The Holiday Hub: Deliver Emails With Impact This Holiday Season

Being a responsible marketer is something that dotdigital strives to be. Part of that means making sure we are listening to what’s going on in the industry, understanding current trends, and helping our customers go into busy periods armed with the tools needed to get the best success possible for their businesses.

Like the 2020 holiday season, 2021 will present some unknowns that marketers will need to adapt to, but there are plenty of things we do know that can help us prepare for the upcoming busy period that our businesses depend on are going to need to adapt. We’re here to help you stay ahead of what’s to come and provide you with resources that will help you to meet rising customer expectations. Here are some frequently asked questions and resources to help you kick off the holiday season. 

Should I be sending to everyone on my list for Single’s Day / Black Friday / Christmas / New Year’s to maximize my results?

Be strategic! Show recipients that you respect them and that they’re more than just a number in your marketing database.  Inbox exhaustion due to the sheer volume of emails being sent to recipients during the holiday time is very real. Resist the urge to send to all.

• Build an email sending strategy focused on active recipients who are engaging with the emails being sent to them. 
• Segment recipients that aren’t engaging with your emails regularly and target them on other digital marketing channels.
• Respect those that are actively saying they don’t want to hear from you.

Where’s my email? 

During busy periods – mailbox providers are handling a lot; year over year, dotdigital alone consistently sends over double our usual daily volumes on Black Friday. 

The huge jump in the number of inbound emails can mean that the journey of a mail through filtering and infrastructure to the inbox is slower than usual. Mailbox providers like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo are likely to prioritize 1-to-1 emails if they’re busy, so you might receive Great Aunt Erma’s festive update email (she should really add an unsubscribe link) before marketing mail appears.

Additionally sending reputation matters! Particularly for larger sends, if you have a poor reputation or the MBP deems your email in some way suspicious, they may release some emails to the inbox and then wait and see what recipients do with those emails. Depending on how their users interact with this first batch, the MBP will decide whether to deliver the rest of your emails – and to where (inbox or junk). 

Why are our click rates higher than normal? We’ve been hearing rumors that opens and clicks aren’t accurate? 

This is a continuation of a conversation that’s been around for some time. The key to measuring success from your digital messaging is to use a holistic approach – using all of the data you have. Check out these helpful blogs on how to navigate the industry changes that are causing this question:

• Apple iOS 15
• Non-human interaction
• The value of an open and other ways to measure success

Help! I need to know more about deliverability!

Learn about the 6 C’s of deliverability or check out our Deliverability 101 guide below.