Tips for Holiday Email Success

As we head into email’s silly season, here are a few things to keep in mind as while preparing to put your program into overdrive.

How much email is too much? This blog post from Emma has some great tips for not turning off your audience during Cyber Month(s).

Forget going down the chimney – you’ll reach your consumers via their mobile device. I’ve referenced this post on preview text multiple times recently. Use a short snippet of text at the top of your email as a way to further sell the open. Most mobile devices will show this after the subject line – don’t waste this space with the standard “View on a Web page” verbiage. (This is just the tip of the iceberg on optimizing your emails to be read on mobile devices. Google “optimizing email for mobile devices” for more.)

Think mobile optimization isn’t important? Here’s a chart that was a part of a recent Litmus webinar:

Not that more than half of the folks they surveyed said they unsubscribed from emails that were hard to read on their smartphones.

Shifting our attention to subject lines…

Mention an offer early in your subject line, don’t bury the highlight at the end since it may get cut off. Shorter subject lines work better (think 50 characters or less).

Develop a plan to succeed. MailChimp has this very comprehensive guide to mapping out your brand’s communications during the holiday season.

From frictionless-buying to segmenting your audience, here’s a list of 15 tips to keep in mind this holiday season. If your emails are mobile-optimized, your landing pages (and your product pages) should be as well.

Lastly, take time to say “thank you” to your stakeholders next week. Here is a post I wrote last year and one the year before about the importance of sending a note that doesn’t include a sales pitch. I suggest you take a minute to craft such a message before Thanksgiving 2016.

With so many moving parts, it’s easy to make a mistake while managing an email marketing program. Hopefully, these links will set you on a path to success this holiday season.

Cheers!