4 Email Marketing Tips for the Holiday Season

Every year, businesses experience a significant increase in sales, coverage, and general consumer attention during the holiday season. The holidays are generally a time of love, affection, and lots of gift-giving.

People love to go all out with their seasonal spending every year as the festivities grow nearer. For a business owner, this provides the perfect opportunity to make yourself known to your customer base and branch out with special seasonal offers, discounts, and deals that will have people rushing over to you.

The seasonal wave is a very competitive time for all businesses. In order to succeed, it’s important to set yourself apart from all the other brands out there marketing their holiday deals. If you want to make sure your message reaches your customer effectively, an effective email campaign strategy is the way to go.

Here are some of the most effective tips and tricks on how you can run a successful email campaign and be ready for the holiday season in style.

Compile a directory

If you’re planning on running a successful email campaign, the first thing you need to do is compile a directory of all the customers who visit you and your store.

How do you go about finding your target audience? Well, it’s simple. Keep a sign-up sheet at your business, whether it’s a restaurant, a clothing store, or anything in between, and ask people to fill in their information (make sure to get their email addresses) on the sheet if they would like to stay updated about all the latest deals and promotions that you’ll be offering. You can add an online sign-up sheet to your website as well. Ask people to fill in their location so you can filter out the ones you want to focus on.

Of course, people need some form of encouragement to give up their information. Offer a free product or a 15% discount for every customer who fills out your form. Use the same strategy on social media and on your website to increase the number of emails you collect.

Come up with some festive deals

Once your directory is ready, the next step is to conjure up some irresistible offers that your customers simply cannot pass up. Plan out all the best seasonal deals you can come up with and get them ready for your email campaign. Here are some great ideas to help you add a jolly twist to your special offers:

1. Extra 25% off on all Boxing Day sale items for subscribers
2. Special insights on when your limited Christmas Eve sale will start and end
3. Exclusive previews of your best seasonal products

Make sure all the deals you come up with are specific to your email subscribers. Offer your clients the privilege of being part of something exclusive to grab their long-term attention.

A great way to make sure your deals catch attention is to add them to your email subject line. The image below shows some great examples of Black Friday sale email headers.

Create stunning content

You’ve come up with your special seasonal offers and deals, and you’re ready to send them out. But you can’t just type your best deals out as text and expect people to be interested enough to read them. You need to send out your seasonal promotions in style.

Announce your offers in style by adding beautifully created sales posters to your emails. PosterMyWall offers a wide and vibrant range of Christmas and Boxing Day posters that you can customize according to your needs.

Add your logo to your poster. Include bright, festive colours to stay in touch with the holiday theme. Use a bright, bold font to advertise your sale and to make sure no one can miss it. As a promise to your special subscribers, add in a small extra discount or free additional gift offer with their purchase

Send out pre and post-holiday emails

Once you’ve created the content to go with your amazing seasonal offers, it’s time to send out those emails and let your customers know what you have to offer.

Schedule emails to be sent out with some of your special offers on specific days before the actual holiday. Remind your customers of your 24 hour Christmas Eve sale 2 days prior to the date. Send them a special wish as well as a reminder on Christmas day to make sure they don’t forget about your Boxing Day specials.

And that’s not all you need to do. Once the holiday is over, the seasonal hype might die down but your job won’t. Send out emails to your customers after the holiday season is over to convert all those people who joined your email list for some great holiday offers into long-term customers. This will also help you transition into a “return to normalcy” phase and upsell some of your best non-seasonal promotions until the next festive season rolls around.

Final thoughts

Making your mark and creating your own unique identity can be tough when you’re a business caught up in the race for the highest seasonal sales. Your only bet here is to come up with an effective promotional strategy that your customers can’t miss.

Use these effective tips and tricks to create your own seasonal email marketing campaign and let your customers all you have to offer this festive season.

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