Source: Aprimo

By Stephanie Miller

Here in the U.S., the economy is still in a slump, the mood after mid-term elections is watchful and Thanksgiving falls late in the month, giving us six days to Hanukkah and just four short weeks until Christmas.  Another week after that, and we are at the close of the quarter and year.  As consumers, business professionals and marketers, it’s a stressful time of year.

Adding to the stress is the influence of seemingly conflicting advice.  On one hand, articles like this one in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, “Seven Smart Money Moves for the Holidays“  guide consumers to watch spending and curb impulses to buy.

On the other hand, there is also plenty of advice on successful email marketing during the holidays, most of which is about sending more messages of quality, rather than just higher frequency.  Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports provides a great list here . Most of the marketing advice is what we know as marketers will help us improve results – but of course, we don’t always do as much segmentation, targeting and social integration as we know is good for our programs.  There’s a lot of pressure to just get the email messages out the door.  Most of us also increase frequency this time of year, which increases the workload.

Despite the extra effort involved, it’s worth pausing no matter what business we are in – retail or B2B or services or non profit – and focusing on this disconnect in the advice offered to buyers and the desire by email marketers to convince customers to buy more or commit to more this season. The disconnect illustrates what I believe is the essential element to success this year:  Matching the mood of your subscribers.