In recent years, retailers have sent more email marketing messages on Cyber Monday than on any other day of the year. This year will be no exception, according to Responsys.

In 2009, email marketers are hoping to be out in force with emails - not only on the Monday directly after Thanksgiving, but on all four Mondays in December. It is on these so-called 'Echo Mondays,' when marketers say consumers are most most likely to be receptive to email marketing campaigns, according to the Retail Email Blog.

In 2008 three of the four "Echo Mondays" were among the top five most popular days of the year to send promotional retail emails. "Last year Mondays were not only the most popular day of the week among retail email marketers during December, but all of the fourth quarter," the blog said.

The Pressure is On

This season, marketers are facing added pressure to ramp up - and fine tune - their email strategies. Despite the robust online traffic seen in the few days following Thanksgiving, there is still some industry doubt about how strongly online retail sales will finish the year, according to Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore (via the New York Times). It is possible the Thanksgiving weekend sales were brisker than expected because of the more creative promotions by stores - and not necessarily the start of a more optimistic outlook for the holiday shopping season, he suggested.

Multi-Channel Approach

With that warning in mind, there are several best practices and new technologies retailers are using to keep online sales moving. Properly combining these strategies and technologies - adding site search to email marketing, for instance, or pairing user reviews with online video - could very well prove to be the winning edge for online retailers, suggests new research from SLI Systems.

The majority (68%) of the nearly 600 online retailers polled in its November "2009 E-Commerce Customer Experience Survey" don't know if they are using all of the data gleaned through technology applications to more successfully recruit customers and maintain loyalty within their current customer base. Moreover, just more than half (55%) say integrate these various applications.

The survey suggested that retailers need to prioritize technology integration and analytics. "In today's highly competitive selling environment, online retailers can capture more sales and conversions - and have more meaningful engagements with customers - when they integrate their various applications," said SLI Systems CEO Shaun Ryan.

Of the technologies highlighted in the survey as most frequently used for engaging with customers, site search, web analytics and email marketing came in as the top three, with 88% of respondents using site search, 87% using web analytics and 81% using email marketing tactics.

User-generated reviews (53%), product recommendations (47%), and online communities (43%) also made the list. Almost half (42%) of the e-commerce businesses polled said they are not integrating data from these technologies across applications.

Other survey findings:

• 83% of businesses polled say that the ability to measure the effectiveness of tools or campaigns is critical or very important to their marketing efforts.
• Of the technologies e-commerce businesses are using to improve the online experience for customers, 88% say site search provides the greatest ROI, while  87% say analytics and 83% say highlighted email marketing.
• Specific to the 2009 holiday season, 35% of online businesses expect to increase budget in preparation for the holidays, and 59% believe their website marketing strategies are ready to capitalize on the coming holiday season.