Shelley Kessler says, “Our coverage of seasonal activities and relevant trends for the 2015 holiday season continues. We’re seeing high email volume continue to drive open and click rates lower than those seen in 2014. However, the absolute number of opens and clicks received are higher.The largest percentage of year-over-year increases in volume, opens and clicks occurred on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) and Tuesday (the day after Cyber Monday).A pattern continues for transactions and revenue as well. While rates have decreased, the total number of transactions and amount... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “All marketers should now be aware that mobile is increasingly overshadowing desktopin many areas, and it seems retail searches during Christmas is one of them. Retail searches on mobile are expected to increase by at least 500% over the Christmas weekend alone.The prediction comes from Bing Ads, which analysed data from the 33% of online retail users that used its platform in 2014.Mobile dominated retail search last Christmas65% of all UK retail searches where the user was looking to make a purchase were made from either a smartphone or tablet during Christmas day... [...]

Kristen Dunleavy says, “GIFs are more than wiggly cats and sassy pugs. They give us an easy way to communicate ideas, make emotional connections, and delight customers. Maybe that’s why 23 million GIFs are posted to Tumblr daily.With more and more marketers embracing GIFs, we thought we’d give you a little something to wow your subscribers this holiday season.As AWeber’s gift to you, we’ve created more than a dozen GIFs you can use in your holiday emails.You can use these GIFs to promote a holiday sale, seasonal newsletter or simply wish your subscribers a happy holiday”.Your... [...]

Laura Hampton says, “Christmas has always been a key sales period for retailers.For as long as most of us can remember, stores have tried to capitalize on increased footfall and the generosity of the festive season through the promotion of sales and special offers.Today, online commerce has opened up so many new possibilities for retailers to better understand and reach their audiences and the season seems to be growing longer, not shorter, as online stores prepare for the festive season earlier and earlier.Through website analytics and PPC in particular (pay per click marketing), companies... [...]

Morgan Jacobson says, “Would you believe that 15% of midsize businesses won’t spend any additional marketing money this holiday season? When you consider that many of the efforts made will place them up against some of the biggest names in ecommerce, it’s easy to see why they’d rather just go along with business as usual. To compete with the big guys, you’d have to have a mega budget for promotions. Or, you could try some of these tips and stay in the game.Free ShippingThe all-time, number one reason for abandoned carts is the cost of shipping. If you’re offering great deals... [...]

Susannah Morris says, “This holiday season, you’re probably focused on reaching new customers and reeling them in with dazzling specials. Reaching out to holiday shoppers who need your help making good decisions on purchases for others is a great way to boost your bottom line, but what about all those shoppers who went before? What about the buyers you reached out to last holiday season but then never heard from again?You can only bring in so many brand new buyers with each gift-giving season. If those consumers don’t stick around after the season’s end, how can you keep making... [...]

Shelby Dorsey says, “Every year it feels like Christmas decorations go up earlier. Black Friday email sends are starting to arrive before Halloween, peppy toy commercials appear on every channel and our favorite brands’ social media accounts become a testament to the holidays long before it feels like we are ready.Even in the age of the Internet, when most people’s access to content is at an all-time high, the same commercials continue to pop up year-after-year.If all of this is the case, there must be something to it. In today’s post, we’re going to examine three lessons to be... [...]

Greg Wise says, “With Black Friday totals down from last year, according to a survey by Nielsen, and total sales for the day slipping more and more each year, is it safe to say that the biggest shopping day of the year is losing its luster?Sure, Black Friday sales topped out at around $10.4 billion, but that’s down almost 10% from last year’s $11.6 billion. There are quite a few possibilities for the decline, with many shouting that opening on Thanksgiving will harm Black Friday sales. However, Thanksgiving sales were also down by 10%. One of the reasons for that might be the number... [...]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “Here’s a look at the biggest products and visual trends on Instagram this holiday season—and what you can learn from them.“Of every Instagram we analyzed, here’s what’s driving action,” states Curalate in the following infographic. Light images (77%), indoor images (63%), and people (59%) rule Instagram compared to dark images (20%) outdoor images (26%), and 38% (no people).In home decor and improvement, however, users prefer to not see people. “Almost every image (94%) excludes people,” states Curalate.In the publishing... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “After the biggest online shopping weekend of the year, email marketing platform Movable Inkreported a 76-percent open rate for mobile emails on Black Friday and 63 percent on Cyber Monday.Breaking down its data by device, Movable Ink found Black Friday email conversions — an email click that resulted in a purchase — were higher on mobile devices versus desktops, with 57 percent of conversions happening on either a smartphone (44 percent) or tablet (13 percent).Based on a total of 21,946 email conversions, mobile conversions were higher than desktop industry-wide,... [...]