stress them, push them to their limits and, many times, either make or break them. Effectively planning for the final stretch requires not only looking at last year’s results, but considering what went well for your peers. Let’s look at three trends from last year that will keep you from hitting the wall this year.

Every Day Is a Holiday

Last year, 57 of the 61 days in November and December generated over $1 billion in online sales. In November, 29 of 30 days reached this major milestone. The rise of consumer self-gifting and the tendency of retailers to offer earlier and deeper discounts have contributed to this trend. Premier stand-alone days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have increasingly given way to Gray November, a month-long discounting period, and consumers have quickly bought into it.

When preparing for the holiday season, don’t wait until Black Friday week. Treat the season as a marathon, not a sprint. Many of your competitors will begin their holiday marketing when the calendar flips to November, if not sooner. Planning for an extended holiday season will allow you to better balance the types of promotions and discounts you offer.

Mobile Is King

We all know mobile shopping is growing, and last holiday season really proved that. Mobile accounted for 30% of all online holiday sales, growing nearly 54% and outpacing that of not only retail (4.8%), but also ecommerce (17.8%). Mobile purchasing is becoming more prevalent each year. Expect this trend to continue.

If people are searching more via mobile devices, you would expect paid ad results to follow a similar trend. Predictably, they did. The percentage of paid search clicks on mobile devices has been steadily rising year over year. In Q4, it accounted for nearly 57% of all paid search clicks, with 47% coming from mobile phones. In 2015, those numbers were 48% and 32.6% respectively. When planning your paid search spend this holiday season, factor in which devices you are targeting with that budget.

The Resurgence of Black Friday … Online

Everyone knows Black Friday and Cyber Monday have historically been premier seasonal shopping days. But with the emergence of Gray November, they are no longer the “start” of the shopping season – they’re merely a part of it. In some respects, they even mark the final days before gift-giving and stocking stuffers become the major marketing theme.

As we know that promotions and consumer shopping now starts at the beginning of November, it’s important to plan your special sales around these key dates. Let’s look at what we’re seeing play out between these two premier days.

Last year, Black Friday online sales totaled $3.34 billion. At that time, it was the largest online shopping day in history. Not only that, but this was the first day ever to see $1 billion in mobile commerce.

The title of history’s largest online sales day lasted only a couple of days, however, as Cyber Monday edged it out with $3.45 billion in online sales. Online retailers might expect Cyber Monday to be the prime promotional day of the year, but I believe this is a mistake. Remember: While Cyber Monday is commonly regarded as an online retailer sales day, almost everyone is online nowadays. Cyber Monday is no longer the online version of Black Friday. Black Friday is.

Black Friday has been growing as an online sale day year after year. In fact, it’s growing faster than Cyber Monday. Even as close as they were in online sales last year, Black Friday grew nearly 22% year over year, whereas Cyber Monday grew only 12%. Expect Black Friday to be the biggest online shopping day of 2017.

If you are planning your peak sales or promotions around these mid-season days, I would make Black Friday the pinnacle. You don’t want to be late to the party and miss out because customers shopped other Black Friday deals. And don’t forget that many retailers will start their Black Friday deals prior to Black Friday. Welcome to Gray November!

Plan for Success

Even the best planning won’t guarantee success. The season is long, and the hill is steep. But we know consumers will shop – and shop early. We know they will browse and buy on mobile devices. And we know every day will be its own little holiday. A bit of internal analysis and time spent planning for these trends will give you the best chance of crossing the holiday finish line with ease.

This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant.

Greg Zakowicz is a eCommerce and retail marketing speaker, analyst, strategist, and award-winning podcaster whose experience spans email, mobile, and social media marketing. More about Greg here.

A Gray November Recap From My Inbox’s Point of View

With consumers shopping earlier, thanks to heavier discounting, earlier promotions, and a trend toward buying for themselves, Black Friday and Cyber Monday no longer kick off holiday shopping. They’re merely a part of it. Instead, we’re now seeing the rise of Gray November, a month-long start to the holiday shopping season. According to Adobe Digital Insights, over $1 billion in online revenue was generated on 27 of the first 28 days in November, for a grand total of $39.97 billion. And of those sales, 18% can be attributed to email.

As a subscriber to hundreds of email programs, I decided to look at my own inbox for indications that the Gray November trend is continuing. Here are some of my key findings.

Discounting

In an attempt to attract customers earlier in the season, retailers have begun offering discounts continuously throughout the year, with deeper discounts around the holidays. Consumers have come to expect these early discounts, and retailers have delivered.

Did the trend continue this year? From what I saw, the answer is yes.

In looking through my inbox for incentives advertised in the subject line*, discounts as high as 50% were among the top three incentives offered every single week since mid-October. Nearly two weeks prior to Black Friday, 50% became the most advertised discount. In fact, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, the 50% discount was the most touted, with a minor exception on November 26, when it came in just 0.4% behind a free shipping offer.*

Please note: Subject lines may have contained multiple discounts, such as 20% and free shipping. This email was counted for both.

Cyber Weekend Send Volume

If companies are looking to gain customers earlier in the season, we assume they‘ll send more emails earlier. How did the rest of Gray November compare to the always busy Thanksgiving weekend?

The three highest send days in my inbox were, in order: Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day.

Even with a month-long shopping period, this should come as no surprise. These signature days are still synonymous with holiday shopping and continued to be the most popular sending days for retailers during Gray November. Black Friday sends were 39.4% greater than Thanksgiving Day, and Cyber Monday was 12.6% higher than Black Friday. Bronto Software also reported an 11.4% lift in emails sent on Cyber Monday compared to Black Friday.

Cyber Week Sends

In looking at sends to my personal email, they began to dramatically increase during the week of November 14, and this increase only continued during the week of Thanksgiving. When I compare daily sends that week with the average number of sends for the same weekday during the three weeks prior, I saw these jumps in sending activity.

Subject Lines

I always enjoy seeing what subject line strategies marketers go with during the harried Cyber Weekend. Here are a few things I noticed from this year’s holiday email flurry:

• Thanksgiving Day: “Black Friday” was used in 34% of subject lines, compared to only 20% for “Thanksgiving.”

• Black Friday: The term “Black Friday” was used in 50% of emails sent.

• November 26: “Black Friday” was used in 26% of emails, and 10% referred to the sale being “extended.”

• November 27: “Cyber Monday” was used in 21.8% of subject lines, and “Black Friday” was still being used for 14.4%.

• Cyber Monday: The term “Cyber Monday” was used in 46% of emails, which was slightly less than the 50% of Black Friday mentions that day.

• November 23-28: Only 12 emails (of thousands) used my first name in the subject line.

The New Norm

Gray November continues to gain ground, as consumers are expecting and finding discounts earlier in the season. If retailers were late to adapt to this shift in consumer shopping behavior this year, they won’t likely do so next year. Gray November is the new norm.

3 Ways to Cultivate Post-Holiday Customer Loyalty

How do retailers turn seasonal gift buyers into year-round customers? The fact is, it’s a struggle. Some customers may not want to hear from you for another 365 days, while others may need more personalized suggestions before they’ll make another purchase. Either way, at the very least, you want them to come back next year. But too often, retailers don’t devise a plan and simply lump these customers back into the regular stream of batch-and-blast messaging.

True story. My colleague used to buy a gift basket every year from the same company. She came to rely on their perfectly timed email with details of the previous year’s purchase and the option to reorder. It was so simple that she never bothered to shop around for a better deal. But last year, she didn’t receive that email. Instead, the company blasted her inbox with generic promotional emails. Figuring one of the promotions would help her get to the price point she’d enjoyed in the past, she started shopping. But she soon gave up. The promotions were all designed to promote a higher spend, so she ended up buying her gift basket from a competitor.

Instead of using the same old batch-and-blast strategy and expecting different results, you should be looking at every possible angle to exploit gift-giving opportunities well beyond the holiday season. Setting up a gift reminder email program is one of these opportunities. While common among online floral companies, it’s surprisingly underutilized by other retailers. Let’s change that.

Setting up such a service doesn’t have to be major undertaking. It’s actually quite easy to collect the necessary data and integrate it into your automated email process. Here are a few ways to begin turning those seasonal gifters into year-long buyers with a basic gift reminder program.

Optimize Your Forms

No need to start from scratch. Try tweaking your existing managed preference form. Update it to include fields such as occasion date, first name of possible recipient, relationship (e.g. child, parent) and occasion.

You can always create a new form and embed it on your purchase confirmation page. Just be sure to use warm, friendly language and let people know why you’re asking for this information. Those who find value in your products as gifts will typically see the value of your reminder service.

Optimize Your Transactional Messages

Take the time to incorporate promotional material into your order and shipping confirmations. Beyond the immediate upsell, create a section that calls attention to your gift reminder service. Not only are these messages opened at a high rate, but they are also sent to non-subscribers. This could double as a great way to grow your subscriber base.

Create Dedicated Messaging

Advertise your gift reminder service through stand-alone messaging. From an automated standpoint, include these messages in your engagement series, such as your post-purchase and welcome series. For a new subscriber, this is a value-add your site offers that your competitor might not. For those who just purchased, it might plant the seed that they should keep you top of mind the next time they’re looking for a gift. In addition to these automated messages, consider sending these messages to your entire audience once or twice a year.

No matter how you collect this important data, it will allow you to better target your messages and include product recommendations that cater to the specific recipient or the event. A subscriber searching for an upcoming anniversary gift will most certainly want to consider a different assortment of products than the parent shopping for a five-year-old’s birthday. Just imagine the personalization possibilities. Talk about relevant messaging!

A great user experience requires relevant content. A gift reminder service provides this relevance and helps build a connection between the consumer and the brand. Collecting more specific details from your customer creates so many opportunities to sell to these gift-buyers throughout the year, promote your brand as a go-to gift destination, and provide an overall better user experience.

This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant.

How to Give Your Lifecycle Messages a Holiday Refresh

With the holiday season comes a natural increase in the number of lifecycle messages sent. Think about it. More site visitors lead to more email sign-ups, which trigger more welcome series sends. An increase in shoppers means an increase in browse and cart recovery messaging and post-purchase emails for those holiday buyers. And all of these messages affect the overall user experience.

Have you reviewed your lifecycle messaging lately? What's the current experience like for your customers? It’s important to analyze it, particularly during the time of year when consumers will likely be browsing and buying more.

Here are three lifecycle series that are often significantly affected by the holidays and some suggestions for adjusting them for the busy shopping season.

1. Welcome Series

Consider shortening the time between messages. During this time of year, consumers have so much information readily available to them, and they tend to make purchase decisions quicker. Combine this with a natural increase in promotional send cadence, and you may want to shift your messages from every three days to every one or two.

Include a top gifts section or stand-alone message. Why not speak to what many customers, especially new subscribers, may be looking for during the holidays? Rather than showing generic content, provide some simple gifting recommendations by category or price point.

Shift your sign-up incentive. Instead of offering a blanket 10% discount for signing up (especially if this pales in comparison to your standard holiday discount), be creative and offer a better deal to customers. With the rise in self-gifting, consider a tiered discount that rewards the subscriber with a larger discount the more they spend. This allows them to purchase for themselves as well as others. You might also consider offering a free gift or gift card with purchase.

To be more daring, you could eliminate the series altogether, after the initial welcome, of course. This is not a tactic I would personally consider, as building brand value is especially important nowadays. However, this might be something to think about during the final push when you want to be sure your new subscribers receive the last round of great deals before the end of the season.

2. Cart Recovery

Think about timing. At this time of year, consumers may be making purchases quicker than usual. Look at the current gap between messages, and see if an adjustment makes sense. Moving your third message from four days to three may be just enough to recapture some lingering shoppers.

Consider testing promotions. Since we know consumers are buying for themselves as much as others, incorporate a tiered discount or free gift into the cart recovery message in an attempt to increase the purchase amount. You can even test discounting across several messages in the series, with an increase in the offer as you go. This allows the consumer to receive an incentive earlier, but still leaves you some room to offer your traditional discount.

Add more messages. That’s right! You're not limited to just three messages. Add a fourth or even fifth message to your series. Combining this with the other strategies above can give you even more options. Then you can shorten your window between messages, while still using your larger discount later in the series. You can also use a variation of discounts as you go to determine which one your audience responds to best.

3. Post-Purchase

As more people qualify to receive the post-purchase series, consider customizing it to speak to the seasonal purchaser.

Reconsider product review emails. These could be a waste at this time of year. It will likely vary based on the products you sell, but if people are buying for a gift, asking them to review the product is quite irrelevant. Consider sending these messages to those who purchase in November but suppressing those who purchase in December.

Highlight your extended return policy. If you offer one, share this everywhere you can. It’s not only a great value-add that can help drive the sale, but it’s also an excellent relationship-building tool once you complete the sale. Just think of the great impression you could leave with buyers from such a customer-centric policy.

Promote your gift reminder service. Don’t have one? Create one! One of the major challenges for retailers is getting seasonal shoppers to return. A gift reminder service can allow you to communicate with subscribers throughout the year, and it also puts your brand in consideration as a gift-searching destination.

Create a unique series for first-time buyers. This focused series can call out the fact that you do make a great gifting destination while focusing on your value-adds and recommending ways they can get the most from their purchase (e.g. resource centers, return policies). How you engage with the customer at this point may make all the difference between having a one-time purchaser or a loyal shopper.

Keeping the customer experience in mind during this time of year is critical. Review your lifecycle messages, and look for ways to make the user experience even better.

Hopefully, your adjusted strategy will not only help you increase sales around the holidays but all year round as well.

Gray November Is Almost Here. Are You Ready?

Over the past 4+ years of advising retailers on how to drive more revenue from email programs, I began noticing a general shift Q4 promotional strategy. It started earlier each year and featured more aggressive discounts. This shift forced other retailers who fight for the same customers to keep up with the Joneses and offer their own discounts earlier in the season.

One week at a time, year after year, this transformation turned planning for Black Friday and Cyber Monday into a Gray November – a month-long extension of the traditional holiday shopping season.

But are the number of earlier discounts actually increasing, or was I just imagining things? Well, it appears early discounting is happening. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported the number of retailers who included promotions leading up to Thanksgiving week increased each week in November in 2015 when compared to 2014. They also report the discount percentage offered by retailers raised only slightly from the first three weeks of November heading into Thanksgiving week. This hints at deeper discounts being offered earlier in November, leaving little room to further increase them come Cyber Weekend. The month has become one big deep discounting period. Move over Black Friday, Gray November has arrived.

Changing Times

So how did this metamorphosis happen? Ironically, it started when retailers began giving consumers what they want. According to the NRF, 40% of shoppers say they start buying gifts before Halloween. In an attempt to snag these earlier sales, retailers targeted consumers with deeper offers. And it worked! However, in addition to these earlier purchases, retailers also wanted to capture additional purchases from these customers later in the holiday season. Because of this, they continued to offer deep discounts throughout the entire holiday period. The result? Retailers have they trained their customers to wait for deep discounts and convinced themselves they need to discount more heavily to capture the purchase. When competitors match this strategy in an attempt to keep up, it creates an endless cycle.

While retailers must be thinking about how to break this cycle, they shouldn’t panic just yet. Even with this extended discount period, Cyber weekend continues to be strong in sales. According to comScore, Cyber Monday 2015 marked the largest online spending day in history. So the good news is that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not dead. They just no longer signal the start of the holiday shopping season.

Instead, I’d argue that the emergence of Gray November is a warning shot to retailers that they need to invest heavily in building customer engagement and focusing on value rather than price. It’s the only way to successfully retain customers without having to rely on an endless discount cycle.

Be Prepared

So how can you begin driving home these value-adds to your consumers? First, analyze your strengths and what differentiates you from the competition. What do you offer that they don’t? Brand this value-add messaging wherever you can, including your emails, especially a new subscriber welcome series.

Next, focus your social media strategy on actually engaging your followers. I mean, really engage them. Ask questions, respond to comments and start conversations by commenting on others’ posts. Social media is not just another platform to speak at someone, it is a platform to be social with someone. It’s the ultimate online tool to bring a personal touch to your brand.

Establishing a connection and providing a better user experience will go a long way in driving sales, not only at holiday time, but all year round. So go ahead and get started. After all, whether you like it or not, Gray November will be here before you know it. Your customers are more than ready. Are you?

This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant.

5 Ways to Prepare for the Holiday Season

You’ve likely got a list of to-dos longer than a kid’s wish list for Santa. And with the hustle of the season, it’s easy for some tasks to fall by the wayside, which could result in a poor customer experience or first impression, lost sales, or even an under-performing holiday season.  Don’t let this happen to you. Here are five essential tasks that should be on every commerce marketer’s holiday preparation list.

#1: Audit Your Forms

During the holidays, you’re likely to get a lot of new visitors, so be sure that the forms that help turn these visitors into subscribers are ready to go. And once they subscribe, they need to be able to access the manage preference form, especially if your welcome series directs them there.

A couple of questions for your team:

• Where do the forms live?

• Who can edit them?

• How does a customer reach them?

• Are they optimized for mobile?

• Are subscribers being assigned to the correct lists?

• Are the forms generally working as intended?

I recommend documenting each form and sharing with your team. If something breaks during the height of the holiday season, you must be able to fix it as quickly as possible without having to ask a lot of questions. This documentation will also allow you to easily add more forms over time without confusing how that form may affect other processes already in place.

#2:  Evaluate Your Content

At this time of year, consumers will be inundated with emails, so be sure your current email content is optimized for the busy season. Some items to review include:

• Scanability: Can people quickly digest the email and find the call to action (CTA)?

• Responsive Design: Are your emails mobile-friendly? If not, make them so!

• Send From Name Consistency: Is your company’s brand uniformly expressed across all messages (triggered and scheduled)?

• Preheader Text: Are you using it effectively and supporting the subject line (not repeating it)?

• Calls to Action: For emails that features several pieces of content, are the CTAs easily identifiable?

• Social CTAs: How prominent are they, and do they detract from the conversion CTAs? Are you clear about what you’re asking customers to do?

While these suggestions also apply to transactional messages, consider a few other things as well. For instance, are you using the promotional space wisely too, for instance, suggest stocking stuffers or other seasonal items? And don’t forget to highlight extended return policies and other holiday specific value-adds.

#3: Analyze Last Year’s Plan

Hopefully, you’ve already looked at last year’s plan. If you haven’t, here are some items to pay special attention to:

• Your High Priority Campaigns: Why were they must-haves? Did these campaigns perform as expected? If they didn’t, can you tell why?

• The Poor Performing Campaigns: Why did some campaigns fail? Was it due to timing of the send, or has that particular promo jumped the shark (or reindeer in this case) with your audience? Should you repeat it this year with a new spin?

• The Sending Cadence: Did you send more emails than anticipated? If so, why? Was it because a campaign was not delivering expected results and you needed additional sends to make up for it? Did you notice your competitors sending much more than you expected, causing you to match them for fear of losing out on revenue? How were unsubscribe rates with the increase in sends? What type of emails were added (i.e. types of discounts/free gifts, length of promo)?

#4: Plan for All Scenarios

Stuff happens. The Internet says so, so it must be true! In your planning, especially after looking at the items above, you should be prepared for all “oh no” scenarios. Get ready with:

• Back-up promotions: Remember last year when your plan went off the rails thanks to an underperforming campaign? Be prepared! Create extra promotions with different offers (tiered discount, dollar vs. percentage, free shipping) or additional free gifts to include. A great place to start is with your key campaigns for this season. Prepare the content in advance, build the email and have it ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.

• Don’t forget: Set your promo codes up in advance as well! If you never need them, great. But it will be one less step to perform if you’re in reactionary mode.

• An answer to your “Oops” moment: Anticipate that Steve Urkel moment. Create “oops” messages covering the most common issues well in advance. You can even leave an editable space that allows you to either provide more clarity or customize a promo code. Some of the most common reasons for sending an oops email? A non-functioning promo code, a website that’s slow or completely down, promotion of the wrong incentive, and broken links.

But be sure the error warrants sending a message. If there’s a typo in the subject line, you probably don’t need to address it. If the subject line advertises a 50% off sale when it should have been $50 off, you’ll probably want to do something about it.

#5: Evaluate Your Season

Yes, you read this right! Once the season is complete, you should immediately evaluate the season. You can analyze better when the work is fresh in your mind. Nine months from now, you may not remember that the reason a key campaign underperformed was because of an error or a send time glitch. It also protects you if a key team member involved with the planning leaves during the year. Analyzing the season immediately gives you the best view of the current season and the information you need to accurately determine must-haves for next year. When planning time rolls around, compare these seasonal results with trends you have seen develop over the past year and determine whether a pivot needs to be made.

Final Thoughts

While this is not an all-inclusive list for holiday planning, it should at least get you thinking. By executing these ideas, you’ll be better prepared to deliver a smooth customer experience, react at a moment’s notice, and plan for the following year. If nothing else, knowing you’re prepared may help you sleep better at night, like a warm glass of milk. Just be sure it’s not the “big guy’s” milk.

This was originally published on Multichannel Merchant.

Handbook to the Holidays: Helping holiday shoppers indulge

Consumers are not only starting their holiday shopping earlier, they are treating themselves to gifts when shopping for family and friends. During the 2015 holiday season, 50% of shoppers bought something for themselves when shopping for others, a seven percentage point increase from 2014, according to Deloitte.

Consumers’ willingness to stuff their own stockings during the holidays means retailers need to be thinking about ways to entice consumers to splurge on them- selves, in addition to developing promotions that appeal to early-bird holiday shoppers.

“The trend of consumers buying for themselves during the holidays has been picking up steam the past several years,” says Greg Zakowicz, marketing automation provider Bronto Software LLC’s senior commerce marketing analyst. “Offering consumers bigger savings on purchases is a great way to encourage them to buy for themselves too.”

Pitching a promotional code for hitting a spending threshold with a single purchase or over several purchases during the holiday season is one way to encourage shoppers to spend on themselves since many consumers will use the code to purchase an item on their wish list.

“Setting a spending bar to earn a coupon not only helps increase average order size, but can keep shoppers coming back during the holidays to earn the incentive,” says Stephanie Hileman, e-commerce digital marketing specialist for athletic apparel and shoe manufacturer Brooks Sports Inc., a Bronto client. “We see throughout the year that customers often struggle with the fear of missing out when it comes to deals so we try to leverage this during the holidays.”

Emailing consumers daily deals is another way to entice holiday shoppers to indulge. To make a daily deal appealing, Hileman recommends segmenting offers among email recipients so that shoppers receive offers tied to their specific interests. “Our loyal customers, for example, are notified about deals and discounts first,” Hileman says. “Consumers like to be treated special and VIP treatment helps us stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Alternatively, promotions can be built around product categories or brands the customer favors.

“A lot of our customers like to shop by outfit, so we might offer a deal that rewards them with a free accessory when they buy an outfit or a discount on pants when they purchase a matching top,” she says.

Offering gift card buyers a second gift card of lesser value for meeting a spending threshold, such as a bonus $50 gift card when purchasing a card of $100 can coax shoppers interested in buying for themselves to convert. In many cases, a shopper will keep the free gift card—and then spend more than the value on it when redeeming it later for herself, Hileman says.

“By adjusting the redemption date on the free gift card to post-holiday, retailers can maintain momentum after the holidays,” she says. “This works well in our industry especially since several people begin to tackle their New Year’s fitness goals in Q1.”

With some consumers starting their holiday shopping weeks in advance of Black Friday, retailers can’t afford to wait until Thanksgiving to start offering holiday deals, Zakowicz says. But retailers must be careful, lest they sacrifice sales they’d otherwise get later in the season by offering their best deals early.

Zakowicz recommends gradually increasing discounts and other incentives as the holiday shopping season progresses to keep shoppers interested.

“Retailers can still offer good value in their early promotions, but the goal is to steadily increase the value offered so their marketing strategy doesn’t peak too soon,” Zakowicz says.

E-retailers should also lay the groundwork to nurture future sales from customers gained during the holidays. Thanking a customer via email for her business and including a coupon for a future purchase, or sending loyal customers sneak previews of future sales can keep shoppers coming back once the holidays are over.

“Retailers that recognize consumers buy for them- selves during the holidays and that holiday shoppers are starting earlier will be more successful in their holiday marketing efforts,” Zakowicz says.

This was originally published on Internet retailer.

A Guide to Choosing the Best Template for Your Holiday Emails

How do you showcase your best offers? More than any other time of the year, the holiday season involves lots of special offers, discounts, new products, and even new categories. Combine this with increased sending cadence and reduced subscriber attention spans, and you’ve got a prescription for poor-performing emails.

But there is an answer. Spend the time now thinking about how your messaging aligns with the layout of your email, and consider which type of layout works best with the message you want to convey. Here are five email layouts and the types of messages that tend to work best with them.

1. Single Hero Image

Probably the most common layout used today is a single-image email focusing on one clear call to action (CTA). This layout is designed to allow a subscriber to digest the message and decide on an action in 3 seconds or less. It may be most effective for:

• Black Friday and Cyber Monday – generic email linking to deals on the homepage.

• Flash sales – straightforward sale with a limited duration.

• Sale expiration – last chance reminder.

• Web-based gift guides – introducing gift guides that can be viewed online.

2. Product Boxes as a Secondary CTA

This email, a popular style for Q4, commonly has a hero image followed by product (or category) boxes below the primary content. You can manually create these specific recommendations or generate them using a recommendation engine. The layout allows the reader to not only browse for those people on their gift list but also identify products of interest to themselves. This layout is most commonly used for:

• Highlighting gifts under a certain dollar value.

• Advertising a stocking stuffer section.

• Offering subscriber recommendations.

3. Extended Content Sections

Similar to using product boxes as secondary CTAs, this design allows you to feature image-based secondary and tertiary content in addition to your primary promotion. With these larger sections, you have more space to promote larger areas of themed content (e.g. gift guides, value props), and you can use more visual creativity to grab a subscriber’s attention.

This layout is also more effective on mobile devices, as the sections remain a user-friendly size when scaling. This layout could be used in any capacity where you have more generic secondary content to promote, such as:

• Gift guides.

• Gift cards.

• Extended return policy notices.

• Shipping deadline estimates.

4. Product Only

Commonly sent throughout the year as a recommendation or new item email, this style is slowly gaining traction as a go-to during the holiday season. This message is often very basic graphically, with the focus solely on promoting specific products or categories, sometimes even with personal recommendations in the recovery section of the email.

While there may not be a lot of glitz and glamour around this style, it can be quite effective for driving sales, as it allows subscribers to find a specific product they’re looking for. It is used for:

• Promoting top gifts for the season.

• Offering gifts under a certain amount.

• Personalized recommendations.

• Top Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.

5. Extended Scroll

These messages are designed around engaging the subscriber in an extended scroll down the email. Emails like this work well on mobile phones because of a person’s natural tendency to thumb scroll. This layout can be most effective when walking people through something step by step, such as building the perfect holiday outfit, or by creating some sort of email game, such as a “See what’s under the Christmas tree” game. The extended scroll works well for:

• Specific product style guides.

• Top gifts.

• Step-by-step or numerical order guides/recommendations.

• Contest/gamification.

So there you have it – five email layouts that can be tuned to add some spice to your email program during the holiday season. When trying to determine which style may be best for you, think through the ultimate goal of the email and ask yourself, “Does the layout accomplish this goal?”