Chris Christoff — November 17, 2019 With the holidays right around the corner, businesses are ramping up their email marketing campaigns and deciding how they’ll best cater to consumers. It’s a time of year where shoppers spend significantly more, and brands can use this to their advantage if they play their cards right.
In 2018, U.S. holiday spending amounted to $ 707.5 billion. Marketers can use this information to revamp their email marketing tactics so they better cater to their target markets and hit their sales goals for the year.
Let’s look at four ways your business can harness the power of email this holiday season to boost sales and meet revenue goals.
1. Plan ahead
If you’re starting to come up with ideas for a new holiday-themed campaign in December, you’re way behind schedule. Around 35 percent of consumers start shopping as early as September and the numbers steadily increase through October. Any later, and you’re missing out on marketing to customers who are ready to spend the big bucks.
Make sure to plan your email marketing campaigns well ahead of time so you catch customers before it’s too late. Using a reputable email marketing service ensures your campaigns deliver smoothly. If you catch them while open rates are still high, then you have a chance to generate sales and increase subscribers.
2. Segment your leads
No two customers are the same, and they all signed up for your email list for different reasons. So, if you’re sending the same content to every user, you’re failing to cater to their specific needs and interests. Consumers are looking for content that speaks specifically to them, and you can use email marketing to your advantage to give them what they want.
Segment the leads in your email list so you know who wants what type of content in their inbox. In a recent survey, 74 percent of marketers agreed that targeted personalization increases customer engagement. Sending targeted, relevant emails is a surefire way to grab your subscribers’ attention and drive sales, especially for the holidays.
Check out this abandoned cart email that grabs users’ attention and urges them to complete their purchase:
There are several ways to segment your email list according to what your audience wants. When they sign up, you can ask them right then and there what type of content they’d like to see from your brand in the future. You can also send out an email blast asking them what they want from your holiday campaigns.
You can segment your leads in a variety of ways, including:
- Interests
- Past purchases
- Most viewed content
- Location
- Abandoned cart
3. Promote exclusive deals
Who doesn’t love promotions where they can save money and take part in a stellar deal? With all the holiday spending, consumers love taking part in special offers that adhere to their budget and help them save money. You can use this to your advantage by promoting brand deals in your holiday email campaigns.
La Provence offered their subscribers an exclusive savings deal to boost sales for the season:
Not only can creating exclusive campaigns generate more sales, but it also makes your customers feel special. They’re in on something that not everyone has access to, which encourages them to take part in your promotion and make a purchase. Urgency is an effective way to push customers to take the action you want because they don’t want to experience the fear of missing out or FOMO.
4. Create themes
No matter what holidays you present in your email campaigns, the look has to match the content. Your subscribers won’t know you’re promoting a holiday campaign if it looks the same as all your other content, which is why it’s important to create themes.
If you’re promoting a Black Friday sale, for example, then adding Thanksgiving-related elements shows readers your intent. You want to get them in the mood for the holiday and encourage them to spend some money.
This email from Kate Spade resembles a Christmas card which puts subscribers in a festive spirit and clearly presents itself as part of a holiday campaign:
That said, you still need to create themes and elements that align with your branding and stay true to your values. Whether you use email templates or design your own, you can still highlight your brand image in your tone, language, and voice. So, even if you change other components, such as colors and imagery, users still recognize your brand and consume your content.
Conclusion
If you want to increase sales for your business this holiday season, then take advantage of your email marketing strategy. There are endless ways to appeal to your subscribers that encourage them to engage with your brand and make purchases. If you apply them to your strategy, you’re sure to see an increase in conversions.
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