Christmas considerations for your email strategy

It’s not surprising that there’s an industry-wide email frequency increase during the long festive period. Brands have been creeping Christmas messaging earlier and earlier into their campaigns, so it’s vital to give extra thought to your subscribers over this heavily congested time. The last thing you want for Christmas is a rise in unsubscribes and turbulent engagement rates.

That’s why we’ve put together four of our Christmas considerations for you to wrap into your strategy for 2019.

The seasonal email-facelift

A subscriber is for life, not just for Christmas.

Could your automation series be working harder for you during the festive period? With welcome email open rates 50% higher than regular campaigns, this is a quick win. Tailor the sign-up process with festive-orientated content and offers. Don’t get carried away and over-do it though, you’ll also want to think about the longevity of new subscribers beyond November and December.

Whilst many people might be signing up ahead of the festive period to hear more about products and inspiration specifically for Christmas, you have an opportunity to turn these subscribers into all-year-round fans. Put some time aside to think about how you can nurture this segment in the new year.

Supercharged segmentation

Recently, Mailchimp reported that segmented campaigns gained clicks 100.95% higher than non-segmented campaigns. For most industries, geotargeting is one of the easiest segmentation options to use in your campaigns. If you’re a retailer for example, why not feature your subscriber’s closest store, detailing opening times and local offers. Targeted emails based on shopping behaviour and in-email engagement can also be incredibly valuable to help your campaigns be much more relevant and help boost traffic from festive shoppers over this busy period.

Re-engaged Christmas customers

A large majority of ‘inactive subscribers’ are said to actually just be ‘passive subscribers’. You’re potentially sitting on a bunch of passive customers, who haven’t engaged with your emails for a few months but are still interested in hearing from you, especially at Christmas. Think of this as your opportunity to reconnect and tailor campaigns specifically for their engagement habits.

You might be a retailer with a small product range, and a segment of your subscribers have already purchased from you. A campaign that reconnects with this audience by showcasing a gift guide might make them realise that you have the perfect gift for their friends or family.

Sell, upsell and cross-sell with balance

As much as you want to be featuring gift guides and festive products in every email, you need to think bigger picture at the same time. If someone has signed up for your emails because they love what you sell, they might not enjoy being emailed a constant stream of gift inspiration and Christmas themed campaigns. Make sure that you plan out your email calendar for the months leading up to, and after the big day.

Incorporate content-rich emails that aren’t solely focused on Christmas with alternative blogs, advice and products, as well as gift guides and festive themes to keep the balance.

The festive season is fast approaching, so make sure you iron out any kinks in your template, fine-tune your campaign planner and spare a thought for your bigger-picture plan for 2020.

If you don’t have the resources in-house, don’t mistletoe out on giving your seasonal campaigns the attention they demand. Give us a call on 01273 208913 or get in touch here and see how we could help!