Only several days after the king of Black Friday, Wal*Mart, announced that they would be manning their cash registers at 10pm on Thanksgiving Day to kick off their Black Friday deals; Toys ‘R Us decided to one up them by promoting their 9pm opening on the same turkey day.

Traditionally, many retailers open their doors at midnight on Thanksgiving night to signify the start of the holiday shopping season.

Perhaps one day, the term Christmas in July will be a literal reference.

Over $648 Million dollars were spent on Black Friday in 2010, up 9 percent from 2009.

The National Retail Federation predicts that 152 million Americans will work off their Thanksgiving Day dinner by shopping on Black Friday 2011. That’s 14 million more than last year.

Even more promising for American retailers is that 33% of consumers surveyed in 2011 say that they will “definitely” shop on Black Friday, up from 27% last year.

“32 percent of consumers will specifically keep track of email coupons that they receive from their favorite retailers.”

“Though many retailers are already touting select Black Friday ads, there’s no doubt we’ll all be blown away by what retailers still have in their bag of tricks for shoppers,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “We fully expect to see excited shoppers as early as midnight at stores around the country, as many holiday shoppers would rather stay up all night to take advantage of retailers’ Black Friday deals rather than set their alarm to wake up the next morning.”  continue reading

What will Americans be shopping for on Black Friday 2011?

From the National Retail Federation Black Friday 2011 Press Release:

NRF will release the results of its Black Friday weekend survey by 1:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 28 and will hold a special media briefing at 2 p.m. EST. Information will include what time people started shopping on Black Friday, where they shopped, how much they spent, and what they purchased. NRF will also be releasing findings from a new survey on the number of people expected to shop on Cyber Monday.

NRF’s offices will be closed on Black Friday and throughout the weekend, so please use the communications team’s direct lines to set up print and broadcast interviews with NRF spokespeople. (This is the only way to contact the PR team over the holiday weekend):

- Kathy Grannis: (202) 626-8189 or cell (202) 821-7513 or grannisk@nrf.com
- Ellen Davis: (202) 626-8127 or cell (703) 474-3446 davise@nrf.com
- Kara Goehring (202) 661-3055 or cell (318) 918-8830 or goehringk@nrf.com

Have you sent your own Black Friday email promotions yet?

Get them out this week with our award-winning newsletter and email marketing software.

BACKUP CONTACTS

SLEEP BETTER AT NIGHT

“Can I backup contacts in GroupMail?
I just spent two days importing contacts
and I think I would do something bad
if something happened and I lost all of my data.”

Not only CAN you backup your contacts. You SHOULD backup your contacts.

HOW TO BACKUP CONTACTS IN GROUPMAIL

GroupMail makes it really easy to backup contacts, messages, drafts, templates and sent items, sender accounts and even options, settings and Add-ons.

The GroupMail tutorial library has complete instructions on how to backup contacts and also how to restore a backup of your contacts.

My recommendation?

Backup contacts and sleep better at night.

Download our newsletter and email marketing software today and backup your own contacts!

Gmail Email Tips: How to Avoid the Gmail Spam Folder

I compiled some Gmail email tips for bulk email senders that will help you to avoid the Gmail spam folder and get your messages delivered to the inbox of your recipients.

Read Gmail Inbox Delivery: How to Satisfy Gmail Filters for a number of practical tips on how to avoid the Gmail spam folder and to get your Gmail email addresses on your mailing list delivered to the inbox, where they belong.

Interested? Our newsletter and email marketing software can help to keep the Gmail email address on your mailing list out of the Gmail spam folder and in the inbox.

Great newsletter and email marketing campaigns are published on the cusp of culture. They respond swiftly to and take advantage of trending behaviors by incorporating them into their newsletter and email marketing content and promotional materials.

So what cultural trend(s) were newsletter and email marketing campaigns responding to in 2011?

Recommerce

In 2011, one of the big trends in American shopping behavior has been identified as “recommerce”. Recommerce is a trend fueled largely out of consumer need to stretch each dollar spent and by the subsequent recognition [by consumers] of the value that currently owned items have. In 2011, consumers sought to leverage that value, either by trading in for newer models or upgrades or reusing those items in creative ways to stretch their lifespan.

I imagine that it is also propelled by our desire to keep up with the seemingly constant technological advancements (and feature enhancements) of products and services and the perhaps all-too-frequent next-generation releases of mobile phones and other gadgets.

According to trendwatching.com, the recommerce trend is driven primarily by three factors; Nextism: the concept that consumers will continually desire the next best thing; Statusphere: the importance that consumers place on being perceived as being environmentally responsible, financially prudent and savvy conscious; and Excusumption: the actual need to stretch each dollar spent and the value for each dollar.

For more wonderful examples of newsletter and email marketing campaigns taking advantage of the trend of recommerce, visit trendwatching.com

Have you been incorporating this trend in your promotions? Are you offering your customers trade in and upgrade opportunities?

If not, why not?

Start setting your own trends with GroupMail newsletter and email marketing software

This new HTML form builder helps you create contact forms, manage newsletter sign-ups and even handle event registrations, without writing a single line of code.

GroupMail Forms is perfect if you need:

– An opt-in or opt-out email subscription form to collect and manage the contacts on your email list

– To add a contact form to your website but don’t know anything about HTML

– Make it easy for your email contacts to opt-in or opt-out from your email lists

– Allow contacts to sign up for your next event or just get in touch for more information

Use our simple, drag and drop form wizard to create stylish opt-in, opt-out and other forms in seconds.

Sounds great, how do I get started?
GroupMail Forms is available Free to all GroupMail customers with valid upgrade protection. Purchase Upgrade Protection

Login to GroupMail Forms Here (using your existing GroupMail account username and password)

This Tutorial will help get you started: How to create opt-in email subscription and other forms with GroupMail Forms

What type of packages are available?

The amount of forms and monthly subscribers available are based your current GroupMail license.

– GroupMail Personal Edition: 3 Forms + 10,000 subscribers/contacts per month

– GroupMail Business Edition: 10 Forms + 100,000 subscribers/contacts per month

– GroupMail Marketing Pack: Unlimited Forms + Unlimited subscribers/contacts per month

If you don’t already have a GroupMail license, get started with GroupMail today.

We have all sent an email at some point that we wish we hadn’t. Usually, the moment of clarity comes immediately after the “send” button is clicked. That’s one click too late.

Unlike a blog, you can’t edit an email after it’s been sent out to your list. No do-overs!

Read Butterfingers! Email Checklists Save the Day for the inspiration you need to get started.

Our GroupMetrics email tracking service makes it easy to know who opens your messages and who clicks on the links in them.

If you want to get started with email tracking, you can sign up for a free pay-per-use GroupMetrics account.

Once you have a GroupMetrics account, you can integrate email tracking into your GroupMail email marketing campaigns.

We have step-by-step instructions that will show you how to insert open rate counters and tracking links in GroupMail for your next email marketing campaign.

If you didn’t know Stefan, you will have a better understanding for what a wonderful man he was by reading In Memoriam: Stefan Pollard

Stefan left us with one last piece of email marketing advice several days before he died. His last article for ClickZ, Set the Alarm Clock on Your Sleeping Subscribers, is as valuable as the hundreds of others that he has written over the years.

We are so sorry to see him go.

He will be missed.

I am certain that he went straight to the inbox @heaven

Image by Beatrice Murch

As a marketer it is sometimes too easy to get tied up in your own little world and forget about your overall goals and objectives. Be warned though, in the context of email marketing, forget about the recipients at your peril. While you might have your targets and deadlines, forget to communicate and engage with your audience and your efforts could very well result in the opposite of what you want to achieve.

The thinking of a typical email recipient

- I am not an email address on your list, I am not a potential conversion, an additional open or click-thru, I am a person, I want to be entertained, I want to see something useful and relevant to me right now, I am selfish and self centred – disappoint me – I may never take the time to open your messages again !

- If I don’t recognise a name/company/brand in the From or Subject Line there is a high chance I’ll ignore you.

- Pretty much every waking hour and most places I look I’ve brands stuck in my face and I’m bombarded with ads, they’re usually bundled with things I consume – TV, newspapers, web sites … even so most of the time I actively ignore the ads – so you sending another one to my inbox, and worse, if there is nothing to accompany it for me to consume – what do you think your chances are ?

- If I don’t know or remember you – in my world you’re a nobody – if your a nobody I probably won’t listen to or trust you – no trust – no sale

- Tell me “do not reply”, I may be petty about it, if you won’t read my replies – I won’t read yours.

- If the message content is pretty much the same as the last 100 messages you’ve sent me maybe just worded a little different, I stopped reading them a long time ago.

- My definition of spam is I don’t want to see your emails in my inbox any more, as such I’m just as likely to click This is Spam as opposed to using your Opt-Out link, regardless of how I came to be on your list !

The moral of the story ?

Bugging or boring your target audience doesn’t make for good marketing, simply avoiding this pitfall could in fact put you head and shoulders above most of those you’re competing with for attention !
Oh yeah and there is no such thing at the typical recipient !

Hardware and Software Reviews

E-mail marketing has proven very successful for those who do it right, but you need the right tools to do it. GroupMail is one such program.

Even though he thought having 4 different editions of GroupMail was over the top (and I tend to agree to a large extent), he did do a good job summarizing the breakdown in functionality in each and suitability for varying requirements.

Whether you are a small, medium or large business and you want to run an e-mail marketing campaign, GroupMail would be an ideal choice. The software looks nice, is easy to use, and has all the essential features.

In concluding he pointed out some of the pros and cons of GroupMail versus going with a web based solution, but overall a pretty fair assessment of GroupMail and its capabilities, but don’t take my word for it go over and read his review.