2024 Cyber Week Preparation Webinar: Frequently Asked Questions

Cyber Week Preparation 2024: Frequently Asked Questions

Twilio recently hosted a 2024 Cyber Week Preperation Webinar with hosts Shanelle Thadani and Bill Higbee, alongside some of Twilio’s largest customers, Kiersti Esparza from Klaviyo and Chris Borgia from Shopify. During this webinar, we discussed how businesses face a surge in customer engagement and heightened competition and how to best navigate this period effectively. Here are a few key highlights, takeaways, and Cyber Week best practices from this webinar:

• To maximize your campaign's success, monitoring deliverability closely and resolving any issues promptly is crucial.. Undelivered communications not only increase costs but can also lead to missed conversion opportunities. Providers may block emails and carriers may filter messages, resulting in lost engagement.
• Effective personalization starts with understanding each customer's preferred communication channels. It’s not enough to have personal details about a shopper; you must ensure your messages reach them through their preferred medium.
• Twilio is the ideal partner for high-volume, compliant communication success on a global scale.

We know you still have questions, but here are a few that were asked during the webinar and our hosts’ responses.

FAQs about Cyber Week Readiness

What are some common pitfalls brands face during Cyber Week, and how can they avoid them?

Common pitfalls include not segmenting audiences effectively, overwhelming subscribers with too many messages, and failing to authenticate sending domains. Brands can avoid these by starting their preparation early, focusing on list hygiene, and implementing a clear communication strategy that balances volume with relevance.

Review the Cyber Week 2023 blog post: Ringing in the holidays with 68 billion messages and emails to learn how to stay ahead of Cyber Week

How do you handle increased customer inquiries during peak times, especially through multiple channels?

Twilio recommends leveraging automation and tools that can manage many customer inquiries at a time. For example, with Twilio's communication channels, businesses can ensure they’re engaging customers on their preferred channels, whether that’s email, SMS, WhatsApp, or chat.

Can you share specific examples of brands that excelled in their Cyber Week campaigns? What did they do differently?

Brands that effectively used segmentation and personalization saw higher engagement. For example, in 2023, Shopify used Twilio SendGrid's Email API to power its email marketing tool, enabling 1.7 million merchants to communicate with their customers.

The SendGrid platform achieves a 99.5% average delivery rate and a 91.3% inbox placement rate. Shopify's transactional emails boast an impressive average delivery time of less than 4 seconds for 90% of emails sent.

Learn more about Shopify’s simplifying their merchant experience here.

What metrics do you recommend tracking post-Cyber Week to evaluate success?

Key metrics should be tracked for each channel used. They include open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and overall sales attributed to specific campaigns. Tracking engagement metrics will help brands understand customer behavior and optimize future campaigns.

Check out the 2023 Cyber Week metrics for Messaging and Email.

FAQs about Compliance and Regulations

With the evolving landscape of email compliance, what should smaller brands prioritize to ensure they meet new regulations?

Smaller brands should prioritize setting up proper authentication protocols ( SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) to improve deliverability and comply with regulations. Twilio provides resources and support to help brands implement these standards.

Where can I learn more about global compliance requirements for communications?

Check out Twilio’s new Global Regulatory & Compliance Guide for Marketers.

FAQs about Consumer Preferences

How do you suggest brands determine their customers' preferred communication channels?

Brands should ask customers directly during the signup process or through surveys and strive to meet each customer on their individual preferred channel. Additionally, analyzing past engagement data can help identify which channels are most effective for different groups of customers or segments.

Refer back to the webinarto view the slides with stats related to consumer preferences.

FAQs about Technology and Trends

What role do you see emerging technologies like RCS or AMP playing in future marketing strategies?

RCS and AMP offer enhanced interactivity and engagement opportunities. RCS allows brands to send rich media messages that can drive higher engagement, while AMP enables dynamic content in emails, creating a more interactive experience.

Check out Twilio’s new blog about what RCS messaging is.

FAQs about Cyber Week preparation and strategy

What steps should brands take in the months leading up to Cyber Week to ensure a successful campaign?

Brands should begin by cleaning their email lists and validating their database of phone numbers to ensure they can actually receive SMS, testing their campaigns, and setting up proper authentication.

Additionally, brands should be prepared to troubleshoot and resolve deliverability issues to maximize the volumes of communications that reach their customers. For deliverability, check out these resources:

Messaging: Customer Deliverability Engine drives messaging insights through data

Email: 2024 Email Deliverability Guide.

Finally, creating a content calendar can help ensure consistent messaging across channels leading up to Cyber Week.

Prepare for Cyber Week 2024

Hopefully, our 2024 Cyber Week Preperation Webinar and this Q&A highlight post have answered your own questions about preparing for this year’s Cyber Week. We at Twilio are ready to help, no matter what channel your company and customers prefer. And if you need any other help preparing, don’t hesitate to reach out

Shanelle is the Senior Product Marketing Manager for the Twilio SendGrid Email API and is responsible for cross-functional go-to-market activation. Prior to Twilio, she worked at Oracle as a Product Marketing Manager for data and analytics leading product releases and external communications.