Did you survive the biggest shopping weekend of the year?! While our wallets crave payday after the onslaught of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and steals, it’s retailers’ inventive marketing that really piqued our interest.

Surprisingly, retailers’ clever subject lines or design isn’t what caught our eye – it was the missing promotion. When inboxes are overloaded with holiday shopping deals, does skipping a promotion altogether differentiate brands?

We’re investigating the “anti-Black Friday/Cyber Monday” crew in today’s email roundup.

REI

Starting in 2015, REI bucked trends and turned out the lights on Black Friday with their #OptOutside campaign.

REI, an outdoors adventure retailer, closed their stores, gave their employees a paid holiday, and encouraged others to go outside on Black Friday with friends and family, instead of duking it out at the mall.

This campaign not only aligns with REI’s mission, but sets them apart from the myriad of other retailers vying for your attention during the holidays.

Continue reading Trending: Anti-Black Friday and Cyber Monday Marketing →

Were you inundated with emails between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday? You’re not alone – the biggest shopping weekend of the year filled up our inbox too.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the busiest days of the year for retailers and marketers. Many retailers didn’t even wait until Black Friday this year and instead, began their sales on Thanksgiving Day. Their early-bird approach paid off. According to Adobe Digital Insights, Thanksgiving online sales increased 18.3%, Black Friday dollars spent increased 16.9%, and Cyber Monday sales increased 16.8% from 2016.

Since we’re total data geeks at Whereoware, we set out to measure how our overflowing inbox correlated to retailers’ holiday sales success. Did retailers across industries send more emails this year compared to last year’s holiday shopping kickoff? We tracked the holiday email sends (Thanksgiving – Cyber Monday) of 15 major retailers, such as Old Navy, Amazon, Loft, Nordstrom, Kohls, and Bath & Body Works (see the raw data below), and compared the results year-over-year. Check out what we found.

Continue reading Email Tip – Black Friday and Cyber Monday →

Another year, another holiday season is upon us. It’s nearly November and we’ve already been inundated with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and December holiday emails. But what makes a holiday email stand out from the rest? Sometimes it’s a particularly good subject line to pique our interest, a clever design, or a unique offering. We’ll be sharing some out-of-the-box ideas in this round-up of holiday emails we love.

Holiday GIFs
GIFs are a great way to grab your readers’ attention and entice a click through. You can choose to use a GIF in place of a static hero image, or you can animate just a small aspect of your email.

Mark and Graham
We love this announcement email from Mark & Graham not only for its use of a GIF but for the omni-channel approach of inviting you to peek at the online holiday catalog. They easily could have showcased a few new product offerings and linked to the holiday category page. Instead, they used a GIF to “flip” through a few of the pages of the online catalog as a sneak peek.

Continue reading Holiday Tip – Holiday Emails We Love →

This week, we welcome a guest post from our Digital Strategist, Erin Alemdar.

Erin is responsible for the overall email strategy, production, scheduling, delivery, and reporting of behavior-based, targeted email, website, and mobile campaigns for B2B and B2C e-commerce clients.

Using emojis in email subject lines is a trend that has grown tremendously over the last few years, and it’s a trend that’s not likely to disappear anytime soon. In fact, the use of emojis in marketing email subject lines increased 775% from 2015-2016, according to Email Marketing Daily. Whether you ❤︎ emojis or hate them, these tiny symbols have made an impact on the way we communicate. For marketers, it’s another tool we can use to stand out in our customers’ already crowded inboxes and enhance the meaning of our subject lines. Continue reading Email Tip – To Emoji, or Not to Emoji? →

Feeling like B2C companies get all the fun with holiday email campaigns? Think again and get inspired by our B2B Holiday Email gallery.

Check it out:

Holiday Contest

Spend More, Save More

Free Freight

3 Day Sale

Company Card

Holiday Discount

Important Holiday Info

3 Day Sale

Thanksgiving Sale

Another year, another holiday campaign. Avoid getting stuck in a rut – pull ideas for your 2017 campaigns with our  B2C Holiday Email Inspiration Gallery.

Check it out:

Gift Subscription

Thanksgiving Thanks

Giving Tuesday

Free Overnight Shipping

Gift Guide

New Year Thanks

Gift Guide

Happy New Year

12 Days of Gifting

Early Black Friday

Thanksgiving Countdown

Last Minute Gift

New Year's Eve

Buy Now, Save Later

Rush Shipping

Is your interest piqued at the slightest bit of mystery? If your answered “yes,” the same goes for your audience.

Mystery emails are used to pique interest, add urgency, and increase open and click rates. There are many use cases for this- maybe you’re promoting a sale, or unveiling a new product or service. The same goes for all your other emails; the subject line, creative, copy, and call-to-action all play a role in getting the reader to click through to the landing page. In the case of mystery emails, you’re going to be vague and “tease out” what the landing page will reveal.

Continue reading Email Tip – Mystery Emails We Love →