Holiday email campaign tactics

I recently attended an Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association event led by the always-fantastic Loren McDonald of Silverpop, an IBM company, and Meredith Gertz of Fabric.com, an Amazon Company. The topic was “Last Minute Holiday Campaigns to Implement NOW to Drive More Engagement!” There were many helpful tactics shared that I want to pass along, which can be implemented in time for the holiday rush:

Think about what’s relevant and important for your customers:

• If you’re a retailer who’ll be shipping items, include shipping deadlines, such as a countdown, in an email to spur immediate action.
• Adjust the navbar at the top of your emails to reflect what your customers want to know at this time of year: feature shipping links, returns, customer service, etc.

Say thank you!

• Gertz took the opportunity on Thanksgiving to thank customers of Fabric.com. She figured there are 364 other days to sell to them, why not use one day to just say thank you? The tactic received a lot of positive feedback from recipients.
• After the sale: send a post-purchase email to say thank you and share information about how to use the product they just received. (This is also a good opportunity to cross-sell other products or ask for a review of the product.)

Finger is the new mouse:
According to Litmus, more email is read on a mobile device than on a desktop email client. With that in mind, mobile-optimize your emails. Since most folks research/browse on their phone but purchase from a desktop, it is important to make the experience consistent across all platforms for your customers by having similar branding across your web site and emails. When designing emails for a mobile device:

• Make them fat-finger friendly – avoid micro-sized fonts and calls to action (CTA).
• Place the CTA above the fold and right next to the promo code – this will increase your conversion rate.
• Responsive and mobile friendly sites: The majority of product research is done on tablets, so be sure your site is optimized for smaller screens.

Don’t just sit there – do something!
Lastly, the holiday season may be a good time to reengage “emotionally unsubscribed” (to borrow from Dela Quist) list members. Those are people on your list who haven’t opened an email in a long time, but haven’t opted themselves out of your mailings either. Here’s an article with ways to get them reenergized.