Email marketing campaigns are going to play a crucial and special role in Holiday marketing strategies for 2020. Covid pandemic and the closure of many physical stores, has forced brands to step up their digital and e-commerce game with our first stay-at-home holidays.
Customers are going to turn to online stores more than ever before to do their Christmas gifts and Holiday shopping. That’s why it’s crucial for e-commerce retailers to implement amazing holiday digital marketing campaigns this year, and emails are one of the preferred channels in the mix.
Here are 5 Tips for an Engaging Holiday Email Marketing Campaign
1. Start early!
Plan your holiday email campaign with enough time ahead. Sending your first email with discounts, promotions or special offers mid-December is way too late. There are hundreds of other e-commerce sites that are probably sending theirs since the first week of November and have already tilted the decision making scale of users to their side.
If you start communicating with your customers early November you’ll have the advantage of catching their attention first. You’ll reach more shoppers and you can build-up your campaign with the extra time you’ll have.
Early communication will open the door to designing a sequence of emails that increases users’ interest. For example, you can create a 12 days of offers specials and peek their attention with a flow of emails or even an advent calendar!
2. It’s all about segmentation
Yes, we know we have talked a lot about segmenting your audience and how important it is for any digital marketing action. But we have to emphasize that when it comes to holiday email marketing campaigns.
Sending bulk email marketing campaigns to all your databases won’t offer any good result. Optimize your subscribers list and segment as much as you can when you ask them to opt-in. You can do so by grouping users according to their interest in different holiday categories or products and sending them offers relevant to their interests.
Having a segmented email subscriber list allows you to target and communicate with your customers much more efficiently. They will appreciate the fact that you send them information they have expressed an interest for and it will increase your CTR and conversion rate, also you will decrease the opt-out rates.
3. Use holiday-theme designs
It’s a special and unique time of the year and your email marketing campaign should show that. Evoke a festive spirit with the designs you use for your opt-in form and your email! Cheer up your customers with the design of your campaign, have it look and feel happy.
4. Offer valuable content
Holidays are a hectic time of the year for everyone. Gift shopping can be an overwhelming task for a lot of people. Make it easier for your subscribers by sending them valuable content. Prepare a Holiday Gift Guide for them that includes items they have expressed interest for.
You can even set up “gift packs” with several products that compliment each other. Let’s say a customer showed interest in a moisturizing cream. You can prepare a gift pack that includes said cream and a couple of other products, like a lotion and night cream and offer it to your email subscriber as a ready-to-buy present.
Design a beautiful email that showcases the products in a holiday-themed collage and surprise your users with a festive, personalized holiday email marketing campaign.
5. Create a referral program
What better time of the year to share than the holidays? Referral programs are an amazing strategy to grow your customer and subscriber base. You can implement a system where existing customers receive a gift for bringing a friend.
Create an specific email marketing campaign that targets current subscribers to offer them a special holiday benefit if they refer a friend to sign up to your emailing list. You can even offer both parts a special gift if you want to!
New and existing users will be happy to do so and it will be a win-win situation.
Final Email Marketing Tips
Remember your customers even after the holiday sales are over. Send post-holiday email campaigns to your subscribers offering them deals to exchange gift-cards, or seize some special discounts on products they didn’t get a chance to purchase and end the season on a good note.
Don’t concentrate your efforts only on Christmas Holidays. Remember there are many festivities year round that you can use for your holiday email marketing campaigns. We advise you to create a calendar with the most important dates that your audience finds appealing and designing a strategy for each one of them.
Happy holiday email marketing planning!
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