Email Marketing Shift Drives Double-Digit Direct Growth for Cuddledown

Home goods and apparel merchant Cuddledown decided that, when it comes to email marketing during the holiday season, more was more. By emailing its list on a more-frequent basis and creating special offers for certain segments of its list, Cuddledown helped to grow its fourth-quarter direct sales by 53% over 2009. Website visits for the quarter rose 42%, and conversions were up 3%.

“We’d suspected this holiday was going to be better for us than last year, but we were blown away by the actual numbers,” says Laura Hnatow, Cuddledown’s ecommerce manager. “Our primary marketing strategy is based off the [print] catalog, but this year we figured out a different messaging strategy, and it seemed to resonate.”

Though the merchant did use its catalog as a Web traffic driver, as well as added a heavy dose of social media to its marketing efforts and redesigned its shopping cart, Hnatow says the shift in email marketing was key to its sales growth.

For instance, in addition to emailing subscribers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Cuddledown sent email offers on Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, in hopes that its customer base would still have the urge to shop. And the merchant did not send just one email a day: It sent an email message in the morning with the daily offer, then a follow-up in the afternoon with an “hours left” message within the subject line to create a sense of urgency.

During the four days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, the morning email accounted for more sales than the afternoon one. Throughout the rest of the holiday season, however, sales and open rates were higher for the afternoon emails.

Cuddledown also simplified its offers this year. Whereas on Black Friday 2009, the offer was a variable discount on selected items, the offer for this most recent Black Friday was a straight 25% off the entire purchase. The Saturday offer was a continuation of the Friday sale, Sunday was 25% off sleepwear and accessories, and on Cyber Monday, there was a sale on pillows.

All told, from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, online sales climbed 121% from the same four-day period of 2009, with site visits up 49% and conversions up 54%.

Cuddledown also added some new email marketing streams. For example, it mailed a weekly “Temptation Tuesday” promotion to a segment of customers who had responded to past sales items. The offer was for a particular item or group of items at 40%-50% off and was valid for one week only.