The holiday season is in full swing as Halloween has passed us and Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. This time of year not only brings festive fun with friends and family, but it also brings in the chance for you to promote your holiday deals to current or potential customers. Email marketing in general is one of the best ways to build a more personal connection with your customers and to communicate fun offers or new products that your business may be working on.
The holiday season is one of the busiest shopping periods of the year as people do their Christmas gift shopping as well as purchasing other home or party essentials for other holidays. U.S. News reports that 2021 is forecasted to set a new record for online holiday sales, reaching $207 billion. This would be a 10% increase from 2020, which also set a record. As we can see, e-commerce is trending up and will be a primary shopping outlet for many shoppers this holiday season. Most likely, the impact of the pandemic and the overall ease of purchasing is why we see this. Take advantage of this by putting your email marketing right in front of them to see before doing their shopping. Include links to your site or specific sales right in your emails so all people have to do is press a button and shop. Bold any promo codes that can be used at checkout so customers know they can score a deal by purchasing from you. Make sure your email marketing templates are easily navigatable and easy to read so people do not have to hunt for holiday deal information.
Email marketing also allows you to personalize the messages to your audience. People really feel like they are being spoken to directly with email marketing as opposed to mass advertisements on T.V. commercials or social media ads. Take advantage of the holidays and adjust your email marketing strategy to appeal more directly to customers’ needs. Around this time, gift buying is commonly on customers’ minds so providing a solution to this need by advertising how you can give your products as gifts will make them feel heard. The holiday season is also a great time to capture new leads as people commonly look around to find the best products at the best price that they can buy for others. So use your email marketing to show how your product is better than other ones they may be looking at or offer a deal for new customers that sign up to receive your emails. You can also take this time to send holiday deals through email marketing to any lost customers you have to bring them back to you. If they know they can score a deal on a product from a company they have used before, they may be more inclined to return to you.
When it comes to making adjustments to your email marketing strategy this holiday season, we have some suggestions on how this could look. First and foremost, it is important to plan ahead. You don’t want to find yourself in the midst of the holiday season and rushing to get your strategy together while the competition has already put out its first emails. Think about designs, layouts, links, and other ways to incorporate holiday fun into your emails ahead of time. Next, you should think about what your goal is with your holiday emails. Do you want to bring awareness to your brand or a new product? Or do you want to reward loyal customers who have stuck with you all year long by offering them a deal? You should also look at a calendar and consider ramping up email marketing efforts around heavy shopping days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, and the weeks leading up to Christmas. Putting your message in front of customers closer to their desirable purchasing time will make it that much easier for them to buy from you. Look at your trends from last year! When were your emails opened the most, when did people click on the links on your emails, and when we’re the most purchases made from your business around the holidays? If you have this information, then you can correctly time your email sequences as well as include all the information people need to make a purchase. Finally, make sure your results are measurable. You want to know what works and what doesn’t work so you can continue to make adjustments for the next holiday season.
Finally, we want to offer some of our tips for bringing your email marketing to the next level this holiday season. Get creative with festive designs and layouts to bring the joy of the holidays to your customers. Add some fun and festive colors or pictures to your emails and promote all holiday-related deals. These could include any deals that could be part of Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Find ways to bring in new customers by encouraging your current customers to refer a friend. Offer them a deal that they can use when their friend makes a purchase. If your brand offers a wide variety of products and services, consider creating a “gift guide” to include in your emails. The holidays may insight some anxiety about gift buying so offering this guide can give people suggestions and guide them directly to your website to make a purchase. You should also be prepared for more competitions than ever. A ton of companies are fighting to be somebody’s favorite place to shop for the holidays, so include in your email marketing why customers should want to buy with your brand. Finally, don’t forget about your customers when the holiday season is over. Send out post-holiday emails wishing your customers well and continue to send them deals and updates about your brand.
The holidays can be both joyous and stressful for consumers as they want to be well prepared for all the holiday festivities. By adjusting your email marketing to these feelings, you can secure more trust from your customers and boost your sales this holiday season. Want to bring your holiday email marketing to the next level? Contact Skigital today to get started on elevating not only your email marketing but also any holiday marketing needs.