As Economic Concerns Grow, Retail Marketers Must Act Now to Plan Successful Holiday Email Marketing Campaigns

Bronto Software Urges Retail Marketers to Establish Trust With Customers, Test Campaigns and Re-Mail to Maximize Revenue From Email Marketing

DURHAM, NC–(EMWNews – August 7, 2008) – Today, Bronto Software released holiday planning

advice to help retailers maximize holiday revenue with email marketing

campaigns despite the current economic situation in the United States.

With the holiday season fast approaching and increasing revenues top of

mind, Bronto Software executives urge retail marketers to act now and

develop email marketing plans this summer. According to Bronto Software,

establishing trust with customers, testing campaigns and re-mailing are key

to cutting through the competitive noise and increasing ROI during the

holidays.

Today’s economy, gas prices and other factors are expected to contribute to

more online shopping this holiday season than ever before. A recent New York Times article points to decreasing in-store sales and

increasing online sales for major retailers, including Gap, Victoria’s

Secret and J. C. Penney. Considering that commercial email volume

increases dramatically between October and December, Bronto Software

advises that marketers establish trust with their customer base now, and

secondly, deliver extremely relevant and useful email offers in order to

engage with this increased online audience.

According to a 2007 report from the Email Sender and Provider Coalition

(ESPC), 75 percent of consumers based their decision to open or delete a

message on the “from” and “subject” lines. With trust a key factor in

getting marketing messages noticed, clicked on and read, Bronto Software

advises retailers to pay attention to frequency and permission best

practices.

“The opportunities to reach and engage shoppers online are more promising

this holiday season than ever before,” said Susan Wall, director of

marketing for Bronto Software. “However, with the increase in online

shoppers this holiday season, it’s important to remember that drastically

increasing the frequency of email marketing messages isn’t necessarily

recommended, since it can lead to broken trust or reduced relevance.

Retail marketers should keep in mind that they should probably re-establish

trust and permission if longer than one month’s time has passed between

marketing messages.”

As is true for any time of year, testing email campaigns helps marketers

identify the messages, subject lines, layouts, timing and other factors

that affect campaign performance and customer satisfaction. With numerous

opportunities to engage with consumers through email, the holidays are the

perfect time to gain valuable insight into customer preferences that can

carry retailers through New Year’s and beyond.

Re-Mailing = Relevance and Revenue for Baby Supermall

To increase the relevance of campaigns, Bronto Software urges retail

marketers to take advantage of email tactics such as re-mailing, triggered

messaging and campaign optimization. Re-mailing gives senders a “second

chance” to reach their customers by automating slightly tweaked versions of

the original offers, sent only to those recipients who did not open the

first time. One of Bronto Software’s retail clients, Baby Supermall,

recently achieved a 150 percent increase in revenue through re-mailing, and

on average their re-mails generate up to 50 percent of the revenue that was

generated from the initial email.

“Re-mailing with the assistance of Bronto Software will certainly be

incorporated into our holiday email marketing campaigns for 2008,” said

David Suby, vice president of IT for Baby Supermall LLC. “It allows us to

exercise control over the factors that lead to email messages not being

opened and to hit our customers with the right message at the right time.”

For more tips on holiday email campaign planning, visit:

http://bronto.com/knowledge/whitepapers

About Bronto Software

Bronto Software provides successful email solutions to more than 750 online

retailers, interactive agencies and marketing departments around the world

including Trek Bicycle, Johnson & Johnson, Duke University, Shopatron,

Discount Dance and Blooms Today.

Bronto Software offers extensive reporting, unparalleled deliverability

through a partnership with Return Path and seamless integration with other

online channels. Founded in 2002, Bronto Software remains dedicated to

helping its customers become better email marketers by delivering proactive

customer support and educating clients on email marketing best practices,

standards and tactics for success. For more information, please visit

http://bronto.com.