This holiday season we’ve examined email marketing activity and trends on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Green Monday. Now it’s time to look at Free Shipping Day.

This is a shopping occasion that’s in decline. Unlike last year when email activity on Free Shipping Day exceeded Green Monday and rivaled other important shopping days, this year email activity on Dec. 18 was very average. Of the more than 100 major retailers that we track, 73% sent their subscribers at least one promotional email on Free Shipping Day. That’s down from 77% last year.

Perhaps more importantly, only 9% of the promotional emails sent by retailers on Free Shipping Day mentioned it by name, which is a sign that the “Free Shipping Day” brand is weak. And it’s easy to understand why that would be the case.

Free shipping offers are plentiful throughout the holiday season—indeed, throughout the year. So a day that trumpets a promotion that’s very common on other days is surely confusing to consumers. Some retailers had extra special shipping offers available on Free Shipping Day, such as free shipping with no minimum, but these offers haven’t been able to clarify this shopping occasion with consumers, as evidenced by declining searches for “free shipping day.”

>> Read the entire post of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud blog

I’ve already shared insights from Black Friday Week and Cyber Week. Next up: Green Monday.

This newish shopping occasion is just getting going. It feels a lot like Cyber Monday did in 2006, when that was a new term that consumers were becoming familiar with. Retailers spent quite a while establishing the “Cyber Monday” brand—and clearly it was time well-spent.

Now some are trying to do the same thing with Green Monday, which is typically the second Monday in December.

This year, more than 10% of the email messages sent on Dec. 8 by the more than 100 major retailers that I track mentioned “Green Monday” by name. While we didn’t track mentions last year, anecdotally that’s a significant increase from a small base.

>> Read the entire post on the Salesforce blog

Last week we reviewed some of the noteworthy developments that came out of Black Friday Week. Now let’s look at a couple of interesting developments that occurred around Cyber Monday.

First, for the 8th straight year, Cyber Monday is the busiest email marketing day of the year. Although there have been some other busy days that follow it, it’s unlikely that any of them will come close to even matching Cyber Monday’s email activity level. Among the more than 100 major retailers that I track, 93% of them sent their active subscribers at least one promotional email on Cyber Monday.

And second, after overflowing into “Cyber Sunday” and “Cyber Tuesday” the past few years, Cyber Monday has exploded into a full-on “Cyber Week.” Roughly one in eight major retailers mentioned “Cyber Week” in their subject lines alone, and many more mentioned it in the body copy of their emails. I expect even more retailers to jump on the bandwagon next year.

>> Read the entire post on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud blog

Every month through January, we’ll be reviewing our predictions from the 2014 Email Marketing Holiday Calendar for the previous month and discussing what to expect this month in terms of holiday messaging trends.

For November, we predicted that major retailers would send their active subscribers 22 promotional emails. That prediction turned out to be a tad low, as our panel of more than 100 major retailers sent their subscribers 22.6 promotional emails on average last month.

In December, we’re expecting retailers to send their active subscribers around 28 promotional emails each. We’ve already seen record-breaking ecommerce sales and email volume on Cyber Monday. Other big days to look for will be Green Monday, which is this coming Monday; Free Shipping Day on Dec. 18; and Last Sleigh Day on Dec. 22, which will the last day for guaranteed Christmas delivery with express shipping for many retailers.

>> Read the entire post on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Blog

In my latest Email Insider column for MediaPost, I discuss two developments in the email marketing holiday season thus far.

First, more retailers sent out promotional emails on Black Friday than last year. And more interestingly, fewer retailers sent email on Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving Day, and the Saturday after Black Friday. Retailers seemed to be making way for more activity on Black Friday.

And second, a majority of retailers sent mobile-UNfriendly emails on and around Black Friday. While retailers, along with other B2C brands, had been making progress on making their emails more friendly on small screens, they made absolutely zero progress between early October and late November—which was a time last year when huge progress was made.

>> Read my entire column on MediaPost.com