Your customers love your products, but with all that goes on during the run up to Christmas, your shop may not be the first thing on their minds. A strong Christmas email marketing strategy may be the key to getting them to your shop or website.
Why do you need an email marketing strategy for the Christmas holidays?
Christmas email campaigns can help you get organised for the season. From launching flash sales, organising online workshops, creating coupons, etc., when you decide what seasonal retail strategy you want to employ, you can then choose what to send and when to send it to your customers.
If you need more incentive, we know that shoppers increasingly turn to online shopping channels during the holidays and that people who buy products through email offers spend 138 percent more than those who do not get such offers. Here’s how to get started with some Christmas email marketing tips.
Creating your Christmas email marketing strategy
Do you want customers to visit your online store? Maybe you want your customers to use a promotion or engage with your brand. All are valid goals. You just have to decide what makes the most sense for you. From there you need to choose which email marketing ideas will help you reach that goal this Christmas.
After a year of lockdowns and restrictions, online retail in the UK has seen strong growth, with online sales increasing by 37% in 2020and set to make up almost a third of overall retail spending by the end of 2021. Knowing this, you may want to drive customers to your online store to buy their Christmas gifts.
With that goal in mind, your holiday email marketing strategy should include a coupon that your customers can use only online. You can also keep it timely by making the coupon valid for a short period, so your customers have an incentive to purchase items soon.
Using audience segmentation
Don’t be scared away by the word “segmentation”. It sounds more complicated than it is. Audience segmentation simply means selecting a subgroup of your email subscribers based on their similarities.
For instance, let’s say your customer directory data tells you that 20 customers haven’t visited your online store in six months. Another 200 customers have visited in the last three months, and 300 in the last month. You could segment these customers by sending the lapsed groups a “Merry Christmas” email coupon to remind them to come back, and the regulars a festive “thank-you” email with a coupon to express your gratitude for their loyal business. Before you push send, be sure to review the rules regarding email marketing so you reach the customers that have opted into your promotions.
When should you send holiday emails
Your customers are just as busy as you are during the buildup to Christmas, so they might need reminders to buy. A good way to approach scheduling your email marketing during the festive season - or for any big event really - is to focus on just four emails you want to send:
Two to three weeks before your event: Send an email introducing your online event (it could also be an online workshop, promotion, etc.). In this email, highlight incentives for them to join: Is there a sale? Is there a promotion? Will you offer gift cards with select purchases?
One week before your event: With so much going on during Hanukkah and Christmas, your customers need a second email to be reminded that you have gifts that will ease their holiday shopping pains.
One day before your event: Your third email is to ensure that the event is marked on their calendar. If you’re offering a promotion or a percentage off a particular product, showcase this fact.
Day of your event: The day-of-event email is the final reminder. Remember to emphasise that this event will have sales that will not happen again.
Designing your Christmas emails
Whether you want to send a coupon, advertise a flash sale, or get people to sign up for an online event or workshop, you can easily create all of this content for your virtual store with our free online tools. Plus, you and your customers can rest easy knowing that it also offers secure online payments.
After you know what type of content you want to highlight, you can easily design your email by choosing the colour, background, and font type when you click Create a Campaign. (There are also a few festive templates you can use.) And Square even offers the ability to select (free) high-quality images you can use in your Christmas email campaigns.
Testing and optimising your email
In the Analytics section, you can analyse your data to see how many customers are opening your email (open rate) and how many are clicking your email to come to your site (clickthrough rate). This is your baseline data upon which you can build your email testing and optimising.
With the right Christmas email marketing strategy, you can schedule your emails ahead of time, helping both you and your customers.
Remember email marketing is regulated by government and international rules. Check to see where you are sending your email and refer to experts in the field for information on how to stay compliant.