Last updated on
May 14, 2024
Holiday sales are the best time of the year when you can shop all you want. The upward tick in the online sales increases during the holiday season. Holidays like Christmas means people go crazy with shopping but also want to keep the budget in check. Email marketers can opt for email marketing techniques to increase their annual sales.
To make the most of the holiday season, you need to position yourself firmly to the target audience and attract higher than usual traffic.
Therefore, nothing beats a good holiday marketing campaign. With this holiday email marketing guide, you will be on your merry way to create and send emails that resonate with your email subscribers and boost sales.
Each marketing channel has its benefits. But when you talk about business opportunities during the holiday season, think about sending emails. It’s no secret that the holiday shopping season gets you some of the hottest sales of the year, which is why holiday emails are perfect ways to engage consumers for multiple reasons like:
Online sales skyrocketed in 2020, but many people still felt uneasy about it. An incredible 50% increase was predicted by TechCrunch for mobile shopping last year. With the pandemic still lingering into this fall, the trend towards mobile shopping is likely to increase.
Emails are opened more on mobile devices than desktops. Emails should be mobile-optimized for consumers who shop via their smartphones. So email marketers can take advantage of holiday sales with custom holiday email templates.
Forbes reported a solid holiday shopping habit in 2020 — buying based on the discounts. Customers love to take advantage of last-minute deals. Holiday shopping is more fun when it's on sale, which triggers an instant buying decision.
Emails are the perfect choice for the “instant buy option” as retailers can include “buy now” or “countdown timer” buttons that not only increase the open rates but also boosts the conversion rate.
Unlike social media and other advertising channels, emails offer ample opportunities for personalization, improving the click-through rate 8x higher.
Ecommerce store owners can take advantage of the holiday season and create various types of emails with engaging email templates for Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
Holiday email marketing campaigns bring in more traffic than any other time of the year. High conversion rates mean a reduced cart abandonment too. Why? It's a given that holiday shoppers want to have as many options and alternatives to buy their favorite items as possible.
When given a limited-time offer, they cannot say no to it - consumers click on the button to take their online cart to make the final purchase.
Gone are the days when emails were considered a deadbeat. To ensure that holiday email marketing campaigns are successful, first, you need to consider your target audience, goals, and the expected ROI.
For the latest holiday email marketing strategy, you need to identify the hottest emails with the highest open rates during holidays. Take your time to create custom email templates for the following emails.
With the highest open rates, welcome emails are a MUST for email marketing campaigns. For starters, these emails impact the customer lifetime value (CLV). Coax your customers into coming back to your eCommerce store with welcome back emails, product updates, special offers, and other recommendations.
Optimized welcome emails can help increase the conversion rate like;
That’s right; promotional emails set the expectations at the highest level for the consumer. The holiday sale is incomplete without the promotional emails so include a few things for your email subscribers like:
The least favorite email of all but the most necessary one, too, an abandoned cart email means something went wrong with the shopping experience.
It's important to send abandoned cart emails whenever a customer doesn't complete their checkout and buy from you. But first, we have identified three reasons why customers abandon their carts.
Once you have figured out these issues, send instant abandoned cart emails that address the customers’ needs and get them to buy from you.
This question will vary based on the industry and your target goals. There are three major factors according to which you can build your holiday email schedule.
Ecommerce stores create an email list based on the customer’s buying behavior. This way, you can have a unique mailing list based on a variety of factors. So for a holiday, you can send emails based on the average time a user takes to purchase a product. Then relax for at least a week (or maybe more). For instance, the buying cycle is usually 1-2 weeks. So start sending emails between 4th and 11th December to target the Christmas holiday shoppers.
Shoppers navigate their way through the purchase funnel carefully during holiday sales. Focus on building campaigns that target every stage of the purchase funnel. Create product awareness campaigns, focus on product features and their benefits for customers, and finally offer a promotion they cannot refuse!
After all, the final purchase is significant, don’t forget to follow up with the customers. A post-purchase email campaign is equally effective in planting future orders’ seeds. Holiday sales are the perfect time of the year to do so.
For instance, you can prepare a last-minute sales deal rush as an incentive for the customers.
Sending a holiday email marketing campaign is a must for every business. Sometimes you can get a little late to the party for many reasons. This is why these quick hacks will become your savior big time.
Email subject lines are essential as it’s the first thing a subscriber notices about the email. Apart from the subject lines, the CTA button also matters. Using attention-grabbing words may influence the customer to click on that button like;
The best thing about writing an email is personalizing it according to the occasion. Holiday festivities demand festive puns within the email content too. You can slide some clever holiday season puns to make your email more punderful!
For instance, you can incorporate reindeer jokes or Santa jokes at Christmas time. Or, for social media, you can ask customers to post their cute elfie and tag your company to win the reward. Light-hearted puns in the holiday marketing campaign are most successful.
Using an emoji within the email is somewhat tricky. Fortunately, holiday emails give the necessary edge to insert emojis with the text. Emojis help to express quickly what the email is talking about.
For instance, incorporating emojis in the subject line increases the open rate of the email. The unexpected emoji in the inbox is sure to catch the recipient’s eye. For holidays you can use festive emojis like - pumpkin 🎃, turkey 🍗, snowman ☃️, etc.
Start by asking a simple question. Help the customer to resonate with the email they received. People are most likely to fret about holiday shopping and online sales during the holiday season. So you can begin the email with questions like “Are you looking for some gift ideas?”,
“Did you miss the latest items on sale?” or “Christmas presents panic? We got you”, etc.
What are you drawn to when you first open an email? Is it the text, colors, or images? If you are in the majority, most notice the visuals first. So, using the right images matters. Make sure to personalize the holiday email templates accordingly. However, using an image too large is not a good idea. Remember that images 600 pixels wide have the maximum visibility on a desktop.
A good CTA is imperative in an email. The call to action should be clear and concise. Avoid vague words like “click here” or “try now.” Say something more specific like “try our email template library” or “ redeem your points now.” Also, don’t forget to direct the links to the desired landing page. Adding the link to the CTA better handles the customer where you expect them to go.
Of course, the email design should be anything but simple for the holiday season. The time of festivities calls for fun action. For instance, for Halloween, use a relevant email template, similarly for Christmas, use a Christmas email template. And guess what? You can pick some fantastic email designs offered by Mailmunch too!
Holiday sales increase with each passing year. Despite the pandemic conditions, the rate of online sales doubled!. But how? Email marketers, it’s time you take notes from the successful fun tips to boost your holiday email marketing campaign. Here we go!
Segmenting the email list is the first step of the email marketing technique. It is practical to tailor the messages according to the unique mailing list keeping the customer’s specific interests and buying patterns in mind.
Some of the effective ways to segment your email list are;
Take a look at the example below.
Reaching the target audience at the right time with the right message is the most effective way to increase the open email rate. And guess what? Marketing automation is your secret cookie for a holiday email marketing campaign.
Marketing automation strategies for holiday emails can be as follows.
It’s always good to start planning your holiday email campaign in advance, leaving you with enough time to prepare for all required elements.
But remember sending too many emails before the holiday season can become the cause of email fatigue - something you should avoid. It’s risky to send emails too early as customers ignore it.
The first element that a subscriber notices about the emails are the subject lines. Using attention-grabbing phrases in subject lines has proved fruitful in the past. A compelling subject line removes the barrier of doubt. If you want to boost your holiday sales through email marketing campaigns, choose optimized subject lines for more open rates.
For instance, one strategy is to focus on “power words” that trigger instant actions during the holiday season.
Use of words like a hot deal, promotion, discount, free shipping, open now, limited-time offer, appreciation, thank you for your support, etc., are proven strategies to improve the open rate.
Just because you want to evoke holiday vibes within the email design doesn’t mean you need to abandon your brand. It’s time to play around with the standard format but improvise with the festive email designs to attract subscribers’ attention.
Come up with engaging festive email templates that you feel will help subscribers click on the CTA while keeping the brand image intact. Below is a clear example of a lively email design.
Cyber Monday and Black Friday are the two most popular weekend sales that you must target in your holiday email marketing campaign. Cyber Monday is the largest shopping day for eCommerce, with Black Friday in second place.
Brands can start writing emails as early as possible to alert their subscribers and new customers. It gives them ample time to prepare to shop. What used to be once a single day sale is now extended into multiple days or even weeks. These sales tend to attract first-time shoppers big time. Email marketers should consider these weekend sales a part of their email marketing promotions.
Have gift anxiety already? Relax! Holiday gift anxiety is a real phenomenon, and most people experience it. This anxiety occurs not knowing what you want to give to your loved ones. Brands can offer the perfect solution by sharing gift guides to their email list.
Holiday gift guides can include;
Take a look at the gift guide offered by Photojojo for phone fans below.
What’s holiday shopping without the last-minute deals? More than often, it happens that 70% of shoppers leave their gift shopping to the last two weeks before the Christmas holidays; while 64% of last-minute shoppers intend to shop in person because they worry the online gift wouldn’t arrive at the destination on time.
So brands should keep promoting the holiday sales right until the holiday arrives. This is the best time to prompt the last-minute shoppers to make their final purchase.
The landing page is the dedicated purchase page you want your customers to visit. Instead of spending time crafting a new email marketing strategy, focus on sending the click-through traffic to your website’s landing page.
People can navigate the website to find the right product for a gift or the sale mentioned within the email.
There are two major reasons to send follow-up holiday emails:
Customers are 9x more likely to convert with post-holiday emails than first-time visitors. So you can boost sales in a short time.
They say the early bird gets the worm - and email marketers agree.
Early shoppers should get promotional discounts to encourage their shopping habits. You can create an entire segment just for early shoppers. Add those customers keen to take advantage of the early bird offer.
For instance, you can offer gift card bonuses for consumers. These are great incentives for customers who are all about saving money for holiday sales.
Take a look at the early bird offer below.
Nothing makes a customer happier than saving bucks on shipping costs. You can offer free shipping for the customers purchasing in bulk for the Cyber Monday or Black Friday sales. Free shipping is a huge deal for shoppers. People want to squeeze their holiday budget, especially when holidays are just around the corner.
So if a customer reaches a specific price point, offering them free shipping is more likely to encourage them to spend a little extra - just to meet the free shipping threshold. Here’s an example of a free shipping offer.
Countdown timer emails are the best way of tapping on the customer’s tendency of FOMO, i.e., fear of missing out. Thus, when the holiday season is near, start sending a series of countdown emails to your subscriber list and make them impulsive.
From free shipping to a specific date to an offer that expires soon, you can send a variety of countdown emails to drive sales and make the most out of your holiday email campaign. It will boost your ROI and give you an edge over competitors. See how Chop Chop makes use of a countdown timer in a creative way.
Each holiday is memorable, so why not make your email subscribers feel special and help create the sense of a loved community? Show the visitor who was not around for last year’s holiday email marketing campaign how you can help them find the perfect gift.
Offer a free promotional product, or buy one get one free offer for a first-time purchase. Another unique holiday giveaway can also include flash sales for insiders. Make heavily discounted products available for a limited time. For this purpose, look at your click-through data to do trigger-based marketing.
A holiday season is incomplete without a holiday video. Brands can target their audience with the help of promo videos in advance. For instance, Mailmunch created a promo video for the holiday season that covers all major aspects to target the potential customers and subscribers in the email list.
If you are skeptical about creating a promo video, then don’t be. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You can use various software to create a sophisticated holiday-based video to entice customers to make the right purchase. It’s an effective method to connect with your customers, especially if you have never had the chance to meet them in person.
How often do you appreciate your customers for a purchase? The holiday season calls for loyalty rewards for loyal customers. You can begin with the special discount offers for these customers.
But first segment the list of the loyal customers - those who buy from your store, use your services, or even recommend your store to their friends. The holiday season is all about being thankful so send special “thank you emails” to the loyal customers showing your appreciation.
Who says email marketing strategy is limited to holidays only? You can still celebrate the seasonal festivities with your customers.
You do not have to wait till the last minute for the holiday season to wish them holidays. Instead, think out of the box by sending them emails about Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter, and so on. Such emails show that you wish your customers to enjoy their holidays and other festivities.
Cart abandonment emails are a great way of escalating revenues during the high-peak holiday season. Customers who abandon their carts for reasons like complex payment processes, high delivery charges, products getting out of stock, etc. can be motivated to return and make a purchase by giving them strong incentives like free shipping, suggestions for relevant products, etc.
It also offers customers the chance to provide last-minute customized deals based on their search history and the type of items in their cart. Sending strategically placed abandoned cart reminders often result in sales.
Urgency-based campaigns are a great way to boost sales and conversions during the holiday season. Usually, these are the time-limited offers that encourage the visitor to take action right away because who’d like to miss out, right?
Urgency-based campaigns encourage visitors to grab incredible discounts before the sale ends. The best way to make the most out of it is to segment your target audience according to the discount offer so that you can send relevant recommendations in the future as well.
The footer of the email can be the most neglected part. Avoid making this mistake. For smart holiday email marketing tips, customize the footer of the email to woo your customers and increase sales.
It’s easy to forget about the footer once the email template is set up. But it’s a great place to promote;
Also, the footer can be customized based on the upcoming holiday too. Take a look at the example below.
Mobile optimized emails are perfect! But if you are not focusing on optimization for mobile, you may lose nearly 85% of your target audience.
Mobile users drive 60% of the online sales. That’s why it’s important to ensure that holiday email marketing campaigns are mobile-friendly. It means marketers must use:
Whatever holiday email template you decide to send to your email list, first, you need to test them.
The good news is that you do not need to wait till the last minute to test your Christmas or New Year emails. Instead, you can send a test email to see how it looks in terms of layout, content, and images of the New Year email template! It helps you to figure out which types of offers, products, and services, or campaigns can get the most response when the holiday season starts.
For instance, you can use a split test for the holiday marketing campaign. It helps to work out which message and CTA work best for the visitors to become subscribers and customers.
Congratulations, so you have made it to the bottom of the page!
It’s great that you learned about creating a holiday email marketing campaign in detail. We bet you are hyped up to make your holiday email marketing campaign now. You should know that any good email marketing campaign is incomplete without Mailmunch.
Why?
Wanting to enjoy the festivities but not skipping work-related emails makes sense. Don’t worry; you can outsource email marketing services to Mailmunch! It’s good to know you have expert email marketers on your back who can create, design, and send emails on your behalf, even during holidays. Work rarely stops, neither do we.
As a complete email marketing software, Mailmunch is a complete package that helps clients boost their email open rate, grow their email list, and a lot more. So why wait?
A bookworm and a pet nerd at heart, Summra works as Content Writer at Mailmunch. She loves to play with keywords, titles, and multiple niches for B2B and B2C markets. With her 3 years of experience in creative writing and content strategy, she fancies creating compelling stories that your customers will love, igniting results for your business.
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