Holiday Deliverability - Part 2

A little over 10 days ago I wrote about deliverability in the first 11 days of the holiday season and how it was reflected in industry wide benchmarks. It's time now to look at the next 11 some odd days as our run up to the all important Black Friday is no longer on the horizon but quite literally at our door steps.

I dare say that more and more email is arriving, rather I should say that more and more email is being sent -- and more of it is being filtered by ISPs. The holidays are a difficult time for both sides of the fence: senders (marketers, email service providers, *gasp* spammers) and receivers; or more accurately: those people who run the networks where email is directed.

So what have we seen in the run up to the holidays when it comes to opt-in email marketers' deliverability? As expected, a downward trend. Last week wasn't quite the same haphazard five days with numerous peaks and valleys, but it wasn't as smooth as we would like it to be either. The weekends have seen a rebound in terms of deliverability numbers as volumes drop, but the weekdays are a veritable trench warfare of offers, specials and hype about the coming Black Friday retail events.

What is significant to note is the all-time low of 72.40% that happened on Friday the 20th and could well be the result of complaints accumulating from higher traffic on Thursday. If last Friday's number is a harbinger for this coming Friday, then we can assume marketer's will make last ditch efforts to cram inboxes with email. Those who wish to distinguish themselves from the mad dash to the finish line may want to take into consideration that filters will be on high alert, queues packed with messages, and attentions distracted from the screen to the holiday feast. Instead of joining into the mass hysteria of the 11th hour, focus on today and tomorrow as the finish line and leave the inbox alone on Thursday - which appears poised to be a high volume, high traffic day. Craft messages to relevant segments and customers that are the most likely to act on them. Sending out a last minute offer to someone who hasn't purchased anything in the last 5 years is akin to shooting yourself in the foot rather than hitting a bullseye.

The rules of the game haven't changed—customer engagement will separate the winners from the losers, the spam from the ham, and success from failure. In a recent post on ExactTarget's Blog, good sound marketing advice was aptly put into verse. Although this little ditty might sound comic it is an accurate and cautionary tale from one of the nation's leading mailbox providers, AOL.

 Cheers!
-Len Shneyder
Director of Partner Relations
& Industry Communications