Arthur Sweetser is yet another marketer who crowns Amazon the king of targeting, but he puts a number on it. “They send out a thousand campaigns a day, and they average an open rate of 20%,” says the CMO of eDataSource, which tracks the ebb and flow of billions of emails.
Those emulating the king in Valentine’s Day emails are posting similar results, says Sweetser, who notes that companies with the highest read rates were also those with the fewest number of emails sent. Both the St. Louis Hilton and Urban Outfitters achieved 30% open rates on Valentine’s emails sent to lists of 47,000 people.
“It’s common to see a couple of hundred thousand emails sent on holidays like this, but more and more, we’re seeing a clear correlation between a disciplined, segmented mailing and high open rates,” Sweetser says.
Email marketers kicked off their 2016 Valentine’s Day campaigns earlier than usual—nearly three weeks ago versus the usual seven to 10 days before the holiday, eDataSource reports. Sweetser sees that as part of an overall trend to getting out early before any holiday. “It’s like [shopping] in CVS in August and seeing Halloween,” he says.
But the longer promotional period could also be allowing marketers more time to apply alternate delivery times and creative executions to a more targeted customer base. Here are some cupidinous marketers who opened up business by firing email arrows into the right hearts:
Source: eDataSource
