Tips for Successful Holiday Email Marketing

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The holiday season has arrived for email marketers, and it is time for all of us to prepare to make the most of it. It’s time to start planning awesome Holiday email marketing strategies that will help us embrace the holiday spirit while building our brand and driving sales.

In this article, we’ve put together a comprehensive holiday marketing strategy to serve as your one-stop shop for winning the battle of the inbox this season.You’ll learn how to what you should and should not do in your holiday campaign, as well as some great ideas you can try out if you haven’t come up with any. Let’s jump right into the details!

Why should you use emails for holiday marketing?

Holidays, regardless of the season, provide an excellent opportunity to not only reach out to existing subscribers, but also to help generate even more leads by encouraging the need to “share” the value you give to your subscribers’ family and friends.

Emails are made for today’s mobile world

Your subscribers today rely on their smartphones and tablets for a wide range of activities, and studies show that an increasing number of consumers are doing their holiday shopping on mobile devices.

According to a Castor survey, mobile device transactions increased from 3.4 percent to 36.7 percent over the last four years. According to Movable Ink, 76 percent of Black Friday emails and 63 percent of Cyber Monday emails were opened on a mobile device.

Email is just a great way you can use to reach these mobile phone users and present your offer.

Emails offer instant buying options

According to research, 41% of retailers would use “Buy Now” buttons in their email marketing, making it incredibly easy for subscribers to make a purchase. You can highlight a gift, a promotional deal, or even an event that a subscriber can purchase with a few clicks by using a call-to-action button in your inbox. Keep in mind that your customers are just as busy as you are during this time of year, and anything that can expedite their holiday shopping will help both them and your business.

Email marketing can facilitate many types of campaigns

Email can be used by businesses to encourage purchases, invite subscribers to holiday parties, highlight exclusive gift ideas, or even gift guides — the possibilities are endless. It enables business owners to reach out to consumers on a daily basis and boost sales during the season. Other marketing campaigns, such as social media purchases, competitions, and loyalty schemes, may also benefit from email.

Email marketing is efficient thanks to its personalization ability

Since the holidays are hectic in every way, use marketing automation to your advantage by automating a range of email promotions, from welcome emails to deals and reminders. Additionally, you can segment your emails to generate personalized messages, which have a six times higher transaction rate.

Holiday email marketing’s dos and don’ts

Dos:

• Set objectives. Even holiday-themed emails include objectives, such as clicks, downloads, or transactions. You must consider the plan behind each email in the same way as you would any other email. This ensures that you are not just sending a holiday email for the sake of sending one.

• Be creative. Since there is such an increase in the number of emails sent during the holidays – all with a common theme – you must find a way to stand out from the crowd. You can add creativity to your email by having a fun subject line, making a creative deal or a time-sensitive discount, or creating a new asset regarding your product and the holidays.

• Include social. During the holidays, your target audience can not check their emails as much as they usually do. To pique their interest, make your holiday offer accessible across all of your platforms – social, email, blog, and so on.

Don’ts:

• Forget about other celebrations. There will be a flood of emails during Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving – but don’t overlook the smaller, less celebrated holidays. Use lesser-known holidays to be imaginative and make a statement. Did you know that on August 8th, we should all be celebrating ‘Sneak Some Zucchini into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day’? That could be the next big thing in marketing.

• Don’t miss out on sending a fantastic follow-up. After you’ve developed a fantastic, thoughtful, and enjoyable holiday newsletter, think about what you’ll do for the people who converted or showed interest. You must not overlook the importance of developing a follow-up strategy because it will propel the program to the next stage. A well-planned, proactive follow-up would help close the deal, provide an opportunity to speak with a salesperson, etc.
• Don’t overdo it, or you’ll be spamming your audience. This is simple to do, particularly when we’re all drinking way too much eggnog and coming up with clever subject lines. And during the holidays, don’t deviate from your best practices while emailing your list. You don’t want your unsubscribe rate to rise simply because you thought sending an email with the subject line “Top Tips for Furtastic Howliday” was a good idea.

Holiday email marketing ideas to inspire you

You may already have all of these ideas in your toolbox as an email marketer. Let’s go through them together to see how you can use email marketing to make the most out of holiday seasons.

1. Come out with holiday gift guides

Online promotion notices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday are unavoidable. These emails will most likely have high open and click-through rates, but by the time December rolls around, they will be out of date.

Email subscribers, on the other hand, would appreciate everything that helps them with their Christmas shopping. You should provide a link to a page or blog on your website that contains a detailed guide. In your inbox, show only the most appropriate items in an appealing collage format.

The holiday gift guide can be one of the first elements of your festive campaign, delivered even before Thanksgiving. To optimize its promotional effort, include a link to its website in the footer of all your emails until Christmas.

Try segmenting your email list to send personalized holiday guide guides to different audiences. The targeted approach adds a personal touch while also allowing you to highlight more products to email subscribers that are more likely to engage.

2. Send out exclusive and targeted holiday offers

Personalized deals for your email subscribers make your deals more relevant. You can do multiple rounds of these for both post-Thanksgiving shopping and the Christmas shopping frenzy.

Here are some examples:

• Offers for new subscribers: Show people who missed out on last year’s holiday email marketing campaign how you can assist them in finding what they’re looking for. Offer something exclusive, such as a discount on a particular item or a free promotional item on their first order.
• A collection of opt-in flash sales for insiders: Make a series of emails, each offering a highly discounted item that is only available online for a limited time—a day, or even a few hours. Provide a way for subscribers to join the targeted list that receives these emails. It may be anything from making a specific purchase or filling out a signup form.
• Trigger emails: Look at your click-through data and do some trigger-driven emails to provide exclusive offers based on customer actions. For example, if you sent out a detailed holiday gift guide with unique parts, you could send a follow-up email to subscribers who clicked on the “for kids” section with a discount on children’s toys.
• VIP access for returning customers: Early access to an online sale or in-store event can be a fantastic incentive for the most loyal and dedicated subscribers.

Aside from increasing revenue, your holiday email marketing campaign will help you develop your brand’s identity. Improve your interaction with your audience by demonstrating the benefit of being on your email list.

3. Offer deals and services that make gift-giving easier

Sometimes, a customer can’t decide what to buy as a gift. It will be worth your effort to create products to help them address this uncertainty.

You can create special holiday offers, such as:

• Gift cards make excellent last-minute gifts, so keep this in mind when arranging emails during the holidays. You may also use gift cards or gift vouchers as a promotional item to give to customers along with receipts for sales above a certain amount.
• Curated gift packages can be as general or as specific as you want. Gift packages can range from a selection of sample-size items to themed sets, such as “for mom” or “for dad.”
• Free gift wrapping: Offering consumers to buy already gift-wrapped can be a godsend for those who are short of time. This is a particularly appealing add-on if you also allow orders to be sent to a place other than the purchaser’s billing address.

These examples above are holiday email marketing ideas that depend on purchase actions. What about subscribers or consumers who haven’t purchased anything in a long time? Coupons may be useful. You can include coupons in all of your holiday newsletters, or you can go above and beyond and send special coupons to specific parts of your list to maximize the chance of increased interaction.

4. Help out last-minute shoppers with reminders and shipping options

Have you ever delayed your Christmas shopping until the last minute? well, it happens to the best of us, and it will happen to some (or a lot) of your email subscribers.

Your holiday emails during the two weeks leading up to Christmas are ideal for:

• Customers should be reminded of the shipping deadlines. Make sure the customers are aware of the deadline for ordering things online and having it delivered to their door before December 25.
• Suggestions for last-minute gifts. This may include gift cards as well as curated gift packages.
• Promoting additional delivery options. If you can provide free, overnight, or expedited delivery, even for a limited time, this is the time to promote it.

Some small businesses may not be able to provide convenient delivery solutions to all of their customers. If this describes you, consider sending targeted emails offering free shipping only to specific places. You may also provide discounted shipping for large orders. You can compensate for the loss of sales from free or discounted shipping by charging a premium for expedited shipping.

Looking For A Tool For Your Holiday Email Marketing

If you’re looking for an email marketing software for your holiday email marketing, AVADA Marketing Automation will be a great fit for you. This tool provides all the features you need to implement all the tips and ideas mentioned above in your campaigns. Paid plans start at $9/month for 1,000 subscribers and unlimited emails.

Final words

That’s it! I hope this article has provided you with valuable information about how to go about holiday email marketing. Please feel free to leave comments below for further discussion on this topic!