Q3 2020 Holiday Marketing Guide

Oracle’s Holiday Marketing Quarterly gives B2C brands a quarter-by-quarter checklist for how to achieve more during the critical holiday season with their email marketing and other digital marketing channels. Along with guidance on planning, strategy, and prioritization, you’ll get advice and tips from some of Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts.

The third quarter is focused on the final prep for the start of the holiday season. In this Holiday Marketing Quarterly, we cover 6 areas:

  1. Campaign Planning
  2. Workload Management
  3. Contingency Planning
  4. Audience Optimization
  5. Performance Monitoring Plans
  6. Solidify Your Tech Stack

For details on each of those…

>>Download the 15-page Q3 2020 Holiday Marketing Quarterly

Email Deliverability Quarterly: CCPA Now Being Enforced, Coronavirus’ Deliverability Impact, and More

Email deliverability is constantly changing, as inbox providers adjust their filtering algorithms, blacklists tweak their listing criteria, and consumers evolve their definition of spam. That’s why even the best email marketing programs suffer deliverability problems sometimes.

To help you avoid trouble, the Email Deliverability Services team at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting shares the latest news and tips for what to watch out for in our latest Email Deliverability Quarterly.

In this post, Daniel Deneweth and Heather Goff explain how the following news and events will impact marketers’ email deliverability:

  • CCPA Goes into Enforcement Without Delay
  • COVID-19’s Business Disruptions May Cause Deliverability Challenges for Some
  • New Mailbox Provider, Hey.com, Launches with DIY Deliverability Screening
  • Email Inbox Collective Uses Paid Recipients to Influence Spam Filtering

For the full discussion of each of these issues…

>> Read the full post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog

The Last Word on June 2020

The Last WordA roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…

Must-read articles, posts & reports

Marketing in the New Normal (Mathew Sweezey)

Social Distancing Is Changing the Way We Write. That’s a Problem. (MarketingProfs)

Proven Strategies and Missed Opportunities: SurveyMonkey and SparkPost Unveil Retail Consumer Survey Insights for Improved Email Communications (SparkPost)

Emojis in Email Subject Lines: Advantage or Impediment? 👍 👎  (Nielen Norman Group)

M3AAWG issues email authentication advice for security pros (SC Magazine)

Insightful & entertaining tweets

Noteworthy subject lines

Fandango, 6/6 – Spotlighting Black Cinema
Everlane, 6/4 – Every Action Counts
ModCloth, 6/16 — 🌈 Happy Pride Month! 🌈
Williams Sonoma, 6/22 – Williams Sonoma x The Trevor Project. United Together.
Gap, 6/27 – Celebrate love in new Gap X PRIDE
Macy’s, 6/2 – Not a Dad joke: Father’s Day is sneaking up on us
Uncommon Goods, 6/14 – Celebrate your father figure with a fitting gift
Michaels, 6/18 – Last-minute ways to show Dad he’s #1 🏆
Olive Garden, 6/23 – Start a New Tradition: Takeout Tuesday
Williams Sonoma, 6/16 – The ultimate Taco Tuesday menu
Applebee’s Grill + Bar, 6/18 – Did someone say, Free Delivery?
Office Depot, 6/5 – 😷 PPE for your workspace
Gap, 6/25 – New face masks are here!
Everlane, 6/12 – 100% Human Face Masks
Staples, 6/5 – Your business comeback starts here + save on reopening essentials.
Staples, 6/23 – 5 ways to promote your reopening.
Office Depot, 6/6 – Which chair is perfect for you?
Gap, 6/3 – This shirt is virtual-meeting approved
Men’s | Saks Fifth Avenue, 6/5 – Because we’ve actually kinda missed wearing jeans…
IKEA, 6/29 – Consider this your staycation itinerary.
GapCash, 6/7 – Get in staycation mode
Crate and Barrel, 6/23 – Summer nights are magic sale + styling tips
Big Lots, 6/25 – Save BIG on backyard fun!
Lowe’s Home Improvement, 6/23 – Beach in your backyard? Coming right up!
Target, 6/27 – Next step: summer sandals.
Quiksilver, 6/14 – The Best In Sun Protection
Walmart, 6/23 – Fresh, fun ways to be a BBQ boss this summer 😎
IKEA, 6/10 — Why are calm spaces so important for kids?
Panera Bread, 6/2 – Chad, lunch? ✅ Groceries? ✅ Free delivery? ✅✅
Williams Sonoma, 6/11 – 🍳 ☕ 🍓 The best part of breakfast
Williams Sonoma, 6/6 – Let’s do brunch ☕🥐🍓
Williams Sonoma, 6/8 – A drink for any time of the day ☕🍹🍷
Petco, 6/22 – Save 35% on your first Repeat Delivery!
Patagonia, 6/27 – A Macro Puff Quilt made from leftovers
Zales, 6/1 – Say “YES” to 20-40% Off All Engagement & Wedding
LifeWay, 6/8 – 👰 Missing a wedding? Mail gifts to the Mr. & Mrs.
Michaels, 6/28 – Join us on Zoom to learn crafts from other makers!
Bass Pro Shops, 6/6 – Free Opry livestream TONIGHT!
Bass Pro Shops, 6/27 – TONIGHT: Watch Keb’ Mo’ and Brad Paisley at the Opry

New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com

Common Marketing Outliers: Identifying & Managing Them

Netcore Podcast: Strategies to Reduce Email Churn Rates

On-Demand Webinar: The Questions to Ask Instead about Email Frequency & List Building

Email Evolution Conference 2020: The State of Email Marketing

Netcore Podcast: There Is Opportunity in Disruption and Email Is the Key

On-Demand Webinar: The Questions to Ask Instead about Email Performance Measurement

LiveIntent Podcast: What Does the Change in Email Behavior Mean for Marketers?

How Coronavirus Has Shifted Consumer Preferences

On-Demand Webinar: Understanding Email Deliverability

Email Innovations Summit 2020: Prioritizing Which Email Innovations to Pursue

The Last Word on May 2020

Choosing the Best Days to Send Email Campaigns This Holiday Season

Having a successful holiday season takes year-round effort, but there’s no more critical time than late summer and early fall. One of the decisions you make during this time is which days to send campaigns on. It’s a choice that can have a significant impact on the performance of your campaigns.

In this webinar, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s Clint Kaiser, Doug Sundahl, and I share research into the performance of email marketing campaigns on certain days during the holiday season. Is sending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday worth it? What are the best days to send in early November? How do campaigns perform on Green Monday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day? We will answer all of those questions and many more, plus we’ll talk about some broader trends you should plan for this holiday season.

Choosing the Best Days to Send Email Campaigns This Holiday Season
Date: July 15, 2020
Time: 1pm ET/10am PT
Duration: 1 hour

Your Presenters:
Clint Kaiser, Head of Strategic & Analytic Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Doug Sundahl, Senior Director of Strategic & Analytic Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Chad S. White, Head of Research, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting

>> Register for this free webinar

Common Marketing Outliers & How to Manage Them

The chances are high that your audience across your various channels is diverse—made up of people with different needs, different values, different constraints, and more. That’s why smart marketers develop marketing personas to help them better cater to the various groups of people that their brand attracts.

However, sometimes one or more small groups is so extreme in their behavior that they skew the overall behavior of your channel audience in a way that’s detrimental. These groups are called outliers and they can cause a number of problems, including…

  • Clouding overall performance data, making it appear that you’re doing much better or much worse than you actually are
  • Obscuring how your core audience is performing
  • Concealing trends in your customer data, causing you to miss opportunities or fail to address challenges
  • Skewing A/B test results and leading you to implement the wrong changes or strategies

Let’s talk about some common outliers you might have in your various audiences, and then how to manage your outliers to avoid having issues.

>> Read the entire post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog

Netcore Podcast: Strategies to Reduce Email Churn Rates

Since email has been the heart of marketing strategy, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, preventing email churn is the top priority for most email marketers. However, before you get to the task of retaining your email subscribers, it’s important for you to understand why your subscribers are churning, as well as which ones are worth retaining and which ones you must let go?

I join Netcore’s Chaitanya Chinta and Dennis Dayman on the Email Unplugged Podcast to shed light on the actionable items that can help reduce your email churn and retain quality subscribers.

We discuss:

  • How big a problem email churn is for marketers
  • Different kinds of subscriber churn, and how marketers can arrest those churns
  • Actionable ways to increase email list growth, curb subscriber loss, and improve the quality of your email list
  • Precautions for a marketer when running a win-back program

>> Listen to the podcast on the Netcore Blog

The Questions to Ask Instead - Email Frequency and List Building webinar

Not achieving your email marketing goals is frustrating, but achieving your goals and then not achieving success is devastating. This happens when marketers and executives ask the wrong questions. When that happens, the answer almost doesn’t matter, because it’s likely to cause you to put the wrong strategies in place regardless. A solid email marketing strategy starts by asking the right questions.

In this series of free on-demand webinars, we’re discussing a number of common email marketing questions that brands ask themselves, and then posing some better questions that brands should ask instead. In this 27-minute webinar, we’re looking at common questions about email frequency and list building, including…

  • How can we send our subscribers more email?
  • How can we attract more subscribers?
  • How much did we grow our email list?

In each case, we’ll explain why those questions aren’t likely to help you achieve the email marketing success that you want, and suggest one or more questions that are better. Along the way, we’ll share advice from some of our more than 500 digital marketing consultants, as well as some real-world experiences from our clients.

>> Watch the free on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog

The State of Email Marketing

Marketers are operating in turbulent times. The challenges are daunting:

  • The worst health crisis since 1918
  • The worst financial crisis since 1933
  • The worst social unrest since 1968.

The shock to the system has been so great that marketers have largely scrapped their 2020 marketing plans. March marked the new start of the new year. And email marketers need a new plan to succeed going forward. Thankfully, each of the past 4 months have offered lessons that will serve you well as you navigate the rest of this chaotic year.

In this keynote for the ANA’s 2020 Email Evolution Conference, Wildbit Head of Marketing Justine Jordan and I discuss the key events of the past 4 months, what marketers can learn from those events, and how those lessons will inform your strategy this year and beyond.

View the slide presentation:

Netcore Podcast: There Is Opportunity in Disruption and Email Is the Key

Email marketing has changed in dramatic ways since March. I join Netcore’s Email Unplugged Podcast to speak with Dennis Dayman about these changes and how marketers have responded and what they should think about moving forward.

During our conversation, we talk about:

  • Companies’ coronavirus crisis messaging in mid March and how consumers reacted to them
  • How email engagement, unsubscribe rates, email revenue, and other metrics have been affected by the pandemic
  • How open times have shifted
  • Why personalization, segmentation, and automation will be extra valuable as the economy reopens
  • Why you need to adapt your personas to reflect new behaviors
  • How out-of-stocks are driving lots of new consumer behaviors
  • How you can learn from past systemic shocks like the Great Recession of 2008-09

To hear us explore all of that…

>> Listen to the podcast on Netcore’s blog

The Questions to Ask Instead: Email Performance Measurement

Not achieving your email marketing goals is frustrating, but achieving your goals and then not achieving success is devastating. This happens when marketers and executives ask the wrong questions. When that happens, the answer almost doesn’t matter, because it’s likely to cause you to put the wrong strategies in place regardless. A solid email marketing strategy starts by asking the right questions.

In this series of free on-demand webinars, we’re discussing a number of common email marketing questions that brands ask themselves, and then posing some better questions that brands should ask instead. In this 25-minute webinar, we’re looking at common questions about email performance measurement, including…

  • How many subscribers opened our email?
  • How many subscribers clicked my email content?
  • How many email recipients clicked through and converted?
  • How much revenue did we generate from that email?

In each case, we’ll explain why those questions aren’t likely to help you achieve the email marketing success that you want, and suggest one or more questions that are better. Along the way, we’ll share advice from some of our more than 500 digital marketing consultants, as well as some real-world experiences from our clients.

>> Watch the free on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog