For retail clients, we recommend testing urgency language like “Sale Ends Today” versus action-oriented language like “Purchase Now.” Your audience may have specific emotional triggers based on timing or offers. Also, personalizing CTAs is another way to create more intimate messages. This can be personalized based on the customer journey, such as “Your Cart Is Waiting” CTA for an abandoned cart email, or personalized for the customer, such as “Jason, your cart is waiting.”

Jason Witt, Senior Creative Director for Creative Services,
Oracle Marketing Consulting

Many seasonal buyers sign up for email during the holidays to make sure they’re getting the best deals, but then unsubscribe in late December and January. To retain more of these subscribers, consider reducing frequency to less engaged recipients during this window and beyond. With many of our clients, we use a predictive analytics model to identify recipients who are likely to opt out because of fatigue and then manage them by decile.”

Heather Goff, Strategic Director of Email Deliverability Services,
Oracle Marketing Consulting

Taking time to do thorough QA checks on your automated campaigns ahead of the holiday season—and especially after making seasonal updates, no matter how minimal—is always key to ensuring an optimal customer experience. During a time of year when more eyes are on your content, and you have the opportunity to drive higher engagement and revenue, investing a little extra time can have a huge impact.”

Lauren Pierce, Senior Manager for Campaign Deployment & Monitoring Services,
Oracle Marketing Consulting

With the third wave of delta-fueled coronavirus infections likely to last into the fall and extreme weather becoming more common, brands need to make sure they’re ready to react quickly with messaging that keeps their customers informed. We recommend that companies be able to send an alert message within 2 hours of deciding to do so.”

Chad S. White, Head of Research,
Oracle Marketing Consulting