Don't Send Memorial Day Emails On The Day Itself, Expert Warns

Memorial Day, previously known as Decoration Day, will be upon us in a few weeks. In addition to honoring our war dead, it is the start of the summer season. 

It’s an important day for marketers, and email is the most widely used selling channel during the three-day period, according to Len Shneyder, VP of industry relations, Twilio SendGrid. But it has its challenges because consumers are usually occupied during the holiday — timing is critical.   

Last year, Twilio SendGrid saw a 4% uptick in volume during the three-day Memorial Day weekend compared to previous weekends. But that resulted in 8% fewer opens and 6.2% fewer clicks. 

Why the downturn?  In some cases, it was because brands sent emails at the wrong time.

As Shneyder, puts it, you have to time your messaging to when people are engaging with their inboxes. For Memorial Day, brands should send out the messages prior to the weekend, when people are heavily engaged with family.

Last year, most emails were opened in the morning at around 9 a.m. and peaked around 1 p.m. PT. 

Do you want to interact with consumers? Be sensitive to your recipients time zone and intra-day engagement windows, Shneyder states. 

Shneyder also reports that 90% more email messages referenced “sales” during the holiday compared to prior weekends. It is a challenge to stand out from the plethora of Memorial Day deals. 

Marketers should send strong, well-targeted messages that are appropriately timed, Shneyder advises.

Here’s one annoying finding — there was a 26% increase in the number of blocks during that weekend, compared to previous weekends. The solution? Make sure your lists are cleaned and fine-tuned prior to the holiday, Shneyder says.

 

2 comments about "Don't Send Memorial Day Emails On The Day Itself, Expert Warns".
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  1. pj bednarski from Media business freelancer, May 9, 2019 at 11:16 a.m.

    I don't know why I'm so much more bugged by the idea of Memorial Day sales this year than I have been in the past, but it's kind of ugly, isn't it, that the war sacrifice of American men and women is the occasion for a really great deal on a mattress?  Yes, people picnic on that day and it's the "unofficial" start of summer, but those are informal situations. How about don't send any sale-a-bration emails on Memorial Day. No one in my family has ever died in combat, but if someone did, I think I'd be a little repulsed by the idea that he or she may have died so  that I could get a 2 for 1 deal at the pizzeria.  

  2. John Grono from GAP Research, May 9, 2019 at 5:49 p.m.

    I tend to agree PJ.

    I remember that no long after my mother died, a site that I used frequently and had an account for sent me a "Don't Forget Your Mother On Mother's Day" type of sles oriented email.   I found that was quite insenstive.

    I made contact with the site and asked them why they didn't have opt-in/opt-out preference settings.   It took a while, and a few calls, to get a response that was basically along the lines of that it would be too hard to administer the active email list.

    They lost a customer forever.

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