The holiday season is fast approaching. With it comes the usual stress of shopping, cooking, and entertaining (not to mention expanding waistlines and extra pounds showing up on the bathroom scale). For retailers, both brick-and-mortar and on the web, there is the additional worry of successfully reaping sales and profits during this year’s uncertain selling season.
Email marketing is no doubt one of the tools you plan to use to make this a merry Christmas season. If you’re a relatively small business or fairly new to email marketing, you might feel a bit overwhelmed at the prospect. Here’s some advice to get you started:
• Put yourself in Santa’s shoes. Take a step back and think through what you want to accomplish this holiday season. The best way to do this is to see things through your customers’ eyes: What’s on their list for Santa to place under the tree this year? In your email marketing campaign, remind them what’s popular but needs to be purchased early before inventory across the Internet, and in your store, runs out. Would they want coupons, special offers, or promotions? Or would they rather have valuable information and practical gift ideas for co-workers and long-lost relatives who added you to this year’s Christmas card list? Keep the ideas and the promotions fresh to keep your shoppers reading—and buying.
• Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle; build an email marketing plan for the season. Again, look at your calendar from your customers’ perspective. Map out holiday promotions, topics, and campaigns that will help you reach out to your customers at the right time with the right information. Plan around key holiday triggers or events such as Black Friday and the last day for shipping. You know your customers better than anyone else, so roughing out a flexible plan for the holiday season shouldn’t take long. In addition, watch the trends and make sure your program includes what’s hot both nationally and within your own store, including gift cards, popular items, direct shipping, coupons, free wrapping, discounts, two for one, impulse buys, or gifts under a certain dollar threshold.
• Be jolly and analyze your success. A good email marketing service includes the ability to analyze the success of your campaigns and review how recipients are interacting with your emails. Are they using a hyperlink for a discount promotion code? If it’s a big draw, use it again in a future email. If it works with some recipients but not others, use a filter to collect the email campaign activity and send a similar promotion to those who responded to the first one. For those who prefer a hyperlink to a product, segment them into a different list so you can send emails that better suit their preferences.
Profitability will reflect excellence in execution. Remember, Santa’s watching!
Mélanie Attia is the product marketing manager for email marketing solutions provider Campaigner.
