Email Marketing campaigns at Christmas
It might feel waaaay too early to be talking about the ‘C’ word, but as marketers, we should already be on our game for Christmas 2015. Statistics show that around 25% of consumers will have already done the bulk of their shopping by November, so if you want to jump on that festive gravy train with both feet, you need to start right now.
Email marketing is still the most effective method of reaching consumers with product offers and sales content. With more opportunities than ever before for segmenting and personalising the content, Christmas 2015 is going to see email marketing at its best. Here are some hot tips from the world of email marketing to help you get your seasonal messaging just right.
1. Throw out the cliché’s
Prancing reindeer, snowy scenes and smiling snowmen – they certainly have their place. But is that place really in your email marketing content, or would they be more at home on a greetings card? It’s fun to get festive at Christmas, but chances are these decades old messages are getting so tired, not to mention similar to what your competitors are doing, that they reality won’t have much impact at all.
2. What works the rest of the time STILL works at Christmas
It’s true! What you’ve been doing all year round shouldn’t be thrown out of the window just because it’s Christmas. All the things you’ve been learning about your customers and your emails throughout the rest of the year will serve to better inform your Christmas marketing, so don’t be tempted to ditch them in favour of a cheesy picture of Santa and a bad Christmas joke.
3. Subject lines > graphics
Your subject lines are the biggest opportunity you have to boost your email open rates, but then you probably knew that already (if you’ve been listening!). Christmas is no different, so rather than spending hours photo shopping a snowman into your product images, spend more time crafting compelling subject lines.
4. Dare to be different
The old red white and gold, the presents under the tree, snow-capped lettering… all very familiar images that spring to mind when thinking about Christmas marketing. But surely, if they are so very samey, your email is going to look just the same as everyone else’s, including your competitors? Dare to differentiate yourself, just a little, and make something that really sticks in people’s minds. Think about what Christmas really means to your subscribers, and create your own unique take on the festive familiarities.
5. Up the tempo
Subscribers want and expect to hear from you a bit more in the run up to Christmas. Don’t be afraid to send out a few more emails than you usually do, after all, your customers are looking for new and unusual buying ideas at this time of year. Don’t ramp up frequency too much or too suddenly, but do give your customers a bit more of what they love.
It may well be a merry Christmas, but this time of year is no holiday for marketers. Get your plan in place now and enjoy all the successes a well-crafted Christmas email campaign can bring!
