The holidays are upon us once again!
Q4 signals the start of Thanksgiving and Christmas season, which also signals the start of gift-giving season – a busy and hectic but incredibly exciting time for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sellers alike. But big sales do not always come with the season – you still have to work for your offering to rise above everyone else’s.
This is where trusty email marketing comes in. The holiday season also means people are scrambling to finish work before the year closes, which means they are more likely to have their email inboxes open. That’s a prime time for your email campaigns to catch their eye!
How do you use this to your advantage and ensure a prosperous December for your business? Stand by for some great advice about the best holiday email campaigns!
The Importance of Holiday Email Campaigns
Your holiday email campaign should resonate with your audience the same way a Christmas song makes them feel: giddy to give and receive gifts!
Your holiday emails, from its subject line to the content to the call-to-action, should lead your audience to clicking ‘Add to Cart’ and placing an order. This means every aspect of your email should each catch and maintain attention, and that all these parts come together with one coherent messaging.
Looking at the data, holiday email campaigns contribute to 24% of online orders during the holidays. That is huge! If you want to achieve the same, then it’s never too late to build your holiday email campaign.
Building the Foundation for a Successful Holiday Email Campaign
What makes a holiday email campaign successful? As mentioned above, all the parts of an email should work together to deliver holiday cheer.
Segmenting Your Email List
Dividing your email list into customer groups ensures a higher open rate as what each customer receives is tailored according to their actual interest. You can segment your list from the simplest demographics of gender and age to much more specific preferences such as shopping trends based on how they have interacted previously with non-holiday emails or even with how they shopped in your store.
Crafting Compelling Subject Lines and Email Content
Your subject line can make or break your holiday email campaign, and open rates mostly depend on how skillfully you craft your subject lines. In a matter of less than 10 words, your subject line must grab attention and inspire audiences to take action.
Like you, almost every other seller would be sending out a barrage of holiday email campaigns. This is why your emails should stand out right when it arrives in their inbox: have an enticing and eye-catching subject line and carefully craft your first few words or the content preview readers see along with the subject. Bring value right then and there!
The Art of Personalized Emails
In relation to segmented email lists, your holiday email campaign ideas and content should be crafted based on personal shopping trends of your audiences. Personalizing emails make it seem like a gift under the tree with their name on it, which then leads to a higher click-through rates and actual conversions.
Leveraging Automation for Efficient Campaigns
Automation tools for emails can serve as Santa’s elves – here you can schedule emails, trigger next steps for campaigns, and even set up drip campaigns for future sending, even when the holidays are over. A trusty automation tool can secure the life of your holiday campaign, and acquire new subscribers even when January 2024 comes around.
Ensuring Email Deliverability
Do not spam! Meticulously craft your holiday email campaign calendar and know when to send out your offers. You wouldn’t want to be marked as spam during the most profitable time of the year! Steer clear of spam triggers and take note of which content to not include. Make sure you are aware of two things: CAN-SPAM and GDPR. Neglecting these two can lead to penalties, which would definitely dampen your holiday spirits.
Creative Strategies for Holiday Email Campaigns
How do you ensure a well thought-out email campaign in the midst of the busy holidays? You have to make sure it stands out from the pile of promo emails your audience will receive this season.
1. Thematic Email Designs and Templates. Get crafty! Don’t shy away from using holiday templates and making your emails as colorful and bright as a Christmas tree. Use festive colors, sprinkle in holiday emojis and graphics, and wrap it all up with a cohesive email template. Having an email marketing platform that supports various types of multimedia elements such as GIFs and video embeds would help you a lot in designing your campaigns for the holidays.
2. Showcasing Holiday Promotions and Offers. Holiday gift-shopping is always better with discounts and promos. Create a sense of urgency with limited time offers or even “until supplies last” discounts. Bundles and packages are also good offers that can make your customers feel like they’re getting the most out of their holiday money.
3. Storytelling Through Emails. Tell your audience a story! The holiday season is a great time for heartwarming, inspiring stories, so this is your chance to make use of user-generated content such as customer testimonials, how your business was founded, or a story of charity you’ve been able to do because of your business. This allows you to build a deeper emotional connection with your audience, and makes them see you more than just a shop.
4. Right Emails at the Right Time. The whole holiday season is a peak time for sales, but the pros know there are even better peak times within! Plan your emails in advance, plan your offers in advance. Craft a holiday email and offer calendar, which you can also release to your audience so they can anticipate your next emails and guarantee high open rates!
Maximize your profits even more by keeping two important e-commerce dates in mind: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The most peak time during peak season, these days would be when you should give out the most thrilling offers and promos as it comes with its own urgency.
5. Use Emerging Tech. In the era of AI, you can use these tools to your advantage, for great holiday email examples. You can also use AI and AR (augmented reality) to integrate interactive content into your email campaigns, making it an extra fun time for the audience to read through your emails. Interactive content can be virtual try-ons, 360-degree previews, polls, and quizzes right in the email body. Now that’s memorable!
Leveraging Data and Analytics for Optimization
Now that you have an idea of how to plan your emails, how can you make your campaigns even better with what you already have? By optimizing the data you have gathered all year.
Monitor how your current campaigns are performing – open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates. Let these numbers work their magic for you in creating your holiday campaigns.
To test out what works best, A/B testing is your best bet. Experiment with combining various email campaign elements together and see which set performs best. Fine-tune your emails for the best subject line, graphics, and content that you can employ for the peak season.
Optimizing doesn’t stop when holiday data comes in. Continue to track and monitor these numbers so you are ready for the next year’s campaign calendar. When it comes to email marketing, a data-driven approach works best. Make your numbers work for you!
1. Open Rate.
How many recipients clicked on your email? Which subject line worked best in pulling open rates up?
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR).
Did your readers click your links? Were they called into action by your content? If they were, which version from your A/B testing worked best?
3. Conversion Rate.
From the CTR, how many of them converted into actual sales? Which demographic made purchases, and which ones needed additional push and email triggers before they went back to their carts?
4. Revenue Per Email Sent.
In the X number of emails you sent out, how much did you earn for each? What’s the impact of your email marketing campaigns on your store’s overall profitability?
5. Return On Investment.
To calculate your ROI, subtract the cost of your email campaign from the total revenue generated from it. Dividing this by the campaign cost results in your ROI rate. A positive ROI rate means your campaign is successful, and that’s what we want, of course!
Beyond the Holiday Season: Maintaining Customer Relationships
Once January comes in and the new year kick-starts a new season in shopping, the relationship you’ve built with your audience during the holidays should only go further from there.
Until the next phase of the year arrives, which would be February’s Love Is In The Air phase, keep your audience engaged with extended holiday campaigns. Let this transition you seamlessly into the next year’s marketing calendar. It’s a never-ending cycle of seasons, so customer engagement must be maintained, or better yet, increased. Look back into previous data, analyze and optimize, and always be ready for the next season.
Holiday Email Campaign Checklist
Check off the items below as you build your holiday email campaign!
Define Your Goals. Do you want boosted sales? Is your main goal to gather and nurture leads? Do you want more website traffic? Define a clear objective for the holidays.
Segment Your List. Divide your current email readers into groups: demographics, interests, etc.
Craft Your Content. Plan and write your content. Will you use testimonials today? What discount code will you offer tomorrow? Until when can they buy in discounted bundles? Which subject line can attract more customers?
Leverage Automation. Make sure your current automation tool can handle your full email campaign.
Test and Optimize. A/B test email elements and fine-tune your campaign based on results. Let the data work for you.
Comply with Regulations. Steer clear of spam triggers, follow CAN-SPAM and GDPR regulations.
Monitor Performance. Track your metrics throughout the whole season so you can tweak and apply changes as necessary.
Learn and Adapt. Analyze data post-holidays to use for the next season. Always aim to be better!
SendPad: Your Holiday Email Marketing Partner
Let SendPad be your holiday companion for successful holiday email campaigns!
SendPad is an email marketing platform that checks all boxes for what you require in surviving this hectic season.
User-Friendly Platform For Efficient Emails. SendPad makes it a breeze to craft amazing and enticing email campaigns with its intuitive interface.
Maximum Personalization. SendPad can help you personalize emails you send out according to recipients’ preferences. This makes it easier for you to employ A/B testing and segmenting email groups.
Ensured Scheduled Sending. Even the holiday rush cannot stop SendPad from reliable, scheduled sending of email campaigns. No downtime for landing emails in your subscribers’ inboxes, even during the peak of peak times on Black Friday!
Up To Date With Tech Trends. SendPad enables users to incorporate the latest tech into their emails. Include surveys, polls, and quizzes right in your email body! Make it an experience they’ll look forward to in every email they get from you.
Analytics You Can Optimize. Users are provided with detailed and specific numbers and data to analyze during and after the holiday season, enabling you to employ a data-driven approach that would affect your campaign success even as you transition into a new season.
Why is SendPad your best holiday email marketing option? It’s everything you need to survive holiday campaigns and come out successful, with maximized profits and enough data to optimize to make your next campaigns better.
Watch your business thrive this holiday season with email marketing!
