Effective Christmas Holiday Email Marketing: Tips and Strategies for Campaign Success
5.00/5The holiday season is the perfect time to increase brand engagement and drive sales. While there are many different ways to do this, this blog post will focus on one main strategy: Christmas holiday email marketing.
We’ll cover what to include in your email campaigns, when to send them, and a series of tips for creating the perfect subject line, preheader, content, and sign-off. Read on and take advantage of the few days left to connect with your audience and drive sales.
The Power of Successful Holiday Christmas Email Marketing
During the holiday season (November and December), people are eager to find the perfect gift and that special deal that will make it easier for them to buy. They are ready to spend, especially from the brands they feel close to and have subscribed to.
It’s your job to attract them and get them to buy your products and services. To do this, you need to understand two things. First, these are people who have opted in to receive email communications from you. Second, during these holiday days, they are actively looking to buy, whether it’s gifts for friends and family or just spending some money on themselves.
Take advantage of these facts and make your database subscribers feel special during the holidays. Share some valuable content, thank them, but most importantly, give them something special: a discount, buy one get one free offer, free shipping and gift wrapping, whatever you think they will like the most. The world is your oyster, but to be successful, you must first understand what your buyers really want and value.
The right approach will have a huge impact on your customer retention, sales and loyalty.
How To Start a Christmas Email Campaign
Before you write your first email, or even think about it, you need to sit down with data and analyze it. There are four main things you want to look at:
- Products: Focus on identifying those that generated the most revenue last Christmas and those that have been a success throughout the year.
- Promotions and special offers: Find out which ones were popular with your customers.
- Customers: Identify which segment bought the most during the holiday season and in the months after.
- Seasons: Focus on understanding your customers’ behavior during special days such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday.
The information you gather will serve as a guide for making decisions about which products to promote most, which offers to include, and who to target.
Once you have that figured out, you can start working on your Christmas holiday email campaign. Keep in mind that it should be more than just one email. You should aim to send 2-4 emails in the weeks and days leading up to Christmas Eve.
What To Include in a Holiday Email Marketing Campaign?
While Christmas is the perfect time to reach out to your database, it’s also a time of fierce competition. Every brand is trying to grab consumers’ attention and present them with enticing options. To be successful, your email campaign must be packed with irresistible offers, including:
- Gift cards and coupons for those loyal customers who have shopped with you throughout the year.
- Exclusive holiday offers for your email subscribers.
- Early access to Christmas sales offers.
- Free holiday gift wrapping and delivery services.
You can combine all of these ideas into gift guides that highlight your brand’s best products for husbands, wives, sons, daughters, friends, parents, in-laws and more.
When To Start Sending Christmas Emails?
Your holiday email campaigns should start right after you finish your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing efforts. That way, you can take advantage of everyone’s shopping frenzy and use the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve to promote your products and special offers.
We highly recommend starting your campaign with shopping or gift guides and wish lists. As you get closer to Christmas Day, you can begin to transition to greetings, offers and discounts.
Keep them engaged and eager to find out what your next offer is. The emotion and FOMO will help you and entice them to take action and buy right away.
Tips for Creating the Perfect Holiday Email
Writing the perfect email is not easy, especially when you have to create at least 4 of them. You have to think and come up with irresistible subject lines and headers, compelling designs, great content, and inevitable calls to action.
You can choose to work with an email marketing agency or create them in-house. Whatever you choose, keep these tips in mind: you want to ensure deliverability, an open rate of at least 17%, and a click-through rate of at least 2-5%.
Work with Christmas Email Templates
If you are creating your own email campaign, you may want to look online for beautiful email templates. There are many options, including templates ranging from cartoons to more serious vibes. Choose the ones that match your target persona, their interests, likes and behaviors. Customize them to match your brand identity and the purpose of your communication.
Some examples of Christmas email templates include:
If you work with an email marketing agency, they can create custom designs for your brand. Again, they should take into consideration who will be receiving it, your holiday messages, the purpose of your email, your brand identity and the overall holiday spirit.
Write a Winning Christmas Email Subject Line
The subject line is one of the most important elements of your email. It is what will entice the user to open it or simply move it to the trash. In general, it should be between 30 and 50 characters or 4 to 7 words. Each word you choose must be perfectly chosen and relevant.
Consider adding emoticons, the recipient’s name, numbers and facts, and even a keyword in all capital letters. You can also run some A/B tests to understand which subject lines generate more opens and use them on the vast majority of your database.
Some great holiday email subject lines are:
- Free shipping until December 25th!
- Christmas sale: 20% off store wide
- Spoil yourself with our 2-for-1 offer this Christmas!
- Our Christmas gift to you
- New arrivals just in time for Christmas
- Order by 5pm TODAY for Christmas delivery!
- All she wants for Christmas is BRAND
- Got all your PRESENTS yet?
Include Compelling Preheaders
The preheader, or the few words people can read before they open your email, is key to increasing your open rates. Keep it between 40 and 130 characters and make sure it complements your subject line and entices people to open and read more.
You can personalize it by including the recipient’s name, or simply create curiosity and a sense of urgency. Use these preheader examples as inspiration for your holiday email campaign:
- Discover handpicked gifts for everyone on your list this holiday season.
- Celebrate the holidays with special offers.
- Don’t miss out on our special Christmas sale.
- Indulge yourself with our curated selection of [specific] products.
Ensure your Content is Relevant, Engaging and Beautiful
When people open your email, they should find relevant and beautifully designed content. One of the greatest benefits of Christmas is that it opens the doors to many creative ways for you to connect with your database.
Exciting Email Content Ideas
Some Christmas email content ideas you can send to your clients and database subscribers include:
- Holiday wish lists that highlight a relevant and personalized selection of your brand’s products. Holiday gift guides with popular products sorted by target user and price.
- Fabulous Christmas contests that ask your subscribers to do something special (send a picture of them using one of your products or in one of your stores, etc.) for a chance to win a special prize (70% discount, free one-year subscription, etc.).
- A year in review email highlights the top moments of your brand’s year, and as a token of appreciation, you can include a special thank you gift (buy-one-get-one offer, special discount, etc.) for your top buyers.
- Merry Christmas postcard thanking your customers for trusting you and wishing them the best. You can do it in a funny or serious way.
- Special Christmas discount codes for your clients, their friends and family.
- Free shipping announcements to reduce friction points in your sales process and guarantee arrival before Christmas Day.
- Last minute holiday rush gift guides for friends and family that highlight your top selling products.
- Customized gift guides based on the personality types of your most important customers.
Let your creativity flow and come up with different ideas that you know will help solve a specific pain point: finding the perfect gift at a reasonable price.
Include a Compelling CTA
In addition to a perfectly designed and engaging email, you need to let your subscribers know what to do next or how to take advantage of your special holiday offer.
Make sure your email templates include a call to action that meets these criteria. It should be concise (2-4 words), action-oriented,visually appealing, relevant to the content of the email, and include a sense of urgency. We highly recommend using strong verbs such as “Get,” “Shop Now,” “Claim Your Christmas Miracle,” or “Start Today.
Use a Fun Christmas Sign-Off
Finally, it’s important to include an opt-out that’s different from your regular email campaigns. Keep the holiday cheer flowing by signing off your emails with a message that wishes them a Merry Christmas, thanks them for their business and unforgettable moments, and even gives a hint of what’s to come next year.
Be sure to include your website and social media links in your signature.
Automate Your Christmas Email Drip Campaign
Our final tip is to use software that allows you to segment and automate your email campaigns. You should aim to send at least 1 email per week from mid-November until the last week of the year, when you send a New Year’s message and a look back.
As you approach Christmas Eve, you can increase the number of emails you send by working with a 12 Days of Christmas marketing campaign or something similar.
Great email automation tools include Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Zoho, Constant Contact and Drip. Choose one that allows you to be very specific about the day and time your emails go out and that has different segmentation options.
Key Takeways
- Importance of Holiday Email Marketing: The holiday season is a prime time to connect with subscribers and drive sales through email marketing by offering special deals, discounts, and personalized content that make them feel valued.
- Components of a Successful Campaign: A successful Christmas email campaign should include valuable offers such as gift cards, coupons, exclusive deals, early access to sales, and free services like gift wrapping and delivery. It should be structured with multiple emails leading up to Christmas.
- Tips for Crafting Effective Emails: To craft effective holiday emails, use compelling subject lines, preheaders, and content that resonates with your audience. Employ engaging visuals, clear calls to action, and festive sign-offs to maintain interest and encourage purchases.
Conclusion
Creating your holiday email campaign does not have to be overly complicated. As you write each subject line, preheader and content, keep in mind who the end reader is. Make sure everything resonates with them and has a clear call to action. You want to make it easy for them to buy your products and services.
If you need help and want to send out a perfectly crafted email campaign, consider calling one of the top 100 email marketing agencies.
