The most wonderful time of the year is also the best time of year for email marketing campaigns – if the timing, strategy, and tone are done right.
Whether it’s a brick-and-mortar retail company, ecommerce shop, nonprofit, or other organization, your brand certainly won’t be the only one trying to stand out this holiday season. But you can be one of the savviest. Optimize your holiday email marketing with creative, tech-powered tactics.
See our suggestions below for crafting a thoughtful email campaign that is as good for customer loyalty as it is for your Q4 profits. Or get in touch with Idea Kraft to create a strategy defined by your long- or short-term goals and backed by more than a decade of marketing experience.
1. Discounts & deals are always in season.
A discount is a surefire way to delight everyone on your email list. Think a discount will be costly to your business or organization? You may want to think again.
In 2022, Salesforce reported a 5% drop in shopping cart abandonment when retailers offered big discounts during Cyber Week. It’s worth the extra planning and strategizing to come up with a holiday offer, whether it’s for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday.
Even non-retail organizations can give a little in order to get a little. It just might take a little more creativity. Is there an annual event you can raffle off a ticket for? Or a free webinar or online class you can offer for a certain dollar amount spent?
2. ‘Tis the season to be creative and festive.
Holiday email marketing can give a serious boost to your bottom line – but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with it. In fact, a little creativity can give your campaign a tremendous edge.
Traditional holiday color schemes and visual elements are what we’ve come to love and expect during Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. But your email marketing content can take a unique spin on traditional motifs in order to stand out.
You might think about what a nostalgic Christmas would look like for your target audience and recreate retro holiday content. And simplicity is always a welcome breath of fresh air in an otherwise overwhelming season. There’s a reason Hershey’s Kisses “Christmas Bells” commercial is such a classic.
3. Cut the holiday tension, don’t add to it.
Holiday email subject lines tend to have one thing in common: a lot of urgency. One simple way to stand out is to offer messaging on a lighter (and less pushy) note.
That means avoiding subject lines that encourage acting fast or take too much brain power to process. During seasons of little time and mental energy, the best email messaging doesn’t request anything – it offers something.
We recommend leading your email campaigns with a heartfelt message, joke, fun fact, or piece of content further along in your normal sales funnel like a tutorial, ebook, or resource that isn’t usually free. Providing unexpected value is a great way to stay top of mind.
4. Clean up your list of leads.
A higher volume of emails comes with the potential for more unopened emails – especially without a strategy for avoiding low open rates that can hurt your email reputation.
While the tips we’ve already covered are designed to minimize the possibility of a low open rate, the content is only half of the equation. You want to make sure the people receiving your emails are going to be the most receptive to your holiday message or offer.
That means not relying on email lists any older than a year without combing through them for inactive, defunct, or spam email addresses. You can do this manually if your email lists aren’t too long. But there are also AI tools that will segment audiences in order to optimize click through and open rates based on real-time data about customer preferences.
5. Follow the calendar and the clock.
We’ve been talking about the holiday season, but we haven’t defined it yet. With several holidays that take place from fall to mid-winter, it’s smart to consider each one well in advance of the actual day or period of celebration.
Start planning your holiday marketing at least a few weeks in advance. This will give you enough time to identify which holidays align best with your brand, brainstorm and create the content, and strategize campaign execution.
Here are the holidays you may consider capitalizing on:
- Halloween: Oct. 31
- Thanksgiving: Fourth Thursday in November
- Hanukkah: 8 days in November or December
- Black Friday: Friday following Thanksgiving
- Small Business Saturday: Saturday following Thanksgiving
- Cyber Monday: Monday following Black Friday
- Kwanzaa: Dec. 26 – Jan. 1
- Christmas: Dec. 25th
- New Year’s: Dec. 31 and Jan. 1
For nonprofits and other cause-driven organizations, your time to shine is probably in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving – especially if it happens to be a busy time of year for your organization. Telling people exactly what their contributions are supporting is a great way to tap into the giving spirit.
Ecommerce businesses and brick-and-mortar stores, start prepping email lists and content prior to Thanksgiving and use discounts and promotions to decrease shopping cart abandonment during the peak shopping months: starting Black Friday and going through the New Year.
The secret is to make people feel like they’re getting a good deal – by actually giving them one.
Let’s sum it all up.
The sheer volume of holiday commercials, jingles, and products out there will be overwhelming for just about everyone.
Consumers are going to have countless influences telling them what to buy and when. All of these strategies we’ve covered together are designed to break through that noise using targeted, intentional practices that organically spark interest and add value.
Idea Kraft is here to help every day of the year.
Idea Kraft has more than 10 years of experience working with nonprofits, B2B, and ecommerce clients to build campaigns that turn goals into traffic, growth, and conversions. Our branding and marketing agency offers a full suite of creative branding, marketing, and web development services. Schedule a consultation or tell us more about your project here.
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