This week the study finds:

• Email campaigns with offers in the subject line make up 28.6% of campaigns this holiday season – a 6% increase over the 27% of campaigns with offers seen last year.
• Offers in subject lines for percent off, dollars off, BOGO, gift cards and coupons have increased as a percent of total offers, while flash sales, free shipping and urgency make up a lower percentage of offers than they did last season.
• 87% of traffic generated by search terms containing “free shipping” was organic traffic during the week ending 12/15.
• Hot Products: top search terms to appliance & electronic sites were “beats by dre” and “otterbox” for the week ending 12/15.
• Multi-channel retailers, catalogers, and publishers had double digit increases in volume for the week of 12/9 – 12/15 compared to 2011.
• The increases in revenue per email we have seen this year over last year are holding as we approach the last 2 weeks of the season.

Highlights and trends: continue the conversation

As the holiday is almost here, it is important to expand upon and continue the relationships you have achieved with subscribers and buyers this season. Email is an excellent way to have multi-channel conversations with your customers

Social media:

Encourage subscribers to share their holiday gifts and experiences on your social media sites. Facebook and Pinterest are the most popular social media sites to appear in subject lines, and both received higher than average open and click rates during this holiday season.

Ratings and surveys:
Continue the conversation with your subscribers by sending surveys and/or requests for ratings and reviews of your products and services. Strong open and click rates on these types of mailings indicate that subscribers welcome the chance to interact with you in this way.

Thank-you mailings:
For a ‘quick win’ at the end of this holiday season and throughout the year, include campaigns with the words ‘thank-you’ in the subject line. Mailings sent to thank folks for subscribing to a list, or joining a loyalty program, or purchasing a product had more than 2.5 times the open rate and over 3 times the click rate of the average for all season mailings.

In addition to generating high open and click rates, ‘thank-you’ mailings provide exceptional transaction rates and revenue per email. Sending a ‘Thank-you for purchase’ mailing in addition to any order confirmations, can provide 6.5x higher revenue per email than the average for all season mailings.

Online consumer insights

Monday, December 17 was Free Shipping Day – which marks another major e-retail day as shipping deadlines approach to ensure timely holiday deliveries. Leading up to this day, variations of ‘free shipping’ search terms have  been rising since November, and have increased 91% since the week ending 11/3.

Continuing our watch of gift card searches as we get closer to the Christmas holiday, we see that searches containing ‘gift card’ increased 42% in the past week.

This week’s key findings:

• More promotional mailings are being sent on weekends. The average weekend this holiday season had 43% promotional and 57% trigger campaigns. This past weekend, 47% were promotional campaigns, a 9% increase from the 43% average.
• Although still a small percentage of mailings, the number of campaigns offering gift cards in subject lines more than doubled compared to the same week in 2011.
• The top 5 ranked Websites, in the Hitwise retail 500 by visits share, for the week ending 12/8 were Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and J.C. Penney.
• “Shutterfly coupon codes free shipping” and “Harry and David free shipping” topped the free shipping search term list for the week ending 12/8.

Email highlights and trends:

Christmas day mailings:

Only one third of brands sent promotional mailings on Christmas day in 2011 and, of those, about half of the campaigns included an offer in the subject line. Christmas day offers for post holiday sales actually did quite well, receiving double the transaction rate compared to the mailings without offers (transaction rate of 0.17% with offer in subject line compared to 0.08% without an offer).

If you do plan to mail on Christmas, make sure that you mail early in the day:

Post-Christmas week:

Promotional mailings with offers also did well in the post-Christmas week (December 26th – 31st).

The transaction rate for mailings with offers in their subject lines was 0.09% compared to 0.08% for mailings without offers. Revenue per email was also higher for the campaigns with offers.

The 4:00 AM time slot received a much higher percentage of total revenue than its percentage of volume, making it the best time to mail.

Morning mailings also did well on post-Christmas days. The 4:00 AM time slot received a much higher percentage of total revenue than its percentage of volume, making it the best time to mail.

Online consumer insights:

While Peak Week last year, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, saw big spikes in online retail traffic, there was another spike in traffic the day after Christmas. In 2011, there was a 3% increase in online retail traffic on Christmas and a 33% increase the day after Christmas.

^{Source: Experian Hitwise}

In 2011 we saw a spike on Christmas day occur in both social and search driving traffic to the Retail 500 sites.

As we noted last week, interest in gift cards peaks during the final weeks leading up to Christmas. While searches for gift cards last year reflect that pattern, it should also be noted that searches for gift cards during the week after Christmas were also at higher levels than those seen at the start of the season.

^{Source: Experian Hitwise}

This week’s key findings:

• All peak days, from Monday 11/19 through Cyber Monday (11/26), saw increases in total email transactions and revenue. Email marketers experienced a 28% increase in the number of email transactions, and a 38% increase in revenue.
• There has been a 33% increase in the number of email campaigns with “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” in their subject lines this season compared to 2011.
• Personalization in email subject lines has increased 27% over 2011.
• Coupons in subject lines have increased by 58% this season.
• Cyber Monday search terms increased by 16% the week ending 11/24/2012 versus 2011 and by 5% the week ending 12/1/2012 versus 2011.
• For the week ending 12/1/2012, the top Cyber Monday search terms include “Cyber Monday deals 2012,” “Cyber Monday deals,” “Cyber Monday” and “Walmart Cyber Monday deals 2012″.
• 40% of Cyber Monday search terms contained 4 keywords in a search term.

Email highlights and trends: Peak Week performance:

Total email transactions and revenue increased every day of Peak Week compared to 2011, for a total increase of over 28% in transactions and 38% for revenue.

The largest email transaction and revenue increases are seen in the three industries that are the most ‘holiday’ and gift driven:

Online consumer insights:

Search was a big driver for the Retail 500 websites on Cyber Monday this year.

• Search engine downstream traffic to Retail 500 websites on Cyber Monday increased by 5% compared to 2011
• For Cyber Monday search terms over 12 weeks ending 12/1/12, the paid rate of generated traffic was 20.36% and the organic rate of traffic was 79.64%

• Mailers started earlier, with the Monday (11/19) before Thanksgiving having the largest percentage increase (20.6%) in volume.  Black Friday, Sunday 11/25, and Cyber Monday all had double digit increases in volume over last year.
• Forty-five percent (45%) of holiday season emails are being opened on mobile – up slightly from the 44% we saw just before the season began.
• Led by Black Friday offers, campaigns with offers in the subject line made up almost 30% of all campaigns sent this past week.
• Black Friday search terms increased by 107% between the weeks ending 11/17/2012 and 11/24/2012.
• For the week of 11/17/2012, visits to Cyber Monday websites increased by 259% compared to last year. Additionally, visits for the week of 11/24/2012 increased by 190% versus 2011.
• Cyber Monday search terms increased by 606% between the weeks of 11/17/2012 and 11/24/2012.

Email volume

During peak week, mailers started earlier, with the Monday (11/19) before Thanksgiving having the largest percentage increase (20.6%) in volume.  Black Friday, Sunday 11/25, and Cyber Monday all had double digit increases over last year.

Gift guides and gift cards
As the holidays get closer, more and more shopping is focused on gifts. Two popular gift-oriented ideas for email campaigns are gift guides and gift cards. Gift guides are popular and effective ways to present many products to undecided consumers, and they generate higher transaction rates than other promotional mailings.

Describing your brand as ‘Best’ in the subject line leads to the highest open and click rates for gift guides.

Last minute shoppers, and those looking for gifts for ‘hard to please’ folks, are often drawn to gift cards. In 2011, we saw the number of gift card emails double in the two weeks prior to Christmas. Forty-two percent (42%) of US adults have purchased gift cards in the past year.

Teens are notoriously difficult to shop for. No wonder, purchases of music/entertainment gift cards are highest among parents of teens. In fact, parents of kids ages 12 to 17 are 86% more likely than the average adult to have bought these types of gift cards.

Online consumer insights:
With the busiest holiday shopping weekend behind us – let’s recap what happened online. So far this past holiday week of online traffic from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday to retail sites is up 8% compared to last year. Cyber Monday, for the second year in a row, was the busiest of the three milestone days and looks to be tracking as the busiest day of the year in online retail visits.

Thanksgiving Day online traffic increased 6% in 2012 versus 2011 as the top 500 retail sites received more than 192.5 million total US visits.

Black Friday online traffic increased 7% year-over-year as the top 500 retail sites received more than 193.8 million total US visits.

Online traffic on Cyber Monday increased 11% in 2012 compared to last year, as the top 500 retail sites received more than 206.8 million total US visits.

Top product searches by milestone days

To identify current brand loyalty trends, we looked at the latest survey research from Experian Simmons (Spring, 2012 NHCS Adult Survey 12-month) and at loyalty emails sent between January 2011 and March 2012 from 43 brands.

Who are these brand loyalists?

Experian Simmons found that 34% of the adult U.S. population has been a ‘brand loyalist’ as of April of this year. Looking at that 34%, we have identified some key areas in which brand loyalists differ from the overall adult U.S. population.

The response to email campaigns reflects this mindset in a number of ways:

Dollars and sense
Offers are valuable, but purchasing the right product from a preferred brand may be more so. While 80% of brand loyalists said they do not buy unknown brands merely to save money, 69% are always looking out for special offers. Mailings without offers in the subject line had 24% higher transaction rates, but 11% lower revenue per email than loyalty mailings with offers in the subject line.

Consideration: Test whether including an offer will work best for your loyalty program.

The 1:1 – Value your customer

When looking for a ‘favorite store,’ emails with dynamic store locations in the subject line can help ensure that your loyalty members will easily find your brand. Loyalty emails with name, dynamic benefit or status updates, or dynamic store locations enjoyed unique open rates that were 83% higher than loyalty mailings that had no dynamic content in the subject line (loyalty mailings with dynamic content had unique open rates of 43.5% compared to 23.5% for those without dynamic content).

• “Spend $75 and Get a $10 Summer Reward Coupon at %storename%!”
• “Use your $%point_balance% in Instant Rewards on gifts for Dad”
• “Here’s Your Online Reward Dollars %fname%”

Keep it fresh
New ideas, new benefits — equates to more engagement. Campaigns mentioning new, updated benefits had more than double the transaction rates than other loyalty mailings (loyalty mailings with new benefits had transaction rates of 43% compared to 20% for other loyalty mailings).

Mobile Marketing and social media attitudes
Two areas in which brand loyalists expressed opinions that were stronger than the average U.S. adult population in the Experian Simmons survey are mobile marketing and social networks.

Loyalty email campaigns can be effective cross-channel marketing tools that boost your brand’s mobile and social media program engagement

Support mobile programs
Loyalty programs are crucial to the travel industry and travel brands are leading the way with mobile communications and mobile apps. Travel is not alone. Mobile loyalty programs are being started in many different types of brands including supermarkets, pharmacies, consumer electronic stores and office supply companies, just to name a few. Loyalty emails are a great way to increase mobile program enrollment and provide unique benefits to loyalty members.

• “Earn Bonus Points when you enroll in mobile messaging”
• “Introducing Quick Prints – The Fastest Way To Print From Mobile Phone to Store”

Use surveys and ratings and reviews
Sixty-seven percent of brand loyalists said they ask people for advice before buying new things. They are also 23% more likely than the average U.S. adult to say that they trust product information on social networking sites. Email is an effective way to obtain opinions and product reviews that can then be used on your social media site. Survey and review requests to loyalty members had 38% higher open rates and more than double the click rates of other loyalty mailings (surveys/reviews had unique open rates of 28% and click rates of 10.7% compared to non-survey loyalty mailing rates of 20.2% and 3.7% respectively).

• “Earn 1,000 Miles For Your Valued Feedback”
• “Tell us what you think.”

Take full advantage of social media

With 75% of brand loyalists saying they like to share their knowledge with others, it is likely that some of that sharing is happening on social media sites. The keen interest brand loyalists have in social media can be seen in their response to emails asking them to join or follow a site:

• Experian CheetahMail click analyses have shown that emails with invitations to ‘like us’, typically receive 43% of their total clicks on the main link to the social media site
• Social invitation emails sent to loyalty segments, however, received almost 70% of their total clicks on the main link to social media

Above all, the key to building and retaining loyalty is to know your customer, understand their mindset, acknowledge their individuality and tailor your brand’s messaging to meet their needs, wants and interests across channels. The extra efforts will be recognized by your brand’s biggest supporters and you will soon gain new fans along the way.

Brand loyalty was spotlighted in Experian CheetahMail’s Q3 2012 Benchmark Study. View the full Email Marketing Benchmark Study.

This week’s key findings:

• Percent off campaigns increased in frequency this week, comprising 27.1% of offers compared to 23.7% last week.
• The overall percent of campaigns with offers in subject lines has increased from 26% in 2011 to 28% this holiday season.
• Black Friday is less than two weeks away, and this past week Black Friday searches increased 383% compared to the previous week.
• 41% of Black Friday searches contain four keywords in a search term. The top four-word searches include “walmart black friday 2012″, “black friday ads 2012″ and “target black friday 2012″.

Email transaction rates

As we approach the halfway mark for this holiday season, we have analyzed year-over-year transaction rate performance to see what types of brands’ email programs are performing well.

Thus far, luxury retailers and technology brands have seen the biggest increase in transaction rates compared to 2011.

Who’s seeing the highest transaction rates?

• Mid and high-level department stores
• Boots
• High end home décor and bedding
• Phones and mobile products

Email subject lines

For campaigns with above average transaction rates, Experian Marketing Services found that consumers are looking for “free” gifts and shipping, “new” products and “exclusive” offers. Words creating a sense of urgency such as “today only” or “last chance” for “% off” and “$” offers are also occurring frequently in campaigns with high transaction rates.

Black Friday searches

As Black Friday approaches, the number of related searches has kicked into high gear. This past week’s Black Friday searches increased 383% compared to the previous week.

We’re seeing that 41% of Black Friday searches include four keywords in a search term. The top four-word searches include “walmart black friday 2012″, “black friday ads 2012″ and “target black friday 2012″.

Favorite holiday products

Our trend-spotters have done their research on search trends for products that could become this year’s holiday favorites. To identify the popular toys for gifts this year, Experian Marketing Services researched product-related search terms driving traffic to ToysRUs.com compared to last year’s holiday season. Check out the post from earlier this week: Holiday hot products – tablets top the list and the Furby is back!

Here’s some insight from Valentine’s Day 2012, to help you with your Valentine’s Day campaign planning:

Subject lines

• The NRF study also found that cards, candy, dining out, flowers and jewelry were the most given gifts on Valentine’s Day, and those items were common themes in email subject lines. Other, less typical products that were also promoted were video games, wine, phones and travel getaways.
• Key features of the highest performing subject lines were gift and card ‘ideas,’ personalized greetings, including a heart symbol and using the word ‘sweet.’

Timing

Valentine’s Day is a last minute shopping holiday. Half of all volume and revenue occurs in the week leading up to and including Valentine’s Day.

The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans making Valentine’s Day purchases spend an average of $128. The average order value for email was even higher at $140. While clearly willing to spend, Valentine’s Day buyers were also highly interested in getting something for ‘free.’

• Free shipping generated the highest transaction rates and revenue per mail (0.17% transaction rates and $0.19 revenue per mail)
• Free gifts, such as movies, lip gloss, dresses or lingerie also had higher transaction rates than the Valentine’s Day mailing average

Price conscious Valentine’s Day buyers were also motivated by percent (%) off deals.

• Percent (%) off mailings had both higher than average transaction rates and revenue per email (0.08% transaction rates and $0.10 revenue per mail)

Tips for marketers for Valentine’s Day 2013

• The immediacy of mobile SMS/MMS campaigns would work well for all of the last minute Valentine’s Day purchases. Establish and actively grow and promote your mobile SMS/MMS program to take advantage of the Valentine’s Day buying frenzy.
• Subscribers are searching for ‘ideas’ for Valentine’s Day gifts. Use remarketing campaigns based on abandoned cart and browse behaviors to suggest other products they might also find of interest.
• Promote your brand in ways beyond email by connecting email to your social media sites. Invite subscribers to ‘pin’ their most desired gifts, ‘tweet’ a review of their chosen restaurant or post pictures of the lovely flowers they received.
• Fresh creative for the holiday can help ensure subscriber engagement. Personalize the message, consider cinemagraphs or animation to add some fun, and most of all share your love of your brand with your subscribers to make this holiday a success for everyone.

This week’s key findings:

• Free shipping is not mentioned quite as frequently this year in email marketing campaigns – there are 4% fewer mentions of free shipping in subject lines so far this season
• The number of loyalty mailings offering points or rewards benefits has increased by 8% compared to last season
• Black Friday searches continue to be on the rise, increasing 52% in the week ending 10/27 compared to the previous week
• Clicks to paid search terms increased 37% over week ending 10/27

Search and social deals

The study also finds that holiday shoppers are taking advantage of retailers’ deal sites and seeking out deals through search and social. Experian Simmons reports:

• Twenty-nine percent (29%) of online adults have visited a social discount site
• Twenty-seven percent (27%) of online adults have signed up for a daily deal
• Twenty-two percent (22%) of online adults have purchased a discount or coupon from a social site
• Eight percent (8%) of online adults have downloaded a mobile app for a social discount site

Email offers

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of all campaigns are including offers in subject lines so far this season, which is a slight increase from the 27% seen last year.

While dollars off are the most popular, free gifts have the highest transaction rates.

This week the study finds:

• Transaction rates continue to be ahead of those seen in 2011, which will bode well if the trend continues throughout this holiday season.
• The number of campaigns sent on weekends has increased from 17.5% in 2011 to 19% this season.
• Flash sales are not quite as popular as last year. To date, there have been 25% fewer flash sale campaigns.
• Campaigns using personalization in subject lines increased from 5.7% to 7% of all campaigns to date – a 21% increase over 2011.
• Black Friday searches continue to be on the rise, increasing 75% this past week compared to the previous week. The organic rate of traffic generated by Black Friday searches for this past week was 91%.
• Thus far, holiday email volume is increasing YoY for catalogers, consumer products and services, publishers, and travel.

This week’s report also takes a look back at last year’s trends to give marketers better insight into how to reach their customers effectively in the 2012 holiday season.

Personalization:

Creating subject lines that speak directly to subscribers can be accomplished in several ways.  While using first or last names is the most common, other ‘dynamic content’ fields such as business or school names, store, location, products, amount of points or dollars earned or saved, or time remaining in a program are all effective means of connecting with customers.

Personalized triggered mailings have similar lifts with twenty-five percent (25%) higher unique open rates and fifty-one percent (51%) higher unique click rates.

Based on the mailings sent in the first two weeks of this holiday season, personalized promotional mailings have twenty-nine percent (29%) higher unique open rates and forty-one percent (41%) higher unique click rates than non-personalized mailings.  Personalized triggered mailings have similar lifts with twenty-five percent (25%) higher unique open rates and fifty-one percent (51%) higher unique click rates.

For promotional mailings, personalized emails are generating transaction rates and revenue per email that is over six times (6x) higher than non-personalized emails.  Personalized trigger campaigns are also showing more than double the transaction rates of non-personalized trigger mailings.

Identifying online Black Friday shoppers:  Younger, middle income group and less credit-worthy

Within the Experian Hitwise U.S. panel, we identified web-users that performed a Black Friday-related search (e.g. ‘walmart black friday’, ‘black friday sales’) or visited a Black Friday website (e.g., blackfridayads.com, Bfads.com) between October 1, 2011 and January 7, 2012.

Experian Marketing Services found that the group is evenly split by gender, which is similar to the online population. Their age skewed younger, with 18-34 year-olds making up the largest share of visits and the greatest difference versus the online population. This audience also skewed younger when compared to the visitors to the Retail 500 during this time.

In terms of income, the highest concentration of Black Friday shoppers was in the $30-$99k income range

In terms of income, the highest concentration of Black Friday shoppers was in the $30-$99k income range, and they over indexed versus the online population in terms of visits from the $60-99k income bracket. This skews less affluent when compared with the Retail 500, which over indexes on visits from those with household incomes of $100k+.

Black Friday shoppers over-indexed slightly in visits from the least credit worthy groups versus the online population.

With regard to Vantage Score, the concentration is fairly evenly distributed amongst those with scores of B, C, D and F, while the smallest share comes from A, the most credit worthy group. Black Friday shoppers over-indexed slightly in visits from the least credit worthy groups versus the online population. This is also in contrast to Retail 500 shoppers – 44% of them are in the A or B Vantage Score range while just 35% of Black Friday 2011 shoppers fell within those groups.

This week the study finds:

• Led by a strong performance by multi-channel retailers, transaction rates, revenue per email and average order values are all higher this season than they were in 2011.
• Continuing last week’s trend, the overall email volume for the holiday season is almost identical to that seen in 2011.
• Halloween mailings are popular this week, but Christmas, Black Friday and Thanksgiving all received mentions in subject lines.
• A trend of a 17% increase in $-off campaigns compared to 2011.
• Offers to watch: So far this season, there are more Buy One Get One (BOGO) offers than seen in 2011.
• Searches for Black Friday have doubled since last week.

This week’s report also takes a look back at last year’s trends to give marketers better insight into how to reach their customers effectively in the 2012 holiday season.

Best days and times to email

The Top 10 transaction days provided 22% of overall transactions and had 14% of the overall volume in the 2011 Holiday season.

Transactions on Cyber Monday were double those on Black Friday, which was the second highest transaction day. Thanksgiving transactions ranked third. The Saturday and Sunday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday present another great opportunity to email, as they ranked 6th and 8th in transactions, but only 68th and 72nd in volume.

Peak days for key marketing channels sending traffic to the Retail 500 sites

Looking at key marketing channels sending traffic to the Retail 500 sites last holiday season, there were some varying trends that emerged within the different channels.

Search was sending the most traffic to the Retail 500 on Black Friday, while there was increased traffic to the retail sites on Cyber Monday from email and social.

Traffic to Retail 500 by channel and day