The holiday season is close. Here is what to do to make your email marketing count.
1, Plan it out
Start with a clear plan. A solid email marketing strategy keeps you focused on the bigger picture instead of scrambling from one send to the next. Decide which holidays you want to market for, what you want to promote, and when you want to send.
You do not need an email for every occasion on the calendar. Pick the ones that are relevant to your audience and build your offers and imagery around those.
2, Make a date
Christmas and New Year's Day always fall on the same date, but the days of the week shift every year. Factor that into your scheduling.
Here are the key dates for the 2016 holiday season:
Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 23
Black Friday, Friday, November 24
Cyber Monday, Monday, November 27
Day of Reconciliation, Saturday, December 16
Summer Solstice, Thursday, December 21
Hanukkah, Begins Tuesday, December 12
Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24
Christmas Day, Monday, December 25
Day of Goodwill / Boxing Day, Tuesday, December 26
Kwanzaa, Begins Tuesday, December 26
New Year's Eve, Sunday, December 31
New Year's Day, Monday, January 1
3, Make it mobile friendly
As the working year winds down and schools close, more of your subscribers will be reading email on their phones rather than work computers. Your emails need to be legible, functional, and good-looking on a small screen.
Here are our tips for hitting all three of those goals.
4, Let automation do the heavy lifting
The holidays are busy. Automated emails take the pressure off by sending the right message to the right subscriber at the right time, without you having to manually trigger each one.
Set up a sequence that builds towards your key dates, with specific sends going out on the day itself. You can also split your automations to trigger different emails based on how subscribers interact with earlier messages. Once it is all set up, it runs on its own.
5, Grab attention with hero images
Big, bold hero images are one of the quickest ways to make a campaign eye-catching. Theme them around the holiday you are promoting to tie everything together and keep your brand front of mind.
If you need images, we have a list of free and reasonably priced stock photography sites right here.
6, Get personal with your offers
Generic, one-size-fits-all campaigns get ignored. Dynamic content lets you tailor subject lines, body copy, or entire content blocks based on subscriber segments, so each person sees the offer most relevant to them.
The result is more targeted sends and a measurable lift in engagement.
7, Make it urgent
Urgency drives action. Phrases like "One day only", "Christmas specials end tonight", "Don't miss out", and "Last call" in your subject line remind subscribers that the window is closing. Nobody wants to miss a deal everyone else grabbed.
Remember, it's not over yet
The holiday season does not end at Christmas. Post-holiday sales and well-timed follow-up campaigns keep subscribers spending with you into January.
While you have momentum, start sketching out your plans for the new marketing year too. January comes around faster than you think, and a head start makes all the difference.
Frequently asked questions
- How far in advance should I plan my holiday email campaigns?
- Ideally four to six weeks before your first send date. That gives you time to build your segments, write and design your emails, set up automations, and test on mobile before any key date arrives.
- What is dynamic content and how does it help holiday campaigns?
- Dynamic content lets you swap out subject lines, copy, or entire content blocks based on subscriber data like location, purchase history, or segment. Instead of one generic campaign going to everyone, each subscriber sees the offer most relevant to them.
- Why is mobile optimisation especially important during the holiday season?
- Subscribers are away from their desks over the holidays and reading email on their phones. If your campaign looks broken or hard to read on a small screen, it gets deleted. Mobile-friendly design is table stakes, not a nice-to-have.
- Should I keep sending after Christmas?
- Yes. Post-holiday campaigns take advantage of gift card spend, January sales appetite, and quieter inboxes. They also let you ease into your new-year strategy without a cold start in February.