Mobile boosts promotional emails on Independence Day

Over half of retailers (57%) sent at least one promotional email on July 4th this year, according to Responsys' latest Retail Email Index which tracks over 100 top retailers.

Last year that figure was 34%.

Retailers usually avoid sending out promotional emails on Independence Day itself but this year was different due, says Chad White of Responsys, to the increase in the number of people wielding mobile devices.

"The adoption of smartphones is behind this increase, just like we've seen Thanksgiving Day become a major email marketing day," wrote White on the Responsys blog.

In fact, July 4th saw the highest number of emails sent during that week, with Friday being the second-highest with 56% sending out emails. Over 80% of emails sent by retailers in the week referenced July 4th, more than the 77% that did so last year.

According to Responsys, "The top online retailers sent each of their subscribers 3.6 promotional emails on average during the week ending July 6, 2012. That's down 3% week-over-week, down 3% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 20% year-over-year."

Tags: email marketing, holiday messaging, promotional email