News & Press Releases

EmailLabs Offers Five Ways Retailers Can Avoid 'Ho-Ho-Hum' Holiday Emails – and Deliver Campaigns That Jingle All the Way

As Holiday Email Season Kicks Into High Gear, EmailLabs’ Stefan Pollard Shows How to Light Up the Inbox

WHO: Stefan Pollard, director of consulting services, EmailLabs, and regular contributor to ClickZ Network's "Expert" series.

WHAT: At this "most wonderful time of the year," retailers send out a flurry of emails to drive both online and offline holiday shopping. Here are five holiday-campaign tips:

1. Light up your subject line.
Present a unique value proposition for why consumers should shop with you - and avoid overused lines like "Free Shipping" and "Today Only." Before you hit "Send," check out the "Subjectivity Scanner," a daily digest of email subject lines from a variety of retailers, at www.retailemail.blogspot.com.

2. Don't be a Scrooge - do the math for your customers.
Saying "save up to 50 percent off" just isn't enough.  Show the beginning price and the ending price, then spell out exactly how much money was saved - in dollars and as a percentage. Make it crystal clear why this is a great deal.

3. Say it with words.
Make sure your call to action and your key offer is spelled out in text - not just highlighted in a graphic. Some ISPs automatically block all images.

4. Add holiday cheer to your "new subscriber" message.
Update your tried-and-true autoresponder message with special offers for first-time shoppers and shipping information, such as cut-off dates for Christmas delivery.

5. Check your links twice - and make sure service is nice.
Broken links are sure to land you on the customer's "naughty" list. No matter how rushed you are, take three minutes to test all of your links - including your unsubscribe link and landing pages. Make sure your feedback link works and also add a live phone number to your email, so customers have an alternative way to reach you.

"The holiday season is when retailers see the largest growth in their subscriber lists and generate the most activity from their email campaigns. Following best practices is critical to building solid relationships - so that sales carry through for rest of the year," Pollard said.


HOW: To speak with Stefan Pollard, contact:
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
ken@edgecommunicationsinc.com
818-990-5001

About EmailLabs
EmailLabs is a leading provider of high-performance email marketing solutions to agencies, publishers and marketing departments of middle-market and Global 2000 companies. The EmailLabs email marketing platform is provided as an ASP (Web-based) service, and is easily integrated with a company's Web site, sales force automation and CRM technologies through EmailLabs' application programming interface (API). For the fourth consecutive year, EmailLabs has been recognized by ASPnews.com as one of the Top 50 ASPs worldwide and as a Top 25 Service Provider for the Software-as-a Service (SaaS) and Business Service Provider category. The company provides email marketing solutions to more than 550 companies, including Nokia, Agilent, PalmSource and Jupitermedia. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., EmailLabs was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of Lyris, Inc. (OTCBB:JLHY). For more information, visit www.EmailLabs.com.