Boost Your Holiday Email Engagement
Boost Your Holiday Email Engagement
There is a lot riding on this holiday shopping season, so it’s more important than ever to think strategically about how your email campaigns can stand out in the sea of holiday messaging.
Thankfully, iLoyal has the inside scoop. Here are some strategies you can incorporate into your holiday email marketing to maximize success and relieve holiday stress.
Send Targeted Campaigns Using Segmentation
A targeted and personalized holiday email will have a much higher engagement rate than a generic mass email. Segmenting your contacts is the most effective way to tailor messages to a customer’s specific interests and buying patterns.
Effective ways to segment your holiday email marketing:
- • Interests: Separate subscribers into groups based on previous purchase categories, or sections browsed on your website.
- • Year-round vs seasonal shoppers: Q4 shoppers have a different relationship with your company compared to loyal, year-round shoppers. Consider their needs and motivations so that you can customize the frequency, content, and timing of your next follow-up campaign.
- • Coupon lovers: Identify customers who frequently (or only) purchase with coupons to help effectively engage your most price-sensitive shoppers. Similarly, creating this segment will help avoid offering discounts to subscribers willing to purchase at full price.
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Leverage Marketing Automation
Reaching the right people, with the right message, at the right time, is the best way to increase email open rates and engagement.
Use these automation strategies to get the most out of your holiday emails:
- • Target warm leads using lead scoring: Leveraging engagement details for customers and scoring contacts helps build consumer profiles to inform segmentation. Tracking user actions like clicks or email opens helps you focus on the prospects that are most engaged and interested in buying. With this insight, you will be able to tailor your holiday email content accordingly.
- • Use a seasonal welcome email: During the holiday season, you’ll likely get new subscribers signing up – to maximize on this, set up an adapted welcome email with a special discount or holiday theme. This will help persuade the shopper to make their purchase with your company.
A Smart Holiday Email Schedule
To make the most of the holiday season it’s a good idea to start planning your email marketing schedule in advance with your loyalty success manager.
The culture of sending numerous holiday marketing emails well before the normal holiday shopping season can cause general email fatigue – sending too early risks your emails being ignored by customers. Now more than ever, timing emails strategically is vital for engaging subscribers.
What factors should you consider when building a smart holiday email schedule?
- • Your buying cycle: Determine when to start sending emails by working backward from the holiday using your average time to purchase. Then allow yourself a week or so on top of that. For instance, if your buying cycle is typically 1-2 weeks, start sending emails between December 4th and 11th to target Christmas shoppers.
- • Use logic: Shoppers still navigate the typical purchase funnel during the holiday period. Build campaigns to respect their stage of the buying cycle, starting by creating product awareness, then focusing on specific product features and benefits, and finally offering a promotion or incentive to secure the sale.
- • Follow up: After the holiday, follow up with an email campaign designed to plant the seeds for future purchases.
How many emails is too many?
It’s also worth considering your sending volume during holiday campaigns. If you’ve been quiet over email this year, don’t send a big wave of holiday emails all at once!
It’s better to start small and ramp up your efforts as the holidays approach. A good rule of thumb: don’t increase your year-to-date email frequency by more than 3X during the holidays. Otherwise, your emails will start to look like spam, which can result in unsubscribes.
With the right schedule in place, you’ll have a solid plan for how and when to tackle your holiday email campaigns. This strategic planning will also lay the groundwork for the holiday emails that you’ll need to design.
Attention-Grabbing Holiday Content
Now let’s have some fun and create loyalty emails that are sure to engage your audience!
Use fun, festive email designs
Consider how you can adapt your email design through imagery that evokes the holiday season. This doesn’t mean you should completely abandon your brand – instead, have fun with your standard format by adding holiday spirit to your branding to get subscribers’ attention. Having trouble coming up with creative ideas yourself? Reach out to your loyalty success manager! We will gladly help you jumpstart some ideas.
Spend time on your email subject lines
Get your subscribers to open your holiday emails by using attention-grabbing subject lines. Here are some great examples:
- • Rock the Christmas clock with time-saving gift inspiration
- • Wrap up super savings that keep your stocking stuffed
- • Sleigh your Christmas list with these last-minute gifts
- • Even Santa shops our super-saver Christmas deals
- • Baby, it’s cold outside, so warm up with our holiday gift ideas
- • Super Christmas shopping savings put extra jingle in your pocket
- • Give yourself something you really want this Christmas
- • Discounted elf exclusives add extra joy to your holidays
- • Make room under the tree for cash-saving Christmas fun
- • Dazzling Christmas discounts are our holiday gift to you
- • These sizzling Christmas deals are hot enough to warm up Jack Frost
- • Do you need a time-out from the holidays this year?
- • Deck the halls with unbelievable holiday savings
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Add “What’s in it for me?” Value
When you send an email, you’re making a request. You’re asking the recipient to take the time to open, read, and (hopefully) act. To make it worth their while, you provide them with something of value. If your emails don’t pass the “what’s in it for me” test, then you need to go back to the drawing board.
Sure, subscribers want exclusive deals, but that’s not the only valuable thing you can offer. Use your emails to communicate important information like the last day for shipping in time for Christmas, when Black Friday promotions end, or when your inventory is running low on popular products.
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