The jaw-dropping deals and promotions get us all hyped up for the holiday season each year. For businesses, this presents a golden opportunity to bump their revenue numbers, bring in new customers, and foster brand loyalty. However, this can only be achieved with the right marketing channel and strategy.
With an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, email continues to be among the most effective ways of communicating with your customers. While most businesses do send out routine emails announcing their holiday sales, strategic holiday email campaigns can be a game-changer for maximizing revenue. In this post, we dive deep into the significance of festive marketing emails and how you can leverage them to get the most out of your sales campaigns.
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Why You Need Email Marketing for the Holiday Season
Emails Encourage Mobile Shopping
The convenience of smartphones has made it easier than ever to shop online, and with a vast majority of people owning one, there’s no doubt about the potential of mobile commerce. In fact, m-commerce is already worth $2.2 trillion globally, making up 60% of all e-commerce sales. We carry our phones with us everywhere, so email marketing allows you to tap into this growing economy even when someone’s on the move.
Holiday Marketing Emails Increase Conversions
According to Omnisend’s 2022 report on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), email marketing led to a 13.8% increase in orders on Black Friday and a 34.4% increase during Cyber 10.
What is Cyber 10?
The holiday online discount sales are starting earlier and earlier each year, now long before Cyber Monday, Hence, the 10 days between the Sunday before Black Friday through the Tuesday after Cyber Monday are now referred to as Cyber 10.
Automated messages alone were responsible for 27.1% of orders during Cyber 10 despite accounting for only 1.7% of emails. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase during the festive season so holiday email campaigns are excellent for driving them towards the website.
Personalized Emails Boost CTR
During the holiday season when competition is fierce, personalization is the best way to stand out to your customers. Emails can be easily personalized by segmenting your list based on common interests and shopping behaviors and sending relevant promotions. This is a highly effective strategy for increasing click-through rates (CTR) and engagement.
Emails Prompt Instant Purchases
We all love the feeling of snatching a good deal and steep discounts are hard to resist. By adding direct purchase links and “Shop Now” buttons, along with a countdown to create a sense of urgency in your holiday marketing emails, you can reduce the friction of the buying process and encourage impulse purchases.
How to Craft Compelling Holiday Email Campaigns
Start Planning In Advance
Not starting early is a common email marketing mistake. Building your email list and planning out your campaigns in advance will give you sufficient time to fine-tune your strategy and craft stellar emails that target each step of the purchase funnel. Holidays are the most expensive time of the year to acquire new subscribers, so ensure you’re working to grow your email list throughout the year.
Ditch the Generic Emails
Targeted emails resonate better with your customers and generate higher engagement than generic emails. You can segment your email list into year-round vs seasonal shoppers or deal lovers to identify those who are faster to jump on promotions vs. those who are willing to pay full price. You can also personalize your holiday marketing emails based on previous purchases and website interactions to promote similar items.
Leverage Automated Campaigns
Email marketing automation is a powerful tool for reaching the right people at the right time with the right message. Set up automated workflows to welcome new customers with special holiday discounts, recover abandoned carts, send targeted emails, and gather data on user behavior for lead scoring. If you already have workflows set up for new subscribers and cart recovery, then make sure to optimize your emails for the holidays.
Research Past and Recent Holiday Trends
Having a good grasp of trending tactics for holiday marketing emails will save you the trouble of trying to reinvent the wheel. Analyze consumer behavior, buying patterns, and popular products from previous holiday email campaigns and understand what type of emails resonate best with your customers. Keep yourself updated on current market trends to anticipate shifts in demand and cater to emerging preferences before your competitors.
Write Engaging Subject Lines
The subject line will determine the success or failure of your holiday marketing emails, so it has to be spot on. Subjects that evoke an emotion in the reader, whether it’s excitement, curiosity, or FOMO, have dramatically higher open rates than subjects that don’t. Use power words such as “sale,” “special,” “new,” and “offer” to trigger immediate actions. Also, make use of emojis to make your emails stand out visually.
Don’t Just Sell
Effective holiday marketing emails do more than just try to sell. They also aim to help and inform. This is an excellent opportunity to provide value to your customers with holiday gifting guides that make their holiday shopping easier and also put your bestsellers in the spotlight. You could also share user-generated content and talk about holiday traditions and heartwarming stories related to your brand.
Incorporate Festive Details Into the Design
Your holiday marketing emails should align with the festive mood with holiday-centric imagery in the email design. Use seasonal colors, cheerful graphics, subtle animations, and themed imagery while also staying consistent with your brand identity. This will tremendously enhance the reading experience of your emails.
Tips to Boost Your Holiday Email Campaigns
Start Promoting Early
More than 50% of consumers begin their holiday shopping as early as October. Not everyone’s going to be available or shopping during the festivities, so don’t wait until the last minute to start sending out your holiday marketing emails. Begin before Halloween and maintain the momentum until January.
Identify the Best Send Time
If you don’t send your emails at the right time, there’s a high chance they won’t ever be opened. According to Litmus, the best time to send your holiday emails is in the evening and mid-morning. Their data reveals that an average of 9.45% of emails are opened at 7 PM alone.
Set Up Dedicated Landing Pages
Carry the festive vibe of your holiday marketing emails forward with a mobile-responsive landing page that mimics the vibrant graphics and messaging. The page should also maintain the hype of your sale with countdowns, sale banners, flash offers, and urgent CTAs.
Extend the Dates
Extending your sale past the original dates is a fantastic strategy for building good faith by giving your customers another opportunity to snag deals in case they missed out earlier. It also bumps your sales numbers so a win-win for both sides. Send emails to your customers urging them to make use of this last chance.
Prepare for Increased Demand
Make sure your business is equipped to meet the surge in demand from your sales campaign and holiday marketing emails. Having more customers means having an active support staff to resolve issues quickly and ensure a seamless buying experience that will have customers coming back.
Send Follow-up Emails
Your holiday email campaigns shouldn’t end when the sale does. Acquiring a new customer is one thing and keeping them around is another, so send follow-up emails asking for feedback. You can use the data to win back customers who had a poor experience and also improve your future campaigns.
Create Successful Marketing Emails With Coalition Technologies
Email marketing is an essential channel for maximizing your sales during the holiday season and the tips we’ve shared in this guide will help you start off on the right foot. However, since every business is unique, these aren’t one-size-fits-all strategies.
At Coalition Technologies, we eliminate guesswork from the equation and take a data-driven approach to email marketing that ensures success. We factor in the unique needs of your business and your customers to craft holiday marketing emails that will get clicked, read, and acted upon. Contact us today to get started with your holiday email campaigns!
