With the Holidays Just Around the Corner, You Should Have Your Email Campaigns Nailed Down and the Creative in the Works.
If you haven’t started planning yet, no need to panic, but get started ASAP! As the inbox becomes increasingly crowded, be sure your promotion stands out. What should you be sure you’re doing with your holiday emails to help you stand out in the crowd?1. Personalization
In the digital world where everything feels automated, adding a personal touch to an email can make all the difference. You can create personalized dialogues with your readers by incorporating their name within the subject line and/or content within the email. Beyond first name personalization, consider personalizing images within the email as well. You can personalize the images based on items the subscriber has shown interest in via browsing or past purchase behavior, or you can take it another direction and feature imagery via dynamic content that matches up with where the reader is regionally in the country. For example, if it’s cold and snowy, show images that reflect that. If your reader is in Hawaii where it’s warm and sunny, they should see images that reflect that. The more personal the email comes across, the more the reader will relate to it and be inclined to interact with the email.
2. Animation/Video
People process visuals 6,000 times faster than text. Because of that, it’s important that your emails include visuals that pull the reader in. Some easy ways to do that are to include animation in your emails. When things are moving, it’s hard to ignore. Another way to capture attention is by including video in your holiday emails. Video in email is one of the best ways to boost your conversions. It captures people’s imagination in a way that text can’t. Whether you showcase product videos or create a special holiday message from your CEO, including video in your emails is a winner.
3. Start Selling Early
It seems like holiday emails start earlier each year. There’s a reason for that- people are ready to start their holiday shopping! In Q4, traffic and sales steadily increase from October 1st through mid-November. After that, traffic and sales reach their peak on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and stay higher than normal through Christmas Eve.
Marketers have started ramping up their holiday spend in October to influence shoppers at every stage of the customer journey. In fact, the earlier your email subscribers are aware of your holiday offers and drive them to to your site or app, the bigger chance you have of getting them to buy from you. So, even if it feels early to start touting your holiday specials, it’s not!
4. Be Mobile Ready
Ensure that your emails are not only created with responsive design but are also optimized for the mobile experience. Some ways to make sure your emails do this is to:
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- Ensure that they are not very text heavy
- Use headlines and bolded text to highlight different sections of the message
- Use white space to create chunks of text, ensuring there is enough space to make the message readable
- Consider increasing font size for small devices. A good general rule of thumb for font size is 16px.
Additionally, you’ll want to ensure your entire experience is optimized for the mobile shopper. Holiday buyers love shopping on mobile. In the US, mobile’s share of sales peak at 53% in the week of Black Friday, and again the week of Christmas Eve. If you want to convert mobile shoppers, the experience needs to be seamless from email to website.
5. Remails
Don’t underestimate the power of a remail, especially during the holiday season. Sometimes all it takes to get noticed in the busy inbox is a resend at a different time of day or day of the week. Many retailers remail the same day on very popular days such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday. If you choose to remail, make sure that you are changing the subject line with your remail send. It’s likely that some folks saw the subject line in the first send and for whatever reason didn’t click, so seeing the same subject line again later that day or another day shortly after the original send could be confusing to them. Remails with just subject line change and the same copy result in a 60% lift on average.
