4 Ways to Prepare Your Email and SMS Marketing for the Holidays
When it comes to maximizing holiday sales from your email and SMS marketing programs, discovering the nuances of the season can help brands squeeze as much eggnog out of … whatever eggnog comes out of. With all of the data out there, uncovering the lesser-known can feel overwhelming to downright impossible.
Here are four nuanced tips to help you prepare your email and SMS marketing for the long, drawn-out holiday shopping season:
1. Don’t wait until November.
Holiday sales, as they have for years, start early. Target began its “Circle Week” on Oct. 1, and Amazon.com's Prime Big Deals Days start on Oct. 10. Consider this second date to be the unofficial official start of the holiday shopping season.
Marketing should start no later than mid-October, and by Nov. 1 brands should be significantly ramping up their marketing. Last year, according to Adobe, Friday, Nov. 11 was the last time daily online sales dropped below $3 billion until Dec. 16 ($2.8 billion). That corresponding day this year is Nov. 12. This is when the full-court press should go into effect.
Because holiday deals begin earlier, the reliance on standalone days like Black Friday take a back seat to extended periods like Black Friday Week. These sales should begin on Nov. 18 or 19.
When it comes to maximizing holiday sales from your email and SMS marketing programs, discovering the nuances of the season can help brands squeeze as much eggnog out of … whatever eggnog comes out of. With all of the data out there, uncovering the lesser-known can feel overwhelming to downright impossible.
Here are four nuanced tips to help you prepare your email and SMS marketing for the long, drawn-out holiday shopping season:
1. Don’t wait until November.
Holiday sales, as they have for years, start early. Target began its “Circle Week” on Oct. 1, and Amazon.com's Prime Big Deals Days start on Oct. 10. Consider this second date to be the unofficial official start of the holiday shopping season.
Marketing should start no later than mid-October, and by Nov. 1 brands should be significantly ramping up their marketing. Last year, according to Adobe, Friday, Nov. 11 was the last time daily online sales dropped below $3 billion until Dec. 16 ($2.8 billion). That corresponding day this year is Nov. 12. This is when the full-court press should go into effect.
Because holiday deals begin earlier, the reliance on standalone days like Black Friday take a back seat to extended periods like Black Friday Week. These sales should begin on Nov. 18 or 19.
Dec. 1-23 should encompass a sense of urgency to appeal to procrastinators, clear out excess inventory, and promote gift card sales. Dec. 25 through Jan. 1 should be your final holiday push as consumers resume their shopping. In fact, Dec. 26 recorded the second most email-related orders in all of December 2022.
Notable Email and SMS Marketing Trends From the First Half of 2023
A recently released email and SMS marketing report shed light on these performance trends and helped answer questions like “Do consumers find SMS intrusive?” and “Are consumers over email?” The report analyzed more than 10.5 billion e-commerce marketing emails and 62 million SMS messages, among other channels, sent by Omnisend customers in the first half of 2023.
Here are four notable takeaways for brands to pay attention to.
More Sends, More Engagement, More Orders
Brands sent 32.8 percent more scheduled emails, 99.2 percent more automated emails, and 47.9 percent more SMS messages year-over-year (YoY).
Increased consumer engagement allows brands to continue finding sales success with these channels. The click-to-conversion rate for email increased nearly 5 percent over the same period last year and orders are up 8.3 percent. Automated email orders increased by 132 percent, and SMS orders increased by nearly 17 percent year-over-year.
As the holiday season quickly approaches, having a pulse on the performance of various marketing channels is essential for brands to maximize their return on investment. This is especially true when it comes to heavily relied upon opt-in channels like email and SMS.
A recently released email and SMS marketing report shed light on these performance trends and helped answer questions like “Do consumers find SMS intrusive?” and “Are consumers over email?” The report analyzed more than 10.5 billion e-commerce marketing emails and 62 million SMS messages, among other channels, sent by Omnisend customers in the first half of 2023.
Here are four notable takeaways for brands to pay attention to.
More Sends, More Engagement, More Orders
Brands sent 32.8 percent more scheduled emails, 99.2 percent more automated emails, and 47.9 percent more SMS messages year-over-year (YoY).
Increased consumer engagement allows brands to continue finding sales success with these channels. The click-to-conversion rate for email increased nearly 5 percent over the same period last year and orders are up 8.3 percent. Automated email orders increased by 132 percent, and SMS orders increased by nearly 17 percent year-over-year.
This increase in sends tells us brands rely on the channels to generate sales. The increase in orders tells us consumers welcome them.
Don’t Ignore Email and SMS: Consumers Surely Haven’t
Looking for a marketing edge?
Of course you are, but little did you know that the elusive edge may be closer than you realize.
Omnisend’s recently released yearly email and SMS marketing benchmark report analyzed more than 17 billion marketing emails and 107 million SMS sent by brands in 2022. It showed how deeply consumers used email and SMS as part of their shopping and product discovery journey as well as provided clues as to what makes the messages appealing to consumers.
Here are the primary email and SMS marketing highlights from the report and ways brands can apply these consumer shopping trends to gain an edge in 2023.
Overall Email Marketing Trends
Email marketing continues to be a core component of e-commerce brands’ online marketing strategies. Continuing its year-over-year (YoY) trend, brands sent 42 percent more email messages in 2022 than the year before, resulting in a 12 percent increase in email-related orders.
Looking for a marketing edge?
Of course you are, but little did you know that the elusive edge may be closer than you realize.
Omnisend’s recently released yearly email and SMS marketing benchmark report analyzed more than 17 billion marketing emails and 107 million SMS sent by brands in 2022. It showed how deeply consumers used email and SMS as part of their shopping and product discovery journey as well as provided clues as to what makes the messages appealing to consumers.
Here are the primary email and SMS marketing highlights from the report and ways brands can apply these consumer shopping trends to gain an edge in 2023.
Overall Email Marketing Trends
Email marketing continues to be a core component of e-commerce brands’ online marketing strategies. Continuing its year-over-year (YoY) trend, brands sent 42 percent more email messages in 2022 than the year before, resulting in a 12 percent increase in email-related orders.
The reliance on email was also prevalent at a crucial time for retailers, Q4. YoY, email was responsible for a 13.8 percent increase in orders on Black Friday, a 34.4 percent increase during the Cyber 10, and an 18.7 percent increase in overall Q4 orders.
Holiday Email and SMS Performance Shed Light on Brands’ 2023 Marketing Strategies
E-commerce brands faced a holiday shopping season filled with uncertainty — uncertainty around when the shopping season would start in earnest, inflation’s impact on consumer spending, and the costs and performance of paid marketing channels. And with good reason.
Throughout the year, the cost and performance on channels such as paid social and paid search fluctuated, raising questions and concerns about holiday marketing spend on the channels. And if consumers just shopped less in general, how else might brands generate the sales they needed?
As it played out, Black Friday and Cyber Monday e-commerce sales were up slightly from the previous year's unusual dip. Accounting for inflation, however, indicates the increase in sales was due to the cost of goods rather than an increase in shopping. Cost effectively securing early holiday sales was important, and when it mattered most, brands seemed to shift back and rely more on established and consistently performing opt-in channels like email and SMS — and it worked.
E-commerce brands faced a holiday shopping season filled with uncertainty — uncertainty around when the shopping season would start in earnest, inflation’s impact on consumer spending, and the costs and performance of paid marketing channels. And with good reason.
Throughout the year, the cost and performance on channels such as paid social and paid search fluctuated, raising questions and concerns about holiday marketing spend on the channels. And if consumers just shopped less in general, how else might brands generate the sales they needed?
As it played out, Black Friday and Cyber Monday e-commerce sales were up slightly from the previous year's unusual dip. Accounting for inflation, however, indicates the increase in sales was due to the cost of goods rather than an increase in shopping. Cost effectively securing early holiday sales was important, and when it mattered most, brands seemed to shift back and rely more on established and consistently performing opt-in channels like email and SMS — and it worked.
Consumers Turned to Email Marketing When Shopping
According to a new holiday marketing report by Omnisend, year-over-year, email marketing was responsible for a 13.8 percent increase in orders on Black Friday, and a 34.4 percent increase during the Cyber 10, a 10-day span beginning on the Sunday before Black Friday through Giving Tuesday. The increase in sales was accompanied by a greater reliance on email marketing.