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The Complete Guide to Christmas Email Marketing
Together with Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the holidays have turned into a two-month shopping season. During this time, the market is booming with a high rate of consumption more than any other time of the year. The people are in the shopping mood and want to get their loved ones the best gifts. This season is especially not to miss out for the e-commerce industry, because many people prefer doing their holiday shopping tour, online and in one go. Getting the most from this season is a snap, you just should show ultimate attention to your email marketing. Take advantage of this precious season and captivate loyal and potential customers with great offers.
Find the Right Period
It goes without saying, at Christmas time you won’t be the only company with special deals. To differentiate your deals from the competition, you should be creative and strategic at the same time. Fortunately, there are many distinctive occasions available for sales during the winter months. You can generate several campaigns at once and cover the whole pre-Christmas period. Or you can choose to focus solely on one event. The decisive factor here might be what product categories you have at hand, that is fit for making discounts.
Ex or Next?
Once loyal, always loyal. If customers are happy with their former purchase, it is likely they will buy from you again. Easier it is to regain former customers than to acquire new ones. A great way to make the most of this sales season is informing your past customers with early access to seasonal deals. Early Christmas is the ideal time to convert those still on the decision threshold. Don’t let your ex-customers run into a new brand love. Motivate them with loyalty incentives.
Super Sale Weekend
The Super Sale Weekend in November will officially kick off the holiday season. In e-commerce industry, this weekend is the initial highlight of the year and is ideal for special promotions especially for early-bird shoppers. You can also stand out from the crowd by letting your offers run for a week, not just until the Super Sale Weekend.
Christmas Eve
Many people are unlikely to check their emails on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Consider this in the planning. Send Christmas wishes or a few tips for holidays before the holiday season begins. Vouchers are always a welcome goodie.
Last Call from an Online Store
The last week before Christmas is of course crazy busy, but it’s also very local. More popular than ever is the delivery status at this time: Where is the parcel? Will it arrive on time? Also indicate, until when express deliveries are possible. Around Dec. 21, when the online shipping cutoff passes, Christmas shoppers increasingly turn to their hometown stores to get what they need. Don’t underestimate last-minute shoppers, if you even have one single day extension on shipping, emphasize those delivery options, so your business competes with the sense of urgency of physical stores.
Increase Click and Open Rates
To assess the success of a campaign correctly, you should keep the click and open rates in mind. The increase in click and open rates will show how successful your Christmas campaigns are alongside the good old conversion rate. Newsletters with the terms “Discount” or “Christmas Gifts” in the subject line show a higher opening rate than newsletters without these famous buzzwords. It is also proven that emojis increase the opening rates as customers expect a colorful and festive concept behind them. Obviously, Santa, Snowman, christmas tree and snowflakes are among the best emojis to take their place in your subject lines.
Must-Have for Festive Ambiance: Christmas Elements
Play with graphic elements, pictures and emojis to create the perfect blend for Christmas atmosphere. The language should also be adjusted accordingly. Christmas is a celebration of emotions, so it also helps to use a romantic language. Find out this year’s Christmas trends, whether it’s about ugly sweaters or a parody of Santa, season your content with some inspiring humour. This will also create positive associations with your products or your company.
Set Up Series of Emails
Intensive email sending frequency might bore your customers soon and cause them to unsubscribe from your newsletter but you can figure ways out to get them involved interactively. To achieve a continuous communication that builds itself day by day, we recommend setting up Christmas campaign as automatic series. Communicate the character of an ongoing story and relate newsletters to each other. For example, you can include a holiday-themed contest or a periodic, timed sales, that is more like an advent calendar look.
It’s Not All About Emotions
Passing on newsletter subscribers to your online store is the main goal, but don’t oversee getting website visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. Many online shops are seeing an increase in visitor count during the pre-Christmas season. A large part of these is new customers. So do not just concentrate on selling, but try to keep these new visitors acquainted with your all year campaigns. Also, discover more about this on your web analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, to find out which subpages are most visited and spread your Christmas themed communication on those beloved pages.
Time to Reprofile
Nothing is worse than outdated customer data. Use the time in September and October to send a profile enrichment mailing. An incorrect interest-themed email or addressing will fade the attention. Explain why you want to know their exact birthday or postal code. Offer a special birthday discount of 40%, to name an example. This way, your customers will be more eager about giving information to your company.
Abandoned Christmas Shopping Carts
Try not to neglect cart abandoners in the meantime. For products abandoned in carts, you can make use of reminder emails or web push notifications, if you use any. Think of creative ways to offer your extra deals, meaning; if you offer 20% for abandoned products, make your email stand out with a witty tone like the following: “We’ve thought you needed a little time to consider buying this lovely winter jacket, here is a 20% off code to make your decision easier.”
Price Categories Help a Great Deal
Your customers are probably stuck for Christmas gift ideas. Naturally people are puzzled about what to buy for their brothers-in-law or boss’s daughter. But we know these type of gifts fall into the category of price-based decisions. For such cases, you can create some categories, for instance, genius tech gifts under $50, affordable beauty product gifts under $30. This will help customers to meet their needs immediately.
Prioritize Mobile in Design
The best Christmas marketing must include a mobile strategy. Mobile is a powerful tool for the holiday season, when most people are mobile themselves. On Christmas, conversions on mobile jump up drastically. A dedicated mobile presence, then, is a must-have for all e-commerce and retail companies. Before the big kick-off weekend, ensure your website (and your emails) are optimized for mobile viewing. If you have the budget and resources, invest in a mobile app—either for your store in general, or one specifically dedicated to holiday shopping.
A/B Testing
Whether the ideas presented here are successful, you learn by diligently testing them. Test the wording of the subject lines. Arouse curiosity and personalization via increasing the pressure to act or personalize. Also, subject line emojis will be of interest, as will the name of the sender. Customize your whole concept thoroughly for Christmas.
Long Story Short
Start planning your Christmas campaign early as much as possible. The competition in the mailbox is great, especially for end of year business. It helps to be creative and surprising with campaigns. Face this challenge by interacting with your readers through puzzles or sweepstakes. Worthwhile is also follow-up newsletters for non-openers.
Accompany your subscribers through this – let’s face it – stressful time. The deadline for the end of the standard shipping, the last-minute option gift voucher and the eagerly awaited newsletter with delivery details are always among welcome information in mailboxes.
Merry shopping season!
