Early November Strategies for Holiday Emails

This holiday season it is important to create an email marketing strategy that is both effective and efficient. Here are a few things to consider while planning this holiday season’s email marketing.

Small Screen Smartphone Email Designs

Fossil created this email so things are easy to click and see on a smartphone.

Consistent with the trend of digital content in general, consumers are increasingly reading their emails on their smartphones. Popular websites have created separate mobile sites and standalone smart phone applications where content is streamlined and simplified for the benefit of mobile users. Email campaigns have the same problems that these websites do, but the solution is not as simple because the emails that are sent are the same regardless of whether or not they are accessed via mobile. Successful emails need to be accessible on mobile without sacrificing quality for those who view it on traditional channels. The trend for achieving this goal is a move towards simplification of email templates.

Many consumers complete their purchases on their mobile phones, so many business have streamlined their email templates so that the consumer can move from the email to purchase with minimal effort. Some marketing strategists suggest to test by simply taking one’s existing email template and seeing how easy or difficult it is to move from email to purchase.

Lists and Categories

This email from Amazon showcases the list and category style.

No matter what channel consumers view their email on there are certain things that tend to catch their eye, especially during the holiday season. One trend that has been growing in popularity in the last few years is emailing customers suggestions arranged in eye-catching lists and categories. Retailers have had success with emails that include, for example, a list of the top ten gift ideas in a specific price range or a specific genre. Studies have shown that holiday gift buyers often make product choices with little direct research. By sending out unique gift ideas, email campaigns are especially successful at targeting those buying gifts from categories of goods that they are not familiar with, for example parents buying video games for their kids or women buying tools or sporting goods for their spouses. Furthermore, these types of list templates allow for a streamlined email design where each item in the list is a link that allows the possible sale to be completed easily.

Getting Customers in the Store

Gap allows customers to find the closest store.

Another trend is to send out newsletters that include a combination of online and in store offers. These emails often include links to buy featured products online as well as announcements about special events in the physical store location. Many experts suggest that for maximum affect these newsletters should try to link the consumer into a number of other digital mediums by having options to receive SMS alerts as well as links to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

New Black Friday Email Trends Coming

Holiday sales start early at Woolrich.

Email is quickly replacing newsprint as the primary medium for advertising Black Friday sales. Experts agree that it is important to send initial emails about Black Friday promotions during the beginning of November at the latest. Many retailers establish special promotions only for email subscribers where the customer can take a promo code from the email to use as for an additional discount on Black Friday on specific products. Additionally, these email campaigns allow retailers to make sure that they keep up with the prices of their competitors because whenever a competitor sends out a lower offer, one can immediately send out email with revised, competitive pricing.

Gradually Increasing Frequency for the Holidays

Normally conservative LL Bean Signature is now doing 2 emails per week.

Another important decision for holiday marketing campaigns is to decide the appropriate frequency for sending out emails. The general trend is to gradually increase the frequency of promotional emails starting in October or the beginning of November. Some experts suggest that while it is optimal to increase email levels it is also important to make sure that the frequency stays below a certain threshold.

Personalization Where Possible

It's becoming easier to scale personalization in email.

No matter what type of email strategy a company opts for the trend seems to be towards personalized and sincere holiday greetings being the centerpiece of holiday promotional emails. Often, if marketing budget allows, it can be effective to send customers a holiday greeting that does not include any promotional offers because research has shown that this tends to make consumers more likely to choose that company during later shopping.

No matter what type of approach you take with your holiday email marketing strategy, the most important thing is continuing to revise your tactics and work towards getting the highest possible click count!

Tagged in: Holiday, Holiday 2012