Good morning, Marketer, what does your holiday email marketing strategy look like?

With the holidays looming and the pandemic still in full force, marketing during the gift-giving season is going to look a lot different this year. So what should marketers expect to do differently?

“Besides the obvious steps – looking at the data, defining your authenticity, and getting in touch with why people like and engage with your brand – you need to seriously consider what you will do differently this year,” wrote Ryan Phelan, co-founder of Origin Email.

Phelan offered three key predictions for email marketing as we head into the holidays:

1. Forget your focus on the subject line. It’s what’s inside that counts. Phelan urges marketers to consider how to make email content resonate more with customers and differentiate from everything else in the inbox.

2. Use real-time content to make a difference. Make it easy for customers to connect by offering real-time value in the email. Examples include showing the customer’s nearest store, surfacing real-time promotions and sales banners, or even displaying a dynamic videocast based on the audience segment.

3. Be prepared for your “screaming down the hall” moment. “If you’ve spent enough time in retail email marketing, you know exactly what I mean,” Phelan said. “It’s the moment somebody checks the numbers and runs down the hallway to your cubicle, shouting, ‘We need to send another email!’ You can defend against the mayhem by creating default campaigns targeted to preselected segments and using easily updated message templates.”

Take care,

Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor

 
 
 
Indicators
 

Travel’s unprecedented year

We all know the travel industry has been hit especially hard during the pandemic. New data from eMarketer illustrates just how hard. The firm projects U.S. digital ad spend from the sector will plummet by an unprecedented 41% year-over-year to $3.24 billion, after years of solid growth. Before the COVID-19 emerged, eMarketer expected travel digital ad spend to see 19.3% growth.

Why we care. Travel was a big reason Google’s search business saw negative YoY growth (-10%) last quarter. More than other verticals, travel relies heavily on search advertising with nearly 60% of budgets spent on search compared to 40% industry wide and “the $1.91 billion that travel will spend on search will be the least it has transacted on the format since 2016.” A rebound will be slow — Emarketer’s estimates peg the travel industry’s US digital ad spend at slightly above 2017 levels.

 

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What we're reading
 

We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader.

Trump moves to shut down WeChat in the US. But TikTok will live until after the election – Vox

CEO Of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested By FBI, Facing Fraud Charges – Forbes

Why Zoom Is Hot and Slack Is Not – Marker

NBCU Intros News Outcome-Based Measurement Program; Telcos Spend Big On Advertising Despite The Pandemic – AdExchanger

TikTok Says Advertising Won’t Be Illegal Under Trump’s ‘Ban’ – AdWeek