Do you want to make your holiday newsletters more impactful this year?
The upcoming 2020 holiday season is unlike any other that has taken place before. Due to the pandemic, both businesses and individuals are now working with constraints.
At this time, we need to create email communication that is thoughtful and relevant to the situation. In this post, we'll cover some helpful tips that you can use to make your holiday newsletters offer value to your customers and drive conversions for your business.
Grow your email list ASAP
If you haven't started yet, then email list building should be your priority today. You can create newsletters that convert only when you have an email list to send it to.
The approaching holiday season will offer you plenty of great content ideas to boost your subscription rate.
The most powerful tool to build an email list is your opt-in form on your website. It helps capture the emails of visitors who land on your site and once they agree to receive your newsletters, you'll be able to boost conversions during the holiday sales.
Offer exclusive discounts or other special deals to new users who opt-in to your newsletter. You can create a lead magnet with a cool holiday checklist as a way to convince users to sign up.
Once you've built your email list, send content regularly with a drip campaign feature to drop marketing emails automatically at specific times.
Add themed creative elements
Add decorative elements to your opt-in popup and newsletter content to remind users about upcoming sales and build excitement.
Icons and seasonal colors in the header and footer area of your image, together with appropriate email content will have users looking forward to your messages.
To reflect the current situation, you can follow the lead of many other businesses and add graphics in your email body summarizing how you’re following safety standards for your staff and products.
Don't forget to make your social media pages and your website attractive too, and have them match your email themes.
It's especially important that any link from your email body lands on a page that reflects the content and appearance of your email so that it creates a consistent experience for your users.
Be forthcoming with information
Because we're in the midst of a pandemic, more information is better than too little sent too late. Approach your communication efforts with the mindset that we’re dealing with a crisis.
And during challenging times, people rely on timely and accurate information to update themselves and feel secure. The best move you can make is to be proactive and forthcoming with information.
Let your audience know if there are going to be shipment delays, a shortage of staff, or if you're closing your stores on specific dates. But make sure that you back up this information by offering alternative steps that they can take to buy from you. Or provide them with a timeframe for deliveries and customer support responses.
Retailers like Walmart, Target, and others have already announced that they are closing their locations for Thanksgiving. Similarly, coming forward with pertinent information is critical during this time. Let your audience know what to expect regarding shipping, safety standards, and returns. Add information like this to your emails so that customers can plan ahead of time.
Learn what your audience wants
A study conducted by Adobe suggests that people intend to spend money online at the same level as last year, if not more.
This is because in-store visits are undesirable and for many people, savings have increased as their overall discretionary spending has dropped.
The study also gives us some helpful information about the tone to use when creating email content. The younger demographics including Millennials and Generation Z prefer entertaining content. Baby Boomers and Gen X would like to see content reflecting savings and low risk.
It’s important to segment your email list so that you're not sending canned content to everyone on your list. Breaking up your segments based on demographic information like age and professions will allow you to send appropriate content for each group.
Also, reach out to your audience with survey and feedback forms. Ask them about the kind of communication and deals they are looking for during the holiday season. Getting information directly from your audience and understanding what they want will play a powerful role in creating copy that converts.
Personalize your email marketing
We already know that for every dollar spent on email marketing, you make $44 in returns. But add personalization into the mix and your conversion rates and profitability skyrocket.
Use CRM integrations and tools like Smart Tags to segment your email list. Details like purchase history, frequency of buying goods, interests, and other data will help you create a number of lists.
Research shows that personalizing your subject line increases open rates by 26%. Addressing your customers by name in the subject line, reminding them about abandoned cart products, and personalizing your email body in similar ways will boost your open rates.
Most audiences appreciate personalization as it suggests that they're dealing with a professional organization. It humanizes your brand and makes it more memorable.
Make sure your domain is whitelisted
When creating your email marketing campaign, it's essential to have all the key setups in place. One important step is to make sure that your email doesn’t land in the spam folder. This happens when users mark your email as spam. You must never send emails to people who have not explicitly opted in to get your content! Doing this breaks the rules of the GDPR act and will lead to large fines.
Another reason why your email may end up in your audience’s spam folder is that your domain name isn't authenticated. Working with an SMTP service provider in the form of a plugin will help you easily whitelist your email. Set this up before launching your email marketing in earnest and test whether your newsletter reaches your audience’s inbox.
Add a countdown timer to your email
There's a neat little tool that you can add to your newsletter that's also perfect for the holidays. Add a countdown timer to your newsletter as an attractive and compelling way to let users know that your marketing campaign is coming closer.
Another way to use it would be to remind users of the time left in a sales campaign. This can help you leverage the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and improve engagement and sales in a very short time.
The holiday season in 2020 is going to be unlike any other in the years before. It's important to be aware of the current situation as it affects businesses and your audience and to create email content that’s appropriate.
We have covered several effective ways to make your email marketing campaign work during the upcoming holidays. The key is to make sure that you’re planning ahead and mindful of what your customers will prioritize during this season.
With the tips given here and by testing as you go, you should be able to drive online sales, boost your business growth, and make customers happy too.