• by Jess Nelson , November 22, 2017

Consumers and businesses alike can expect a bombardment of phone calls and email this holiday season.

Call volume has more than doubled year-over-year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to an analysis by CallRail, a call-tracking and analytics platform. Green Monday witnessed an even higher increase year-over-year, growing more than 10 times from the previous year.

Similarly, email volume significantly increases during the holiday retail bonanza. The total number of marketing emails deployed in fourth-quarter 2016 increased by 14.5% quarter-over-quarter, according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing. 

Considering that email drove a fifth of online sales last holiday season, according to Adobe, it’s likely that email volume will only increase this year. Many retail companies will bombard consumers with promotions, but companies also utilize those exchanges to help propel the company’s marketing over the next year.

Gurjit Sandhu, senior marketing specialist at Yes Lifecycle Marketing, says marketers can glean valuable insights from the performance of their holiday email marketing campaigns. 

For example, data collected by Yes Lifecycle Marketing during the 2016 holiday season showed that strong subject lines conveying a sense of urgency drove the highest conversion rates.

Subject lines that highlighted “a specific ‘percentage off’ discount or a limited-time offer for free shipping” performed the best, says Sandhu, and “marketers can employ these strategies year-round to improve engagement and boost conversions.” 

Brands can also pay attention to the influx of call volume around Black Friday and Cyber Monday to provide better customer service this holiday season and year-round, says Nancy Lim Rothman, director of marketing at CallRail. 

“If brands start tracking calls on some of the busiest retail days of the year, they can gain better insight into shopper intent in the year ahead as well as which campaigns are resonating with consumers,” says Rothman. 

“Since it all depends on a brand’s goals and audience, best practices are never one-size-fits-all,” says Sandhu. ”Instead, the key for marketers is to consistently analyze their customers’ data and adjust their content and delivery accordingly."