There’s no time like the holidays. But for digital marketers around the world, that might be better phrased as: There’s no time during the holidays! With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holidays fast approaching, it can feel like a non-stop whirlwind of things you need to get done, with little time to execute your most critical marketing campaigns.
And critical is the key word here. The Black Friday/holiday shopping season can make or break retailers. This year, total retail sales are expected to climb between 4.5–5 percent for the period, up from 3.1 percent in 2018, according to Deloitte’s annual holiday forecasting. If that holds true, total retail sales would likely exceed $1.1 trillion this winter, up from $1.09 trillion last year. Online sales are expected to grow in the range of 14–18 percent compared with 2018, with Deloitte projecting ecommerce sales to hit $144–149 billion during the holiday period (November through January).
During the holiday season, your customers’ inboxes get bombarded with a huge increase of marketing emails. How do you ensure yours stand out from the rest and get consumers’ attention? We can help your marketing team get ready for these most important days of the year, with our Selligent Deliverability Mistakes to Avoid Tip Sheet, featuring valuable advice to keep your email deliverability levels healthy. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the tips. For the full story, download the tip sheet using the link at the end of this post.
DON’T take on Infrastructure Changes: Try to avoid changes to your infrastructure one or two months prior to the sales period, to maintain the reputation you’ve already built up.
DON’T Forget to Validate Your Target: Keep your user lists clean. Hitting inactive email addresses will lower your reputation and might decrease inbox placement.
DON’T Email Wildly: Don’t overdo it! Avoid a sudden increase in the amount of emails your customers normally receive from you. Try to avoid huge spikes in the total number of emails you send on a daily basis, as well. Mailbox providers might flag this as suspicious behavior, which might result in your emails going into the spam folder.
DON’T Use Misleading Subject Lines: Use enticing offers and clear call-to-actions to generate more clicks on links in your emails, as this will send a positive message to the mailbox provider and increase your reputation and inbox placement.
Download our Selligent Deliverability Mistakes to Avoid Tip Sheet for even more valuable tips to keep your email deliverability levels healthy during the upcoming Black Friday/holiday season. And contact us with any questions or challenges you face with your email marketing, during this critical season or at any time of the year.
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