How to Launch a Successful Holiday Email Marketing Campaign

The holiday season is here and it’s an excellent opportunity for businesses to make sales. There are several ways for businesses to increase revenue and one way to do that is through a holiday email marketing campaign. As shoppers begin to search for the best deals and gifts, your emails may contain the perfect content to capture their interest and significantly boost your sales.

In this guide, you will see practical tips on how to write successful emails that connect you with the right people at the right time. Let’s make this holiday season the most memorable for you.

Understanding Holiday Email Marketing Campaign

A holiday email marketing campaign is all about sending targeted, timely emails to your customers and subscribers during the festive season. This depends on the season you are targeting but it is often the November through to January that surges your revenue. 

During this period, you promote your products and highlight special offers. You can create emails that genuinely engage your audiences and motivate them to take action by embracing the holiday spirit.

Are there any benefits to running holiday marketing? Yes! There is a lot of attention-grabbing and sales content flying around and email is the perfect place to catch people’s attention. The benefits you will enjoy include: 

• Increase brand awareness: Stand out during the holiday chaos. A well-written email can leave a lasting impression and keep your brand in people’s minds during the season.
• Attract new customers: Holiday specials and exclusive deals are perfect for bringing in new customers. Once the season ends, follow up with marketing activities to turn those one-time shoppers into loyal customers.

How to Create a Holiday Email Marketing Campaign

Creating a holiday email marketing campaign can be a little different from regular email marketing. You need a plan. Here are some practical holiday email marketing strategies that contribute to a successful campaign:

1. Set Clear Goals for Your Campaign

Before you start writing email messages or picking out holiday images, consider what you want from your campaign. Are you attempting to increase sales, draw attention to special discounts, or perhaps increase website traffic? When you figure this out, you must make sure there are clear “call to action” (CTA) buttons. Do you want people to love your business more? Once you know what you want to achieve, it becomes much easier to write emails that get results.

2. Know Your Audience

For any email marketing campaign, it is important that you know your audience. This is because you need to give your readers a personalized experience. Sort your email list into groups based on products that your customers have bought, how often they visit your site, or their personalities. This way, you can be sure that the right people get your holiday emails.

For example, a customer who has bought exercise gear before might be more interested in deals on activewear, while someone else might be more interested in ideas for decorating their home.

3. Create a Sense of Urgency

At this point, you need to create a sense of urgency in your email campaigns. The holiday season is full of deadlines, from shipping deadlines to last-minute shopping sprees. Make use of this urgency in your email marketing campaign by including messages that are time-sensitive and encourage your target audience to take action.

For example, countdown timers are a great way to make it clear that time is running out. Subject lines such as “Last Day to Shop for Christmas Delivery” or “Only 48 Hours Left to Save” can prompt customers to act quickly. 

Urgency isn’t only limited to discounts. It can also refer to the availability of products. When a product is popular, tell customers to act fast before it sells out.

4. Optimize for Mobile

Studies show that mobile devices dominate email engagement, with approximately 75% of Gmail users accessing their accounts on mobile devices. Across the board, over 55% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, reflecting the growing reliance on smartphones for communication. Ensuring that your email campaigns are mobile-responsive is crucial to avoid losing engagement and potential conversions.

To do this, make sure your pictures scale correctly and your text is simple to read on smaller screens. Use large, clickable buttons for call-to-actions (CTAs).

Test your holiday email on various devices before sending it to your prospective clients. Not only does a mobile-friendly email improve user experience, but it also boosts the likelihood of converting holiday traffic into sales.

5. Run Automated Holiday Email Campaigns

Email automation is one of the most flexible marketing tools. It can help you get your email to the right people at the right time. During the busy holiday season, this is very important.

To get the most out of your holiday emails, here are some ways to use email automation:

• Establish automated workflows for cart abandonment. Send emails to people who have left items in their shopping carts for holiday deals.
• Utilize lead scores to locate potential leads. Send emails to leads who are likely to purchase. Email marketing tools like Brevo keep track of what users do. Afterward, you can use this information to create a lead score.
• Send a holiday-themed welcome email: During the holidays, there are tendencies that you will get new members. Send an email to welcome them, and add to the welcome mail, a deal, or a holiday-themed promotion.

6. Plan Your Timing

It’s crucial to time your holiday email marketing strategy. Start your marketing campaigns early enough to attract pre-holiday customers, but don’t overlook last-minute buyers.

Here is a list of important email times to keep in mind:

• Early shoppers: Start sending out teaser emails for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in the middle of November.
• Main holiday time: From Thanksgiving to the middle of December, run your biggest sales and deals.

• Last-minute shoppers: In the week before Christmas, let people who are still scrambling for gifts know about quick shipping choices or in-store pickup.
• Post-holiday sales: Don’t forget about holiday ads that use gift cards or end-of-year sales to make money.

Additionally, remind people via email about flash specials or deadlines like “last day to get free shipping” to persuade them to make a purchase.

7. Track key metrics

Every email campaign offers a learning opportunity. You can learn what works and doesn’t for your viewers by tracking metrics. The holiday season is time-sensitive, and buyer behavior can change quickly. With real-time tracking, you can make changes right away to take advantage of new trends or fix campaigns that aren’t working.

The key metrics to monitor are:

• Open Rates: This metric tells you how many people actually opened your email. It shows your subject line’s effectiveness and how interesting or relevant your email was.
• Click-Through Rates (CTR): The CTR indicates the number of individuals who clicked on the links in your email following their opening. A high CTR means that the text in your email is captivating and that your call to action works.
• Conversion Rates: The conversion rate is one of the most important metrics because it shows how many click-throughs led to the desired action, like buying something, signing up for an event, or any other holiday marketing goal.
• ROI (Return on Investment): This is the bottom line. ROI tells you how profitable your email campaign is. It measures the total amount of money the campaign brought in against the amount it cost to execute it.

Holiday Email Marketing Examples From Real Brands

Understanding how successful brands manage their holiday email marketing could provide valuable insights for your campaigns. Here are a few examples that stand out:

• Starbucks: In 2023, the company’s #theredcupcontest garnered significant attention by encouraging customers to share creative images of their holiday-themed red cups on social media. This example of holiday email marketing had a significant impact, increasing both company awareness and sales.User-generated content, a strong visual theme, and the appeal of community-driven involvement through social sharing were some of the most important strategies.
• Amazon: In its holiday emails, Amazon showed personalized gift recommendations based on what customers had bought in the past. The design was clean and simple to understand, making it easy for customers to browse and make purchases. To make sure they could serve all holiday shoppers, they also added sections for last-minute deals and quick shipping choices. 
• Spotify: The “Wrapped” campaign from Spotify has become a holiday must-have. In 2023, they kept giving each user a personalized summary of the past year. People were more likely to engage with and share their summaries due to the visually appealing and shareable content.
• Sephora: Sephora’s holiday gift guides were organized by price range in their email series, which made it easy for customers to find gifts that fit their needs. The emails featured holiday colors and exclusive deals for members, leveraging the concepts of scarcity and loyalty to boost sales.

Final Thought

A successful holiday email marketing campaign is more than simply beautiful designs and big discounts; it’s about connecting with your audience in a meaningful way. Your emails will stand out and get the results you want if you include clear goals, personalized messages, and holiday cheer. 

So, get some hot cocoa, open up your email, and start spreading holiday cheer. Your clients and sales will be grateful!

Happy Holidays ahead of time! From TechDella.