November 20, 2017
Yes Lifecycle Marketing study finds Black Friday emails drove higher open rates, yet Cyber Monday emails boasted higher conversion rates in 2016
CHICAGO, November 20, 2017 — Despite lower open rates than Black Friday emails, Cyber Monday emails resulted in higher conversions in 2016, indicating an evolution in consumer holiday shopping habits.
In a recent study, “Holiday Email Marketing Guide: How Day of the Week and Offer Type Impact Email Performance,” Yes Lifecycle Marketing analyzed almost 8 billion emails sent through its cross-channel marketing communication platform Yesmail360. The analysis found that Black Friday emails continue to offer promising conversion rates during the holiday season, outperforming business-as-usual (BAU) emails by 52.5 percent. However, they trailed Cyber Monday emails in terms of conversions.
The report found that Cyber Monday emails converted at a 53 percent higher rate than Black Friday ones. In terms of adoption, roughly a third of marketers used Black Friday and Cyber Monday in their marketing campaigns, 33 percent and 34 percent, respectively.
Despite their success in generating conversions (purchases per click), Cyber Monday emails garnered a lower open rate (13.2 percent) than Black Friday emails, which generated the highest open rate among holiday-themed emails (14.6 percent).
“With so much noise during peak season, marketers’ campaigns must be intentional and data-driven to stand out,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “Our data shows that conventional thinking around email marketing practices is not always on the mark. Marketers and retailers must assess their goals for engagement and conversions, and deploy campaigns with the right timing, content, and context in mind.”
The report also indicates that Green Monday, which typically occurs on the second Monday in December, might be one of the most underutilized ‘holidays’ for email marketing. Only 6 percent of marketers sent Green Monday campaigns; but these emails had 50 percent higher conversion rates than BAU emails.
“Black Friday is no longer the ultimate retail holiday. Cyber Monday, and increasingly Green Monday, are some of the most promising opportunities for conversions during the holiday season,” said Michael Iaccarino, CEO and chairman of Infogroup, the parent company of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “In order to identify this and many other trends in advance and capitalize on them, marketers should invest in tools that consistently make data collection and analysis easy and intuitive. This will make the difference between brands that champion changes in consumer behavior and those that are blindsided by them.”
Additional holiday-specific findings from the report include:
• Thanksgiving campaigns sent on Wednesdays saw the highest engagement among Thanksgiving emails, with a 15.5 percent open rate • Thanksgiving emails sent on Mondays saw the highest conversion rates at 4.8 percent, beating the BAU average by 20 percent • The fewest Cyber Monday emails were deployed on the Thursday following the event (3.1 percent), yet campaigns sent on that day generated the highest open rate (15.6 percent) because of their focus on an expiring sale or a final chance to save
For more findings and to learn tactics to stand out in a crowded inbox during the holiday season, download the full report here.
Yes Lifecycle Marketing provides solutions that orchestrate cross-channel marketing communications to drive results and revenue. This is accomplished by leveraging technology, data, analytics, creative, and strategy to activate and optimize insights-driven, real-time, relevant communications. This holistic approach gives marketers the ability to source a full-service offering of best-of-breed technology and solutions from a single vendor in order to achieve their desired outcomes across all on and offline channels. To learn more, call 1-877-937-6245, email [email protected] or visit www.yeslifecyclemarketing.com.
Infogroup is a leading provider of data and data-driven marketing solutions. Infogroup provides data, technology and services that help marketers acquire new customers and maximize the value of existing relationships. The company’s data and marketing solutions help clients of all sizes, from local SMBs to FORTUNE 100™ enterprises, increase sales and customer loyalty. Infogroup provides both digital and traditional marketing channel expertise that is enhanced by access to our proprietary data on 280 million individuals and 24 million businesses. For more information, visit www.infogroup.com.