The TV adverts have begun, the high street is beginning to swell and the run up to the holidays is upon us. It’s heaven for some and hell for others, but every email marketer should relish the unique opportunities the holidays bring to engage with subscribers.
You won’t be surprised to hear that email sends increase exponentially around the holiday period, so it’s more important than ever to make your email stand out, and we’ve got some festive tips to let you know how to do just that.
Get Festive
Giving your email design a bit of festive cheer during the holiday period is a nice way to grab your subscribers’ attention. It could be something quick and simple, such as adding a bit of snow and a Santa hat to your logo or you could send an all singing and dancing Christmas card for a more special touch.
Last year I received this great card from Threadless. Not only does it give a nice personal insight into the company and its staff, but it also contains a rather impressive array of Christmas jumpers…
This email from Creative Pool also gets in on the Christmas action with a festive themed email and ‘meet the team’ style content.
Sharing
The holidays are all about sharing, so it’s only natural that your emails should get a slice of the sharing action too. Sometimes a hint can be useful when shopping for gifts, so making it easy for your subscribers to share gift recommendations could help you with that TV you’ve been wishing for…
Share-Worthy Content
The first step towards sharing is having some good share-worthy content. This includes things such as products, offers, useful information, tips etc…
Share Medium
Next up is your share medium. Adding a ‘forward to a friend’ link at the top of your email is a good way to encourage subscribers to share your entire email with others. Social sharing buttons are also a great way to share an email, and can also be used to share specific content from your email such as individual products or offers.
Keep Your Finger on the Trigger
Trigger campaigns can be launched when a subscribers’ interaction with an email meets a pre-determined criteria. For example, if a subscriber clicks a link for a specific product more than once, you can automatically send them an email the following day with more information on that product and similar products.
This kind of automatic targeting serves as a useful reminder for your subscribers at a time when they’ll need it most!
Make a List, and Check It Twice!
You’ll want to send your holiday emails to as many subscribers as possible, but it’s important to take care when considering sending to a list that hasn’t heard from you in a few months.
While the list is opted in, the data is now old which can cause a bit of an issue. Subscribers may forget who you are and a lot of the addresses may no longer exist. If you send to a large dated list, you’ll likely get a ton of email bounces and spam complaints resulting in a damaged sending reputation.
When sending to an old list, you can test the water by sending to a small percentage of addresses first. If you see good stats, great! Slowly increase your sends while keeping an eye on stats. If the bounces and complaints start rolling in, stop right there. It’s time to clean and reconfirm your list before you do any damage!
