• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 7 hours ago

It may be a little late for this advice, given that Black Friday is four days away. But marketing platform Jacquard is advising marketers to keep their discounts in the medium range, especially in email subject lines.

“Most brands assume bigger is better with discounts, but shoppers are inundated with emails, and don't have time to assess whether a 70% offer is genuine or what the catch is - they've already moved on,” says Toby Coulthard, CPO at Jacquard, in a statement. “Meanwhile, anything under 10% feels insulting when consumers know bigger offers are out there, especially during a cost of living crisis. What we're also seeing year-on-year is that shoppers are engaging more with discount language overall - value has become the primary driver. The sweet spot is right in the middle, according to our data.” 

What does Jacquard recommend? The 40%-49% range is best, but 30%-39% also works well. 

This study is based on a nine-year study of almost 200 billion email sends handled by Jacquard, the company says.  

Want to improve your holiday email engagement? The first step is to avoid urgent language. 

“When every brand is screaming ‘last chance,’ ‘ending soon,’ and ‘final hours,’ the tactic becomes white noise - an inbox filled with a deluge of superlatives,” Coulthard adds.  “Shoppers already feel deadline pressure from the calendar itself - they know Christmas is coming. Specific deadlines like "Order by Friday for Christmas delivery" cut through because they provide actual utility rather than manufactured panic.”

Here's another important point. Avoid multiple exclamation points, or even single ones: Consumers want to avoid all the clamor. And marketers should be careful about superficial personalization.  

“Consumers remember the brands they regularly engage with, so getting a personalized email from a retailer you made one purchase with years ago feels algorithmic and manipulative. Surface-level personalization - such as simply inserting a name - ironically makes messaging feel less personal. Meaningful personalization requires understanding the context of who you are reaching out to. Anything else risks appearing lazy."