NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With the
holiday season just a few months away, new research from Experian
Marketing Services, the recognized leader in data-driven marketing
and cloud-based marketing technology, pinpoints five strategies
that brands should consider incorporating into their holiday
marketing campaigns to help boost program performance. According to
the Q2 2016 Email Benchmark Report, marketers should
consider the quality of subscriber data obtained during
acquisition, social media, creative content, email personalization
and retention strategy.
"While the holidays may seem far away, now is the perfect time
for marketers to begin preparing for this all-important season,"
said Spencer Kollas, vice president
of global deliverability for Experian Marketing Services. "By
leveraging data from last year's campaigns, as well as current
market trends, brands can create more effective holiday marketing
campaigns that increase engagement and improve the customer
experience."
Quality of subscriber data obtained at the point of sale
(POS)
Marketers need to take the appropriate steps to
improve the quality of the data obtained at the POS, as those
subscribers often are highly engaged with the brand. In fact,
between April 2015 and March 2016, welcome mailings to POS subscribers
had a 32 percent higher click-to-open rate than for subscribers
obtained from other sources (23.2 percent for POS compared with
17.5 percent from other sources). To ensure data quality, marketers
should invest in real-time email validation technology, train store
associates for data collection and have customers verify data in
real time.
Social media
Targeting email subscribers based on
their interest in social media can lead to high email engagement
for brands. For example, welcome emails sent to subscribers who
engaged via Facebook had an 11 percent higher click-to-open rate
than other welcome emails from the same brand (22 percent for
Facebook welcomes compared with 19.9 percent for other welcome
emails).
Creative content
Fresh creative ideas that add a
sense of urgency are an important strategy for holiday campaigns.
During the 2015 holiday season, a number of brands leveraged
countdown clocks that helped boost engagement performance.
Marketing campaigns that included a dynamic countdown clock had a
41 percent higher click-to-open rate and more than double the
transaction rate of other holiday mailings from the same
brands.
Email personalization
Personalization can help boost
performance of promotional emails. Based on data from April 2015 to March
2016, brands that included personalized subject lines
experienced 27 percent higher unique click rates, 11 percent higher
click-to-open rates and more than double the transaction rate
compared with other promotional mailings.
"Nowadays there is an expectation among consumers that brands
create personalized mailings that communicate relevant messages,"
added Kollas. "While personalizing emails with a first name can be
effective, marketers also should consider populating communications
with more granular data points, such as purchase or browse
behavior. When personalization is done correctly, marketers can
create an improved customer journey."
Retention strategy
A proper retention strategy can
help brands keep holiday-season customers throughout the rest of
the year. Brands that sent "thank you for your purchase" mailings
saw twice the open and click rates, as well as five times the
transaction rate, compared with promotional mailings. Additionally,
promotional campaigns that included "our way of saying thanks"
experienced two and a half times the transaction rate of other
promotional mailings.
Email benchmarking trends
Findings from the Q2 2016 Email Benchmark Report also
highlight overall email marketing trends during the quarter.
According to the analysis, email volume rose by 17.1 percent from a
year ago. Diving a bit deeper, two-thirds of consumer products and
services and 86 percent of media and entertainment brands showed
year-over-year gains in email volume.
Other findings:
- Despite the increase in email volume during the quarter, open
and transaction rates remained steady from a year ago
- Year-over-year unique click rates declined from 2 percent to
1.8 percent, while the actual number of clicks received in the
quarter rose by 7 percent
- Quarter-to-quarter email volume remained the same for Q2
compared with Q1 2016, but revenue per email rose from 6 cents to 7 cents
in Q2
For a complimentary download of the full report, click here.
About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing
Services is a leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based
marketing technology. Experian® is the only company in
the world to offer a comprehensive Marketing Suite that unites
customer insights, analytics, data quality and cross-channel
marketing technology into a single platform. Backed by the
industry's highest-rated client services team and the world's
largest consumer database, we provide more than 10,000 brands in
more than 30 countries with unique competitive advantages through
marketing services and technology. Our extended legacy in data
security, management and consumer privacy has earned the trust of
organizations and consumers from around the world for more than
three decades. For more information, please visit
http://www.experian.com/marketing-services.
About Experian
We are the leading global information
services company, providing data and analytical tools to our
clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk,
prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision
making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit
score and protect against identity theft. In 2015, we were
named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by
Forbes magazine.
We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our
corporate headquarters are in Dublin,
Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and
is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year
ended March 31, 2016, was
US$4.6 billion.
To find out more about our company, please
visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our
documentary, "Inside Experian."
Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other
product and company names mentioned herein are the property of
their respective owners.
Contact:
Jordan
Takeyama
Experian Marketing Services
1
714 830 7561
jordan.takeyama@experian.com
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