Email Marketing Powers Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday has been the most popular day to send retail emails for the past two years. Last year, 70% of the top online retailers tracked by my Retail Email Blog sent at least one promotional email on Cyber Monday. That was up from 68% in 2007.
The last time that Cyber Monday wasn't most popular retail email day of the year was 2006, before the day was a big deal. That year, Cyber Monday was the sixth most popular day to send retail emails; the day after Christmas was No. 1.
Since then, Cyber Monday has gone mainstream, thanks to lots of media coverage, which has in turn given retailers more confidence in pushing Cyber Monday promotions. In fact, the day has become so well-known that retailers promoted it by name in their email messaging last year -- twice as much as they did in 2007.
Retailers are also more comfortable promoting Cyber Monday by name than they are Black Friday. While 36% of retailers referenced "Cyber Monday" in their emails on Dec. 1 last year, only 25% of them referenced "Black Friday" in their Nov. 28 emails. For a relatively new term, that's a pretty big endorsement by the nation's largest online retailers.
Retailers' increasing comfort level with Cyber Monday has helped the day become responsible for more and more retail sales. According to comScore, Cyber Monday accounted for $846 million in online spending last year, up 15% from 2007 -- and the second-highest amount spent in online retail since the $881 million spent on Green Monday 2007.
Given Cyber Monday's popularity with email marketers -- and since up to 40% of online retail sales can be driven by email marketing -- it's hard to deny that email marketing is the engine behind Cyber Monday's rise to prominence. While it hasn't yet lived up to its branding as "the biggest online shopping day of the year," it may get there this year. If it does, email marketing will be the one to thank.
0 comments on "Email Marketing Powers Cyber Monday".
Leave a Comment
CHAD WHITE
Chad White is the principal of marketing research at ExactTarget, a global provider of cross-channel interactive marketing software-as-a-service solutions. Visit his blog at http://www.emailmarketingrules.com.
Recent Email Insider Articles
-
Email Should Not Be a Lost Channel: Messaging To The Purse June 19, 4:24 p.m.
Let’s face it: Email has gotten sloppy. In a fight to stand out from unsolicited spam, ...
-
The Trends Guiding Great Email Design June 18, 11:56 a.m.
We recently released “The Best of the Email Swipe File,” which identifies five trends affecting email ...
-
'Relevance' Is So 2012: Adding Enough Value To Thrive In The Relationship Era June 12, 11:10 a.m.
“The relationship era” has become the label for our time, integral to the digital marketer’s new ...
-
The Gamification Of Email June 11, 11:23 a.m.
I've recently seen a few marketers introduce gaming into their email programs. You can use this ...
-
Is Your Program 'Out Of The Box'? June 10, 11:58 a.m.
Is email marketing an out-of-the-box marketing activity? Has it become so cookie-cutter that it’s hard to ...
-
Meet The New KPIs, (Not) The Same As The Old KPIs June 5, 10:32 a.m.
Email marketers have a trusty handful of metrics they track regularly. Most marketers will track opens, ...
-
Use Email To Drive Successful Loyalty/Rewards Programs May 30, 11:43 a.m.
One of email's greatest roles is in targeting and nurturing prospects into becoming customers, encouraging customers ...
-
Is Your Email Attribution Model To Blame For Eroding User Experience? May 29, 1:43 p.m.
Email drives sales. We know this already. How much sales it drives, however, is very often ...
-
Five Engagement Killers -- And How To Overcome Them May 23, 3:26 p.m.
While we all know that the goal to win and retain engagement extends beyond the inbox ...
-
Once Again, I Double-Dog Dare You! May 20, 11:41 p.m.
In 2008 and 2010, I double-dog dared marketers to experiment with some little-used, out-of-the-box, perhaps even ...
Great data, Chad. This is the best rationale for a marketing plan. Imagine all the emails blasted out, a cacophony of cyber flyers all competing for attention.
Unless this strategy is well executed at least in opt-in waves, previews of coming attractions and fun teasers, the spam folders must've been filled to the brim!
Planning, planning, planning.
MC