The most popular types of email sent by marketers during the holiday season (October to December) are "percentage off" and "dollar amount off" offers, yet consumers often do not differentiate those from standard mailings, according to a recent report by Experian Marketing Services.
In addition, consumer response to these tactics varies significantly by country. Among the key regional differences are the following:
- In Spain, "percentage off" email campaigns actually performed worse last holiday season than standard mailings.
- Marketers in New Zealand and France rely most on "dollar/euro off" promotions. Yet, despite the high proportion of campaigns promoting discounts in the subject line, those messages also had lower open and click rates than average campaigns.
Below, additional key findings from the International Email Performance Study, which examined more than 100,000 email campaigns in Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, sent between October 2012 and the end of December 2012.
Holiday Email Volume
- 28% of all US email volume occurred during the holiday season.
- Email volume in Asia varied during the season from country to country. Since the region is less influenced by the Christian calendar, each country examined showed different volume trends between October and December 2012.
- Western countries showed volume trends similar to each others', starting in October and carrying through December, which was the peak volume month until Christmas Day. During the last week of December, volume clear declined.
Weekends vs. Weekdays
- During the holidays, India and France experienced lower open rates and click-through rates on weekends than on weekdays.
- In the United States, the reverse occurred; emails had higher engagement on weekends.
- Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand also had higher engagement on weekends than on weekdays.
About the research: The study was based on data from more than 100,000 email campaigns sent by more than 1,000 brands between October 2012 and the end of December 2012. Campaigns in the following countries were included: Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
